Category: Art in Second Life

Currently open at the HeArt and Soul Gallery operated by Tom Willis and Lizzy Swordthain through the rest of January 2025 and into February, is Captive Lights, an exhibition by Selen Minotaur mixing (predominantly) 2D pieces with 3D sculptures. It is presented as being inspired by the works of James Turrell, and stands as both a unique homage to his work as well as reflecting Selen’s own sensibilities in the use of colour, geometry, and light to offer visual journeys and narratives.

The exhibition is the first at HeArt and Soul following the gallery’s update to utilise PBR materials. I’m not sure if Blinn-Phong (“legacy”) materials are provided as fallback. As such, I would recommend the use of a PBR-capable viewer when visiting (and note that some of the art elements within the exhibition are also PBR), together with the use of the Shared Environment.

Born in 1946, James Turrell is often referred to as “the master of light” for his work in combining natural light with artificial colour to create dynamic environments in which the sense of light and perception of colour shifts both naturally and as the visitor moves through them. In this, he is regarded as one of the principal torch-bearers of the Light and Space art movement, an initially loose affiliation of artists working with light, volume and scale (and which touches upon genres such as minimalism, optical art and geometric abstraction), which started in the 1960s and perhaps became more formalised in the 1970s.

Turrell’s own approach to his art is born of a mix of influences: his parents were both Quakers, with his mother defining their faith in terms of a simple decree: that each of us can experience an inner light of understanding of the the world (and by extension, the cosmos) around us. His father was an aeronautical engineer and pilot, from whom Turrell gained a love of flying (qualifying as a pilot himself at the age of 16) and a fascination with celestial phenomena. These influences led him to a degree in perceptual psychology prior to switching to art, and working on his earliest installations utilising light and volume.

Today, Turrell is perhaps most famous for his Skyspace installations, which have been established in more than 75 locations world-wide, and most particularly for his Roden Crater installation. The latter is a 45-year project Turrell, with the support of various art institutions and universities, has been developing within the 4.8 km wide cinder cone of an extinct volcano near flagstaff, Arizona, and regarded as the pinnacle of his research into  human visual and psychological perception.

With Captive Lights, Selen presents a series of 2D pieces which reflect many of the core elements found within Turrell’s art and the wider Light and Space movement. There are pieces mindful of his Sky Space installations and the Alpha Tunnel at Roden Crater (Palace Corridor, for example). Similarly, Magic Cubes might be taken as a modern take on Turrell’s 1966 work, Afrum-Proto, whilst pieces such as The Wall Eye might bring to mind elements found within Turrell’s Passages of Light retrospective.

At the same time, the pieces in the collection are very much born of Selen’s own signature embodiment of abstraction, light, colour, and minimalism, and her ability to tug at the threads of our imagination and comprehension and offer hints of potential narrative or greater perception.

The images in this exhibition are intended to be minimalist, with light as the main heroine, even if characters sometimes appear. The light is framed or staged to capture an energy or a specific moment. The chosen title, deliberately loaded with mystery and symbolism, invites the viewer to connect their perceptions to their imagination, to their emotions, to build their own stories or representations.

– Selen Minotaur on Captive Light

A thoroughly engaging exhibition to tickle the mind – and, for those unfamiliar with either Turrell’s work and / or the Light and Space art movement, an open invitation to explore both.

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• HeArt and Soul Gallery (Durdane, rated Moderate)

Dirty Windows is the title Carelyna has given to her latest exhibition of work, which opened at her ArtCare gallery on January 20th, 2025.

Located on an open-sided platform, the exhibition comprises eleven monochrome / sepia-tinged studies depicting scenes looking through windows that have seen better days (as one might suspect from the title).

However, To take thing purely at face value in this way would be to miss the point; this is a tour de force of art as metaphor; each image presents a scene in which the presentation of the piece is as important as the image it presents: the grainy, almost scratched appearance suggesting a mix of age and dream-like or quality.

What “Dirty Windows” could mean: a diffuse border between reality and illusion, between lie and truth; a way to create appearances that can protect us against hard-to-bear truths; the human being caught in the drama of life, when one has to repeat to oneself that dirt feels real, but it’s not true; the dirt on the glass is fleeting, it is not our nature, and only a stain to overcome.

– Carelyna, describing Dirty Windows

In other words, these are pieces intended for direct, personal interpretation; one formed out of experience, memories – good and bad -, imagination and outlook. They encourage both introspection and reflections on the the cyclical nature of experience and growth – and the ever-present opportunities for the latter to bring us new opportunities and new horizons. They filter through the grime and necessities of the everyday like sunlight through an aging, dirty window; a reminder that it is in our nature to overcome, to thrive beyond the now, and whatever might currently weigh us down with doubt and / or regret.

Offered with a degree of interactivity, Dirty Windows does not require exposition her; it should be seen first-hand and allowed to speak to each of us. Recommended.

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• Dirty Windows, ArtCare Gallery (Emotion, Moderate)

It’s been a while since I have had the pleasure to review an art exhibition by Melusina Parkin. There are several reasons for this, both as a result of the physical world keeping Melu occupied and constraints on my own time. Hence why, when she passed me a personal invitation to see her latest collection, I was keen to find time and hop over.

Dreamscapes is a collection of 64 landscape images captured by Melu from around Second Life and displayed within her Minimal Gallery. Presented in Melu’s sharply-focused, minimalist style, all offer in a mix of soft tones and monochrome. Spread across the gallery’s two levels, it is a captivating display of images.

