Day: December 11, 2023

My idea of art is not the refraction of light, but the expression of what lies behind it. I want to create something that is inside a person, something that has a fragrance like fermented love. Therefore you rarely find anything cheerful or uplifting in most of my work, nor do I want to express such things.

Thus states Bamboo Barnes in discussing her latest exhibition – and her third at Dido Haas’ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery over the years – which opens on December 11th, 2023.

As I’ve frequently noted in these pages, Bamboo is one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists in Second Life. Her work is far removed from that of other artists who mix digital techniques with images from the physical world and those from SL, in that it it is both introspective and yet often – through the use of colour and tone – strongly assertive such that individual pieces can both reflect her inner thoughts, personal perceptions and feelings whilst at the same time speaking directly to the person viewing them in an equally personal and also entirely unique way.

Such is the case with Broken Chair, an exhibition of 19 studies by Bamboo, supported by a series of 3D elements by the artist, some of which reflect the title of the exhibition, others of which might appear more abstract at first glance.

The images are predominantly monochrome in nature, colours – outside of red – sparingly used. Each offers its subject in Bamboo’s trademark style: a face, sometime in full, sometimes in profile, often in sharp focus, just as often not; each one looking outwards at or beyond the observer, expression and pose – even when the eyes are unseen – giving voice to the tumult of thought and feelings tumbling through the mind within the head. What these thoughts and feeling might be is up to observers to interpret for themselves, but there is more than enough within each one to resonate with each of us, and cause a sense of understanding and familiarity.

Where colour is used, it is done so in emphasis of a mood, emotion or feeling, whilst the title of the exhibition speaks to what so often lies within us all: the introspections that are so personal we cannot give voice to them; thoughts that can – whatever their origin or cause – leave us spiralling in silence, trapped without ourselves – but which also demand expression, be it through physical or mental reflection. These are thoughts which can leave us feeling less-than-whole – or broken, if you will. Yet even whilst bringing forth this sense of brokenness, such thoughts and feelings can so often also impart an inner strength or drive to overcome, to mend; a determination to learn, to overcome, to become more whole and move forward in life.

So yes, we might so often feel broken inside, but as with a broken chair, we have the ability within ourselves to mend and heal. Perhaps not fully – even a repaired chair can so signs of the work applied to make it so – but enough to carry us forward in life. And within Broken Chair, Bamboo perhaps reminds us of that such feelings – and the drive they encourage – are both common to us all.

SLurl Details

• Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated Moderate)