Landscape photography is an art I greatly admire. Within Second Life it offers a means to capture settings and places which – the nature of the platform being what it is – might otherwise prove transient for a wide variety of reasons. Through the images taken of them, we might revisit places which might otherwise have vanished forever, rather than aging and changing with time and allow us multiple opportunities to revisit and appreciate.
As a demonstration of this, the Kondor Art Square, part of Hermes Kondor’s art hub, is hosting an exhibition of exceptional Second Life landscape art captured by Mareea Farrasco. Comprising 20 images gathered from across Second Life, the collection is called simply Landscapes, with each piece capturing its subject uniquely and beautifully. Each has been carefully and perfectly post-processed to give the impression of having been painted, adding a further sense of depth to their presentation, as well as demonstrating the validly of such editing when performed by an artist who understands the proper use of the tools at her disposal.
These are places which may be recognised by seasoned SL explorers – or, equally, they may not. However, whether or not you happen to recognise any given place is the collection doesn’t actually matter. What is of import is the beauty within each piece.
In this, Mareea’s eye, framing and editing combine to produce pieces which are immediately and richly engaging, drawing one into each of them in turn, offering hints of narrative and suggestions of memory. They speak to the purity of art in its ability to portray and present beauty for its own sake, without necessarily carrying a deeper meaning.
“Landscapes with a message” is very much the theme of the second exhibition I’m covering here: that of Blip Mumfuzz’s Landscapes from a Lost World, currently open at Serena Art Centre.
Blip is another artist whose work I admire immensely, hence why I cover so many of her exhibitions. Like Mareea, she has an innate ability to draw us into the heart of her images, together with an ability to direct our focus and weave stories. Her use of colour, angle and editing is such that her images can have both clarity and at times border on the abstract.
Blip’s art is often capable of speaking to a wider theme; and such is this case with Landscapes from a Lost World. Set within an environment – the abandoned, fading structures of an old farm – specifically created by Blip in which to display them, and which is thus as much a part of the exhibition as the images, the exhibition actually presents a mix of landscape images and life studies, all focused on a message highly relevant to the physical world in which we currently live.
However, rather than offer my own interpretation of the setting and images, I’ll instead offer Blip’s own description and, like her, leave you to follow the advice on viewer settings and explore the exhibition so that the images, indoors and out, to speak to you within the framing of Blip’s words.
In the face of the imminent climate-induced collapse of our modern technological civilization, the decrepit farm carries a multiplicity of meanings: societal decay, ways of life forever lost, economic and social collapse, and stands as an indictment of the sociopathic billionaires who are abandoning the rest of humanity and all its magnificent achievements in order to save themselves and to hold onto their power as long as possible.
Looking back from a time 25 years in the future, the images, which are scattered around the “farm”, should be seen as nostalgic dream images of our lost world. A world that was once, within living memory, alive and vibrant; full of life, culture, love, hopes, and dreams, now being destroyed by the greedy and powerful.
– Blip Mumfuzz
Two very different, be equally engaging exhibitions open through May 2025, and I recommend both to your eyes and thoughts.
SLurl Details
- Mareea Farrasco – Landscapes, Kondor Art Square (Royal Tea, rated Adult)
- Blip Mumfuzz, Landscapes from a Lost World, Serena Arts Centre (Serena Hub, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 