Award-winning, Anacortes-based artist Lanny Bergner can work
sculptural magic with a roll of aluminum insect screening or stainless steel
mesh, a pair of flat-nosed pliers, a small torch—and a whole lot of patience!
At the Contemporary QuiltArt Association’s March 9 meeting,
Bergner described his artistic journey from his degrees in sculpture (BFA, University of Washington;
MFA, Tyler School
of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia,
PA.) to being possibly the
country’s largest individual purchaser of industrial screening.
Bergner had a period of working in mixed media, mostly
employing non-traditional materials including such oddities as broken chunks of
car-window glass, carpet tacks, safety pins, black nylon stockings, etc. Then
he began investigating the possibilities inherent in coiling, fraying,
twisting, wrapping, gluing and knotting one of the most prosaic of
materials—mesh insect screening—and the results may now be found in prestigious
exhibitions as well as museum and private collections worldwide.
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| Rolls of metal mesh and simple tools |
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| One of Bergner's suspended pieces |
Illustrating his processes for the CQA group, Bergner showed
how he cuts strips from 100-foot rolls of
anodized aluminum mesh, frays out both edges of the strips, and starts
his pieces by pinning first one and then subsequent rows of the mesh around a
home-made turntable rig. He connects each row to the next by twisting together
the frayed ends with flat-nosed pliers—one pair of ends after another—in a
process than can only be called tedious yet meditative. Bergner said that it
once occurred to him that this was more or less the same process he had watched
as his mother crocheted.
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| Joining the frayed ends, row by row |
Most of his earlier mesh pieces were vertical hanging or
suspended forms, sometimes with secondary, smaller mesh forms within the
pieces. Airy and open in appearance, they are also very light, weighing a few
pounds at most. Later he began adding glass frit (a glass-making supply) to
provide spots of color to the otherwise metallic tones.
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| Adding glass frit to silicone "blob" |
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| Finished frit "blobs" add decoration |
From aluminum mesh
Bergner moved on to stainless steel mesh and, over the past 3-4 years, began
working in grid patterns, creating some pieces that are reminiscent of quilts. For
these, he painstakingly creates little “pillows” consisting of two layers of
the mesh, usually with colors added, that are wired together to form wall-size
“quilts.”
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| Grid patterns resemble quilts |
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| Closing the back of a "pillow" |
In adding color to the grid pieces, Bergner introduced some
new elements: a small torch to create vari-colored patterns on the surface of
stainless steel mesh; the frit-covered silicone “balls” he affixes to the
pieces, and silicone “blobs” in solid colors that are squished between layers
of brass or bronze anodized aluminum mesh. More and more he uses the torch as a
drawing tool on the stainless steel, which reacts differently depending on the
distance he holds the torch from the mesh. In addition, if he applies a layer
of spray lacquer before burning his patterns, a different color can be
achieved.
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| Squishing colored silicone balls between mesh layers |
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| Using small torch to burn patterns on stainless steel mesh |
All these elements come into play in the several series
Bergner is presently concentrating on, where he uses largely stainless steel
mesh, plus wire in various colors, and often black and white spots of silicone.
Some are best described as free-form “baskets”and others as mesh vessels—including
some teapots that are deceptively solid-looking!
For more information on Bergner, examples of his pieces, and
lists of his many and varied exhibitions and awards, go to http://home.wavecable.com/~lbergner/
