RETROSPECTIVE OPENS: NEON

Ant Wars 2: RETROSPECTIVE OPENS: NEON

Today the Vermilingua Contemporary Gallery has re-opened, albeit under stringent infection-control conditions.

 

The opening show is Byron Vermilingua's Retrospective, and I'm very excited to see what he's been up to in the workshop.

 

As today happens to be my birthday, Wilson generously waived the admission fee for me, while warning me not to expect that to be a regular concession!

 

The first piece is a large creation in Neon, which Byron says is 'Influenced by Tracey Emin's neon works… though not as rude as Bruce Nauman's or Fiona Banner's'.

 

Beneath a large neon anteater the text reads, 'I never asked to be born an anteater'.

 

For Wilson, seeing the work for the first time, this came as a deeply shocking revelation – he has always thought he'd won life's lottery by being born an anteater, and he had never considered that anyone would think otherwise.

 

'Is this true, Bro?' he demanded 'You don't love being a member of the proud order Tamandua Tetradactyla?'

 

Byron replied, 'Of course I do, Bro… but an artist needs a measure of angst, something to rebel against. I need to be an iconoclast, a maverick – I need to say challenging, dissenting and sometimes unpopular things! That's my job…' 

 

After a moment he added, 'I still love you, Man!'