As I’ve said a number of times in this blog, I’ve been an admirer of Monique Beebe’s work ever since her first exhibition in Second Life in 2017, and have since covered many of her exhibitions in-world. Over the years Moni has shown herself to be expressively rich through her art, and a growing experimentalist when it comes to medium and form. Her work generally carries a sense of narrative and is often subtle in subtext, as well as often containing a highly sensual nature. Individual exhibitions often thematically driven, and she has worked both entirely with images captured in-world which have then been carefully digitally enhanced and processed, whilst more recently has been experimenting with the use of AI driven tools as an adjunct to her art.
With regards to the latter, in October 2023 at the Kondor Art Centre, operated and curated by Hermes Kondor, Moni presented a fascinating series of AI images combined with video editing to provide On the Move, 14 captivating images-in-motion (see: Artistic digital fusions in motion in Second Life). For November 2024, she is once again back at the Kondor Art Centre with a further exhibit utilising this combined AI / video loop approach in an exhibition she has called Oblivion.
Comprising some 20 2D pieces on the gallery’s walls, supported by a series of free-standing and mobile pieces, Oblivion comes without liner notes from the artist, leaving the visitor free to interpret the images without any potential bias towards meaning. Further, whilst the techniques used are much the same as those witnessed in On the Move (for those who recall that exhibition), this is not what I’d call a “sequel” to that exhibition per se; rather I’d suggest that Oblivion is an expansion of the idea of generative art in motion as presented through On the Move, but one in which there is perhaps no singular theme but rather an interweaving of idea sand reflections.
On first inspection, the images might trick you into believing they are static in nature. However, when you enable media playback in your viewer (if not already enabled or autoplay is not set) by clicking the “motion picture” camera icon in the top right of the viewer window as it sit between the volume control button and the audio streaming button, and then click any one of the images, then it will come to life in a looping playback.
As noted, the themes / ideas expressed in the pieces do vary. Some appear to offer fairly direct commentary on the human condition (Sheep, Maze, Time, for example) others might appear to be more abstracted whilst still having reflections on life and / or times (Mind Fuck, Trip through Years, Big Mouth, for example). Yet others touch on science-fiction/fantasy laced (perhaps) with quiet whispers on our stewardship of the planet; one in particular (Dutch Tulips) seems to offer an link back to On the Move in terms of its presentation and motion.
However, those are just my thoughts on the pieces, and as such, they are entirely subjective and swayed by my personal outlook; how you might view them might be worlds away, the lack of liner notes from Moni leaving us entirely free to view and interpret, as noted. This also extends to the free-standing pieces occupying the floors of the gallery; clues to their intent might be found in their titles, but how we respond to them and regard them is down to each of us.
All of which makes for a richly engaging – and at times almost mesmerising – selection of art, one that offers a considered further exploration as to how rich and unique art produced with the assistance of AI tools (as opposed to solely through the use of such tools) can actually be. As such Oblivion is well worth the time taken in visiting it. Oh – and if you find you end up with multiple pieces playing, with some distracting your focus, just toggle the media playback button off/on.
SLurl Details
- Oblivion, Kondor Art Centre (Royal Tea, rated Adult)
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