Art exhibition opens at Kaz Zanana-George Camille’s latest work on display |15 December 2007

           
Some of Camille’s work that are on display: (from l to r) Green Window, Passion; and The Passing of Ourselves

The exhibition, sponsored by Johnnie Walker, opened yesterday evening and presents a selection of new assemblages, etchings and paintings.

Some of the most striking work is constructed from old house shutters, salvaged from demolished and redundant properties. Camille cuts into the wooden frames and inserts embossed metal sheets which carry symbols and motifs that have long been incorporated into his more traditional two-dimensional work.

We see leaves, geckos, coco de mer, fish and human forms swimming in a sea of copper relief, each insert bordered by the original shutter frame, scorched and cut in acquiescence.

It is entirely appropriate that these discarded and abandoned shutters have been reinvented and now have a new lease of life as objets d’arts. In a sense they served, in their unmodified forms, as metaphors for mortality; broken, useless and, in terms of useful purpose, dead after years of service. Once salvaged and modified, they stand as optimistic symbols of rebirth and reinvention: thus this exhibition is permeated with the positive message of salvation.

Camille recently returned from a successful visit to Reunion, where a large exhibition of work took place at the Khephren Gallery. This show also featured assemblages formed through the integration of old wooden windows and doors and worked metal sheeting, although Camille was interested to note the differences between shutters found in Reunion and Seychelles (apparently the Reunion versions are more complex in construction). Unfortunately we will have to make judgements based upon catalogue photographs as the Reunion show is well on the way to selling out, with very little work destined to make the return journey to the Seychelles.

We can, in the meantime, console ourselves by visiting the Kaz Zanana exhibition and enjoying the most recent in an important body of mythological work, specific and relevant to the Seychelles, created by one of the country’s leading visual artists.

The fact that the show demonstrates the artist’s considerable range and versatility gives the viewer the opportunity to appreciate the manner in which Camille utilises the same visual vocabulary – notably symbols associated with Seychelles – within differing formats and using a range of media and processes.

This exhibition is dedicated to Tonga Bill, an extraordinary artist who was a close friend of George Camille’s, and whose work influenced Camille’s development and philosophy of art. Camille hopes to organise a major retrospective of Tonga Bill’s work in Seychelles in 2010.

The George Camille exhibition will run for one month, closing on January 14, 2008. All works are for sale. Further enquiries can be made to Kaz Zanana on telephone number 324150.

Contributed