Stevie’s serenity: an exploration of Second Life

Kondor Art Garden, July 2024: Steive Basevi

It was back to Kondor Art Centre for me once more, this time for a visit to the Art Garden to witness a new exhibition of Second Life centric art by Stevie Basevi.

Stevie is probably best known as the owner of the Sanctuary RP Community, which operates across three regions offering a mix of themed role play and combat. Outside of this, she has worked extensively with the American Cancer Society (14 years) and One Billion Rising, and is a member of The Seanchai Library’s Special Projects Creative team.

By her own admission, Stevie has only relatively recently become immersed in Second Life photography. However, she has quickly and deservedly gained recognition for her approach and style, and has been featured in numerous exhibitions, and her range covers both avatar studies – she has worked as a fashion photographer of BOSL – and SL landscapes.

Kondor Art Garden, July 2024: Steive Basevi

She is also, like myself, a Second Life traveller, capturing memories of the places she visits as photographs; and with Capturing Serenity, An Exploration of SL, she provides a pleasurable taste of both her travels and her work in this latter regard.

I wander the grid in search of scenes that connect my emotions and feelings from my eyes to my heart. The things that I photograph, I don’t photograph them because I wanted an image of a particular thing. I went to the regions, looked around and waited for something to connect with me, to call out for me to come, visually commune, and make my heart sing.

– Stevie Basevi

Kondor Art Garden, July 2024: Steive Basevi

The exhibition in the Kondor Art Garden presents twelve pieces by Stevie, all perfectly suited for viewing under a night-time sky setting (as seen here). They reveal a handful of some of Second Life’s most popular public destinations, including Elvion (4 images and a frequent feature in these pages), Sainte Rose sur Mer (4 images, and also featured in these pages), the Karasu Estate (2 images), Blossomvale and Summerville (1 image apiece).

All twelve images are superbly captured, framed and cropped, Stevie using a minimum of post-processing (something I try to do with my images, but not with the same skill as Stevie demonstrates). They are also all finished in colours than emphasise the title of the exhibition, presenting each of the locations at a place evocative of serenity and peace; rich in a sense of nature and the ability for humanity to live in harmony with the natural world.

Kondor Art Garden, July 2024: Steive Basevi

Capturing Serenity, An Exploration of SL officially opens at 12:00 noon on Thursday, July 18th, the opening featuring music by DJ Joss Floss (jossinta). However, the exhibition has already had a soft opening ahead of time, and is available for viewing as of the time of writing this piece.

SL Details