Nile trips, silent planets and crows in Second Life

Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Sunday, February 2nd 13:30: Tea-Time Special: Death on the Nile

First published in 1937, Death on he Nile is one of Agatha Christie’s most famous and enduring Hercule Poirot murder mysteries. The book has been the subject of multiple theatrical, film and television adaptations, most of which had by necessity condensed elements of this tale of love, jealously, and betrayal to more readily fit the requirements of their format.

Over the next six weeks, Seanchai Library presents the opportunity to enjoy the story in full – and within a setting inspired by the novel, as Corwyn Allen, Da5id Abbot, Kayden Oconnell, Gloriana Maertens, and Caledonia Skytower bring Christie’s characters once more to life for us to enjoy.

Seanchai Library: Death on the Nile

Monday, February 3rd 19:00: Out of the Silent Planet

The first novel in C.S. Lewis’s classic sci-fi trilogy which tells the adventure of Dr Ransom who is kidnapped and transported to Mars

In the first novel of C.S. Lewis’s classic science fiction trilogy, Dr Ransom, a Cambridge academic, is abducted and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet’s treasures and plan to offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there. Ransom discovers he has come from the ‘silent planet’ – Earth – whose tragic story is known throughout the universe…

Join Gyro Muggins for more.

Tuesday, February 4th 19:00 The Daughter of Odren

For fourteen years, Weed, as she is called, the daughter of Lord Garnet, has brought offerings to the standing stone. Alone in a shallow valley, she implores the stone not to forget her. To remember who he is and the life he led. To wait until the day he will be avenged.

Now the day has finally arrived. After fourteen long years of waiting, he will have his revenge and she will have her father back.

Or will she?

Willow Moonlight reads Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Cycle 6.5.

Wednesday, February 5th, 19:00:The Starless Sea

Caledonia Skytower reads selections from Erin Morgenstern’s novel.

Deep beneath the surface of the Earth and upon the shores of the Starless Sea, lies a network of tunnels and rooms filled with stories and tales. The ways into this secret place are many, but hidden, and perhaps set for just one individual to find. They exist where least expected: on the floors of forests, behind doors inside private homes or around alleyway corners or within mountain caves – almost anywhere in which they cannot be anticipated.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable knowledge that he is meant for another place.

When he discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his campus library he begins to read, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly a turn of the page brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood impossibly written in this book that is older than he is…

Thursday, February 6th, 19:00 A Pocketful of Crows

am as brown as brown can be,
And my eyes as black as sloe;
I am as brisk as brisk can be,
And wild as forest doe.

(The Child Ballads, 295)

So begins a beautiful tale of love, loss and revenge. Following the seasons, A Pocketful of Crows balances youth and age, wisdom and passion and draws on nature and folklore to weave a stunning modern mythology around a nameless wild girl.

Only love could draw her into the world of named, tamed things. And it seems only revenge will be powerful enough to let her escape.

Beautifully illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins, this is a stunning and original modern fairytale.

With Shandon Loring. Also in Kitely – grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).

Digital expressions at La Maison d’Aneli in Second Life

La Maison d’Aneli, February 2020 – YadeYu Fhang

Now open at La Maison d’Aneli, curated by Aneli Abeyante, is an exhibition that sees artists both familiar and perhaps new to followers of art in Second Life, displayed within a new layout for the gallery space.

The untitled exhibition features the work of JadeYu Fhang, Eylinea, Gaston Wonder, Vroum Short, Adwehe, and Aneli herself, five of whom present pieces of a distinctly digital nature, with Gaston Wonder providing a balance with photography grounded in the physical world.

La Maison d’Aneli, February 2020 – Gaston Wonder

In describing his work, Gaston notes:

I find it interesting the way we have to interpret Art, we are all different, we did not have the same feeling while looking at an Art object or a photo, I don’t care about the rules for Art has no limit, there are no things better than others, there is only one emotion specific to each.

His work, often focusing on the inorganic – wooden planks, chains, wood and stones on a beach, a broken wall and more – offers a marvellous glimpse into the organic world, the lay of metal and shadow, chain against background, grain and knot of wood forming facial features, sometimes almost human, sometimes alien or even insect-like. Each evokes familiarity that in turn generates a focused emotional response.

La Maison d’Aneli, February 2020 – Vroum Short

Next to Gaston, Eylinea is a relative newcomer to Second Life, an environment that that encouraged her to explore artistic expression through digital mediums. Here she displays a series of pieces, a selection of which are animated, and all of which sit within abstraction and expressionism.  Her work is reflected across the hall by Aneli’s exhibition, which offers further animated abstractions together with pieces that suggest they have been formed from copper beating as modern expressionism.

Making up the four displays on the lower floor, Yadeyu Fhang offers an immersive space, that once again presents a surrealism environment that deliberately cross the line between the physical and the digital. Yadeyu notes she is often influenced by the work of Kubrick and Lynch, and there is evidence of that here, together with a touch of French noir through the use of monochrome and lighting.

La Maison d’Aneli, February 2020 – Adwehe

On the upper floor of the gallery space, Vroum Short presents a further immersive space, rich in colour and form, suggestive of he undersea environments or an alien landscape alive with plants. Adwehe is another relative newcomer, and – while I’m not sure – this might be their first exhibition. Featuring both 2D and 3D pieces, it’s an expressive display, one in which Adwehe acknowledges the support and influence of Vroum and her work at VeGeTaL PLaNeT.

A half-dozen fascinating displays by six fascinating artists.

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