Colours of Life – art and artists in Second Life

I returned to Black Tulip Gallery as October brought with it the kind of weather that made me feel as though hiding under the duvet would be a snugly-good idea. However, I braved the walk to my study(!), in order to take a peek at the October exhibition at the gallery. Operated and curated by Zoey Rhodan (ElizabethZoey), Black Tulip is a small, boutique-style gallery space located within the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS), offering a richness of art and artistry within its exhibitions.

For this exhibition, entitled Colours of Life, the gallery features the work of no fewer than thirteen artists from across Second Life, and does so without feeling overcrowded in the process, given its relatively small size. The pieces displayed are from Zoey’s personal collection, and as the name suggests, the exhibition has been built around the theme of reflections on life and on living.

The participating artists comprise: AmandaT Tamatzui, Cayla (YumiYukimura), CybeleMoon (Hana Hoobinoo), Duna Gant, Ellie Baily, Hadiya Draper, Milena Carbone (Mylena1992), Raven Arcana, Sophie de Saint Phalle (Perpetua1010), and Tess (Therese Carfagno), (all one image apiece); Bamboo Barnes and Mareea Farrasco (two apiece); and Christian Carter (3 pieces). The art itself ranges from pieces generated via pictures captured in-world, through AI generated art / digital compositions to physical work by the artist uploaded to and rendered within SL.

As reflections on life and living, they are as richly varied as the styles and techniques used to produce them; from single-frame stories in either black and white or colour (such as CybeleMoon’s – someone whose presence in SL I greatly miss – The Shell Seekers and Raven Arcana’s When the Sun Goes Down) through to the expressive experimentalism of Bamboo Barnes and the abstract art of Tess, to the social commentary found in the likes of Christian Carter’s Fake, with its portrayal of loneliness hidden by the masks of mood we so often feel obliged to wear for the world. As such, all are pieces which have a lot to say as we regard them.

Another aspect of the exhibition I like is the division between styles: colour images are located on the lower floor, and the monochrome pieces on the upper. This gives a subtle sense of the gallery hosting two smaller exhibitions, the pieces in each linked as much by this division in styles, with all of them – lower and upper – united by the core theme of the exhibition to form a whole.

Ideally curated and presented, Colours of Life is a further engaging exhibition in what is a series of such exhibitions hosted within an equally engaging space.

• Black Tulip Gallery (Locus Amoenus, rated Moderate)