July 2023’s exhibition at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, operated and curated by Dido Haas, sees the return of Kitten (Joaannna), who this time brings her engaging monochrome photography, complete with a considered touch of depth of field to the gallery’s main hall, having previously appeared within the Annex (see: A Kitten’s Noir world in Second Life)
Fourth Wall is a considered study on the nuances of this artificial construct of the stage (and which might be seen to extend into the world of photography in a considered manner), and how that wall might be broken.
Within stagecraft, the term fourth wall refers to the convention by which actors focus their attention primarily on the dramatic world they inhabit, regardless of the presence of the audience (in what Konstantin Stanislavski called “public solitude”), as if an imaginary wall lies between the, preventing the audience from being seen. At the same time, that wall can be breached in both a subtle manner and also very directly.
In modern times, the latter is most obviously seen where a performer clearly and directly addresses their audience. however, the more subtle breaching has always been present on within stage performances: whilst the physical presence of the audience might well be ignored, their energy and reaction to what they are seeing is not; instead, that energy and response is used by those on stage to inform and modulate their performance, even though they might never directly break the fourth wall.
With Fourth Wall, Kitten takes as her foundation the idea of a photoshoot. This style of photography folds within it a kind of fourth wall of its own; the models and set exist very separately to the viewing audience, yet they are connected by the presence of the camera itself. Thus, that imaginary wall can be breached both through subtleness and by direct engagement: the former by the fact the mere presence of the camera represents a pseudo-audience, one the models can use to imagine the responsive energy of any actual audience to their time and effort, using it to further inform and modulate their performance. At the same time, they can opt to directly breach the divide, simply be looking the camera in the lens and / or adopting a pose suggesting they are directly addressing who might be on the other side of the image.
By mixing the poses and the “between takes” images, Kitten blends both ways in which the fourth wall is broken – but in doing so, she also leaves us with a conundrum to explore: how much of the breaching is intentional and how much of it is “accidental” (to use Kitten’s term) – the more subtle playing of (and with) the observer’s unseen presence and how it might be influence the model’s behaviour?
However, as Kitten notes herself, there is also a wider context and questioning here, one directed towards Second Life as a whole. As she notes, SL is, when all is said and done, an artificial environment. Yes, it is immersive and allows us to adopt role / personas. But it also allows us to breach the separating wall of the screen if we so wish – but how much more might we reveal more subtly? And what does this say about our relationship / understanding of this environment?
Rounded out by a new lighting set by Adwehe, Fourth Wall is rich in visual content and in the expression of ideas and questions.
SLurl Details
- Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated: Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 