Haiku (Haiku Quan) is perhaps bet known in two capacities. The first is as the founder of the Free Museum, which she present visitors to obtain art – with the permission of the artists themselves – from across Second life for free, as I wrote about shortly after it opened in January 2022 (see: The Free Museum of art in Second Life). The second is as the host and organiser of a range of musical events and concerts, notably for art events at Akiko Kinoshi (a.kiko) Art hub of Akipelago, where she books and hosts between two and three concerts a week.
However, Haiku is also a photographer in her own right, and is currently exhibiting some of her work at the Hermit Gallery at Saint Elizabeth’s University. Spread across the three levels of the warehouse-like gallery, The Dignity of Things offers a curious yet nonetheless charming look at what might be called “the extraordinary everyday”; the focus being on the kind of everyday items we might find in the physical world and which have been reproduced in Second Life.
From coffee percolators to toys, ornaments hairbrushes and even eggs, The Dignity of Things presents a series of images of the items we so often take for granted for one of several reasons: because of their utilitarian nature; or because they are designed to highlight the beauty of their contents – as with flower vases; or simply because even if they do contain a natural beauty or attractiveness of their own, our daily familiarity with them causes us to overlook them more than “see” them. Yet, again as Haiku notes, they all nevertheless has a dignity of form entirely of its own.
Each item is featured on its own, with little in the way of any background that might otherwise draw our attention from the subject of the picture. This gives each image a minimalist look and feel which – to a degree – put me in mind of Melusina Parkin’s minimalist photography. Now to be clear, this is not to say Haiku is in any way directly mimic Melusina’s unique approach; where Melusina’s images tend towards being off-set in focus relative to their subject, and utilise unique angles, Haiku uses a more direct, face-on approach, focused solely on each item- a clear differentiator between her work and Melu’s. Nevertheless, like Melu’s work, the overall minimalism of Haiku’s pieces allows us to focus fully on each subject and – to use Haiku’s words – its inherent dignity, whilst (again also like Melu’s photography) each picture suggests a wider narrative that exists beyond the bounds of the picture frame.
A further attractive aspect of these pictures is the fact they appear to be minimally post-processed; there is a natural rawness to each one, giving it realism that others often seek to produce through complex post-process editing. This, coupled with the elements noted above, makes these pieces so engaging.
However, there is another aspect to these pictures that I found attractive: their framing is such that not only are we made to focus on each of their subjects, we are also encouraged to consider the creativity and skill that brought them into Second Life. This in turn overlaps with the larger narrative alluded to: the fact that all of the subjects in this collect of images reflect items we can find around us in the physical world, all of which also have a dignity of beauty and creativity – either the result of Nature or due to a combination of practical form meeting purpose and / or man-made processes and creativity behind them.
All of the pieces in this collection are offered for free, in keeping with Haiku’s approach to offering art at no cost, making them attractive to those looking for very individual pieces of art for their SL homes.
SLurl Details
- Hermit Gallery, Saint Elizabeth’s University (Dark Dreamer, rated Adult)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 