Day: July 25, 2024

I recently returned to Venus by the Water, the Homestead region created by Elizabeth (ElizabethNantes) and Cecilia Nansen, a place I first visited in April (see: A Venus by the Water in Second Life). My reason for this visit was to see the latest exhibition at Gallery Bjork, featuring the work of Angelika Corral.

Angelika is for some perhaps best known for her time operating the DaphneArts centre alongside of Sheldon Bergman (SheldonBR). For the length of its run in Second Life,  DaphneArts was one of the foremost galleries in presenting persistently engaging exhibitions and installations, a gallery I always enjoyed visiting. However, Angelika is a photographer-artist with a gifted eyed and the ability to tell a story – even a life – of emotion and spirit within the single frame of an image.

Within I Am A Woman, she presents a dozen images (I’ll come to the final two in the collection further into this article) focused on the female form. Presented in black and white – the medium Angelika prefers to utilise for her photography, these are images intend to speak to the beauty of the female form, yes; but not necessarily the beauty that is seen from without – although that is very evident through all of the pieces through look, pose, poise, framing, focus, etc. Rather, the beauty being celebrated here is that with lays within: the beauty of strength and grace women demonstrate in a world which has too long been biased more towards the male gender.

Across the globe many women and girls still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. Gender inequality underpins many problems which affect women and girls, such as lower pay at work, lack of access to education, domestic and sexual violence. Women are roughly four times as likely as men to say they have been treated as if they were not competent because of their gender.

– Angelika Corral, I Am A Woman

However, to assume from the above that this is some form of “political” treatise on the “unfairness” of life when it comes to gender – it is not (although were it to be so would not lessen its message in any way given what is going on right now in many parts of the world – including the the United States, albeit not solely aimed at those of us of the female gender). Instead, within I am Woman Angelika offers up reminders of who we area as women; creates really not that different to the male of the species: creates of love, hope, strength, vulnerability; people who can love, thinking, create, manage, and excel.

Women artists have used photography as a tool of resistance. Self-portraiture has always been a tool of empowerment for women. The exhibition is dedicated to the “divine feminine” and intends to celebrate women’s power and grace.

– Angelika Corral, I Am A Woman

Each of the twelve primary images carries with it a reminder of the beauty, grace and strength to be found in a woman. Sometimes identifying all three is easy, in others, it is more nuanced. In this latter regard, I found The Flower particularly powerful, with its subtle references to natural beauty (the flower held in one hand, the naked back), and the clear references to fertility, and the core role of women as the mothers of all humankind and the truth that, without us, there would be no humankind.

Which brings me to the final two images within this collection, which sit within the gallery’s smallest room. Presented as a pair one male (the only such male image within the collection) and one female. They are entitled Gemini Male and Gemini Female, and serve to underscore the the fact that, when all is said and done, not only are men and women really not that dissimilar, the vast majority of the so-called differences we encounter in life: inequality, discrimination, perceptions of value / worth / competency, are as much artificial constructs as the garments in which we clothe ourselves. In this these final two images also underscore the question Angelika poses throughout this exhibition, once again asking visitors (of any gender) to contemplate it further:

Don’t we all want to find new ways to live in a fair and just society, in a world of equity and equality?

– Angelika Corral, I Am A Woman

Powerful and evocative, an exhibition of beautiful artistry and powerful reflections. When visiting, do be sure, as well, to read Angelika’s dedication to her daughter – ad the all daughters of the world.

SLurl Details

• Gallery Bjork (Golden Island, rated Adult)