Catch-22: the paradoxical situation a person cannot escape due to contradictory rules or limitations. It lies at the heart of Joseph Heller’s satirical novel of the same name (and which in fact spawned the term) – and currently, also at the heart of C a t c h, an installation by Eta (etamae) which opened in Second Life in late August 2026 at her space within Souland Gallery, operated by Julana Allen (Julana Teichmann).
For Eta, her paradox came in the form of the recent heatwave experienced by the UK (and much of Europe) and her need to be creative. The former was such that its heat and humidity resulted in lethargy and a sense that any expenditure of creative effort would be overpowering to achieve anything, whilst the need to create could only be accomplished by the expenditure of effort, mental and physical within the sapping lethargy of the heatwave, potentially resulting in nothing being achieved.
Within my skybox at Souland Gallery I have tried to convey my no win situation of the intense heat and humidity I felt at a moment in time. Those feelings of being unable to move, being stuck fast even if I was in a place I dearly wanted to be and had paid silly monies to get there.
– Eta
The result is an installation in which monochrome is used to great effect with white suggestive of heat and lethargy, and darker elements to hint at the need for coolness and respite from the heat.
Tall figures and groups of figures are rendered in white. gathered together in poses suggestive of melting or wilting, much as we feel in extreme instances of heat. Meanwhile, dark swirls suggest the vortices of cool air and grey forms on the walls suggest the longed-for cooling influence of fans and / or a longing clouds to come between us and the Sun and offer some respite to allow us to do more than just wilt.
A poem – c a t c h – accompanies the installation, summing up the feeling of being trapped by the heat, of seeing everything we want to do become lost and unimportant in the need to escape to simply be.
Visually engaging and making subtle use of PBR (the installation is best seen in a PBR capable viewer & using the local shared environment.
SLurl Details
- C a t c h, Souland Gallery (Moordon, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 