Junction Points at Nitroglobus in Second Life

The law of polarity (aka the law of opposites) states the idea that everything has an opposite: with every day, there is a night; for every moment of sadness there will come a corresponding one of joy; for every electron there is a positron; every life ends in death, and so on. It’s a notion akin to Chinese yin and yang; and like that philosophical concept, it suggests that these opposites, if not directly joined, are interconnected at some level.

It is this interconnectedness – this duality, if you will – that is the focus of the December exhibition now open at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas. And like many exhibitions there, it is an exhibition that is layered in potential interpretation.

Entitled Junction Points, it as presented by Selen Minotaur, and features both 2D and 3D pieces (together with a machinima), and in describing it, Selen focuses on the idea of duality inherent in the law of polarity, and the importance of finding balance:

We live, in fact, in duality: high-low, left-right, chiaroscuro, good-bad, day-night, healthy-sick, cold-hot, north-south, etc. Duality teaches us what we prefer to experience and helps us recognise how to change our way of thinking to create that preferred experience in our lives. We know we prefer happiness because we have known sorrow. We love health because we have known sickness.

The challenge, for everyone, is therefore to find the points of junction, those which make it possible to feel “ONE”, in symbiosis and in balance with oneself, with the others and with the universe.

– Selen Minotaur

In reflection of this, the images and sculpture forming the exhibition offer elements of duality throughout, together with their inherent points of connection. In doing so, she presents pieces that are both highly visual whilst frequently offering insight and commentary on life and the human condition.

Take 1+1=3 for example. It suggests two people caught in a dance or coming together in greeting / celebration, and about to clasp hands. Between them is a third individual placed in a front split, feet touching both of the standing figures. Set on a backdrop of geometric forms, it is a piece visual rich in ideas of duality, reflection, and connection. More deeply, however, it might be said to reflect the basic truth that the singularity of life (symbolised by the middle figure connecting the two upright figures, complete with hair growing into a tree-like form – the tree being itself a symbol of life) is born out of the duality of two people becoming a unity.

Across the hall, Double Sided offers a a commentary on our need to at times being both striking in our looks and gaining the attention of others and for our need to to be private, as symbolised by the use of shaded glasses and the hat in one  half of the image. Thus, on a deeper level it offers a metaphor for the fact that we are, by turns, both social and gregarious creatures whilst also creatures of needing solitude and privacy, and somewhere between the two is that junction point of nature where me might be most true to ourselves.

Within the 3D pieces, both Mood Swing and Depth are especially layered in interpretation, offering ideas on the manner in which we need to find balance within the see-sawing of our emotions both for our onw piece of mind and our relationships to others; through our perceptions of self and those around us, and the fact that we can seem at time to be incredibly deep and at other extraordinarily shallow, with the junction between the two being whom we really are.

Visually expressive, rich in context and (again) supported by lighting and elements by Adwehe on behalf of Dido and the Gallery, Junction Points is an exhibition well worth spending time pondering. However, when visiting, do make sure you have Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced Lighting Model is checked; no need to have Shadows enabled as well) in order to see all of the pieces in the installation correctly.

SLurl Details

• Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated: Moderate)