Currently open within the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex, operated and curated by Dido Haas, is a fascinating mixed-media exhibition of art by Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili). It brings together gouache painting, Second Life avatar photography and software post-processing to produce a series (or should that be part of a series, given this is apparently not the full collection?) of 16 utterly engaging pieces of the artist calls Splash the Gauche.
As a self-taught artist, Onceagain has a creative range to her work that is as impressive as it is visually engaging. She notes in her own introduction to A Splash of Gouache, that part of the inspiration for the pieces contained in this exhibition came by way of having recently completely a course in tempera painting whilst also experimenting software tools focused on painting and drawing, before going on to state:
So I took some photos of my avi on SL and then post-produced them with this software and printed them on watercolour paper, giving them some real touches. I’m old school, I need to experiment first hand by touching and not just looking at what I’ve produced on a monitor and I often hang what I like on the walls of my home … The mix between three media: SL, SW and RL seemed like an interesting path to experiment and I simply enjoyed working on this.
– Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)
For those not familiar with them, tempera and gouache are somewhat similar techniques, each with a very long history. They consist of combining pigments with a water-soluble binding agent (often egg yolk in the case of tempera, or gum arabic in the case of gouache). Both are long-lasting, and can infuse the paper on which they are painted whilst being very opaque when dry. Tempera is perhaps the faster drying of the two, with gouache capable of being moistened again to dry in a matte finish.
Within Splash the Gouache – the title presumably referring to the overall finish to the pieces in the collection – Onceagain presents a series of avatar studies, some of which feature sufficient nudity to potentially be considered NSFW. All of them have a feeling watercolour lightness combined with the gouache aspect of lighter tones appearing to have perhaps dried darker than than they had originally been, and the darker tones similarly lighter. This gives all of the pieces a blending of colour and tone that – even in those leaning towards darker tones and shades – have a certain lightness of being about them; a sense of life and vitality as the eyes are inevitably drawn to the figure within each piece.
Also present within each picture – again in part thanks to the combining of technique and the use of colour as much as the subject’s pose – is a sense of emotion and / or reflection of mood which more traditional means of imaging and portrayal might not so easily convey. There is narrative within each piece, although what that narrative might be is likely to vary according to the eyes viewing the pieces. In all they are tactile in the manner in which they hold the eye and mind – which is not unfitting, given Onceagain’s own preference for making physical contact with her art, rather than just rendering on a monitor screen.
Running through to the latter part of June 2024, Splash the Gouache is well suited to the large image format utilised at Nitroglobus, allowing us to fully appreciate the beauty of the pieces and Onceagain’s mastery of both her art and her use of technology. Thoroughly recommended.
SLurl Details
- Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex (Sunshine homestead, rated Moderate)
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