Currently on display at Attention Gallery owned, managed and curated by Isle Biedermann and Mirabelle Sweetwater (Biedermann), is a new pairing of exhibitions by artists whose work I’ve not previously witness in Second Life: Justice Pedroɨa (XJustinTimeX) and Chase Parthicus (Chase Ezarael). Both present sets of avatar studies, but of two very different kinds – although they might be said to be linked by a common intention: to stir the imagination.
Hailing from the United States, Justice is an amateur photographer and art lover in tin the physical world. She started into Second Life photography some two years ago, and while not tied to a particular medium for her work, she defines her passion as being in creating pictures that reflect what she is feeling at the time.
This is evident is her selection for her Attention Gallery exhibit, which she has called Conveyed Desires. Incorporating some nudity, which can make this selection NSFW. It is a collection of richly evocative self-studies which, just by going on the title alone, might be mistakenly thought of as perhaps a series of images that are focused on the sensual / erotic. However, this would be a mistake; for sure, there are pictures here that do have a sensual / erotic edge to them – but so too are there images that reflect other desires – the need for self-expression; to feel a sense of freedom – and the desire to offer a sense of self through our avatar. All of which make this an appealing collection.
For Zodiac, Chase Parthicus presents – in something of a balance to Justice’s female studies – twelve pieces featuring male studies. As the title of the collection suggests, the central theme of the collection is that of the Zodiac, and chase presents 12 vivid portraits representative of the twelve common zodiacal signs (Ophiuchus having been abandoned by the Babylonians 2,500 years ago as one of the several compromises that mark astrology as a pseudo-science).
These are remarkable images both for their representation of the zodiac as we know it today and for their richness of colour. They are also noteworthy for the often subtle means by which the constellations to which they allude is presented: a curl of horn, the flow of golden hair, the curve of articulated tail; together with the symbols of some of the signs: scales, bow and arrow, water pitcher. Set against the backdrop of starfields and nebulae, these are images that capture the eye and the imagination; evocative personifications of the signs they represent.
And the link via the imagination that joins these two exhibits? The very fact the each of them in turn invites us to use our imaginations and see beyond their frames to see the stories they each tell.
SLurl Details
- Attention Gallery (Hastara, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 