Mixing both old and new pieces, all with minimal (or no) post-processing, instead reliant on the image capabilities within the viewer itself, Dreamscapes takes the visitor on a tour of Second Life by revealing not the whole, but merely a part; a tree, a ruined lighthouse, a cabin on the sand, a broken fence, the corner of a motel or industrial building and its parking lot, and so on. In doing so, each opens the first page of a story – or perhaps the foreword to a dream.

What that story might be is personal to each of us; each picture given us just enough to set the imagination rolling. It’s a technique used by Melusina to great effect in her work, and here it serves a double purpose: it both prompts us to create narratives around what we see, and it demonstrates that Second Life itself is a place of the imagination; of dreams made real, the places we as creators would like to live within or visit. That it is, if I might borrow from Edgar Allan Poe as Melu borrows from Shakespeare, “a dream within a dream”.

In keeping with Melu’s more recent activities in respect to her exhibitions, Dreamscapes is also offered as a catalogue of prints presented under her Melubooks brand and costing L$100. I personally love this approach to additional presenting art in Second Life; we all only have so much space in-world in which to place images and presenting collections in this way offers a unique way be ways we can share them over and again at leisure.

As always, I thoroughly recommend Dreamscapes and Melusina’s art for your enjoyment.

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• Minimal Gallery (Lunula, rated Moderate)

In modern times, nudity in art – particularly photography – tends all too often conjure images leaning towards the pornographic, or which are at least intended to titillate. Yet the history of the female nude, from art through to photography, is both ich and varied, and has been accepted differently by various cultures and societies down the ages in reflection of the social norms of each.

As well as being associated with the more risqué / erotic, female nudity in art can be linked to  subjects as broad as the study of anatomy through depictions and interpretations both religious and mythological to the expression of ideal beauty and aesthetic perfection. But there is another aspect of of female nudity in art: the expression of vulnerability – even of innocence.

This is very much the case with Nude, the opening exhibition for 2025 at Dido Haas’ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The work of Kitten (Joaannna), this is a stunning selection of pieces which are both highly personal – as Kitten notes – and which again demonstrates her skill in presenting images that are both marvellously artistic and highly emotive.

I’ve long admired Kitten’s work, and covered a number of her exhibitions, and have always been drawn to her use of monochrome / black-and-white, which she marries with a panoramic format which holds the eye.  Here she uses both, combining them with a considered use of focus and cropping to present a series of twelve utterly captivating studies, each with a story of its own to tell, and most offered in a perfect, minimalist style.

Over the five years seen has been involved in photography – which started in 2020, Kitten’s abilities and style has grown in leaps and bounds to the point where  – to me a least – she is one of the foremost visual storytellers in Second Life arts. So much so, that alongside Scylla Rhiadra, she is one of the two Second Life artists I most admire for their ability to inhabit their work with a strength of narrative, meaning and emotion.

In this, Dido herself deserves acknowledgement; she has the ability to challenge artists to move outside of their comfort zones, to experiment, to reach into new areas of expression. Since first being challenged by Dido in 2022, Kitten has grown immeasurably in her ability to express through her art, and Nude perhaps represents her latest pinnacle, revealing not just her avatar as a nude, but her own vulnerability.

An altogether exquisite exhibition, one which deserves time to see and consider.

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• Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated Moderate)

Like many of us who have become engaged with Second Life, Stevie Basevi  has seen her involvement in the platform grow over the years, branching and flowering in numerous directions; from content creator to estate holder (she has been responsible for the 3-region Sanctuary RP Community, for over 16 years), to working extensively with the American Cancer Society (14 years), One Billion Rising, and Seanchai Library’s Special Projects Creative team.

In all of this her appreciation of, an involvement with, the Second Life art scene has often featured in her in-world activities. As a result of this exposure to the broader community of SL artists, Stevie has come to see in-world photography as a means to explore a new avenue of creative expression, and an opportunity to connect with SL on more of an emotional level as she travels the grid.

A growing confidence in her work, complimented by studying via the Visionaire Institute, encouraged Stevie to start exhibiting in Second Life for herself, joining in with ensemble exhibitions as well as  presenting her own solo exhibits (and launching her own gallery in 2022).

Several of the latter have been within the BOSL Innovation Pavilion curated by Jamee Sandalwood, which has featured Steve’s work in exhibitions within the main gallery space, as well as a solo exhibition within the smaller (and cosier) Waterfront Café gallery. And it is at BOSL where Stevie now has a new gallery space.

Located within the region’s shopping precinct, Stevie’s gallery space sits alongside that of Jamie Sandalwood, allowing visitors to witness works by two very excellent Second Life photographers who have each made a name for themselves in landscape photographer (although both Stevie and Jamie’s portfolios cover much more).

For her first display at the new gallery, Stevie presents a collection of images celebrating both winter and the holiday season. These are engaging pieces, presenting scenes we can all appreciate, often offered with muted tones which reflect the season as much as the settings captured within them. From reindeer grazing in the snow to brooks and streams bubbling through snow-frosted landscapes and avenues white with winter’s delights, and which include Santa enjoying a little off-duty fun, these are all pieces ready to engage the eye and offer unique and beautiful views of familiar places within Second Life.

And when you’ve visited it, why not hop over to her main gallery?

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• Stevie Basevi at BOSL (Innovation Pavilion, rated Moderate)