Category: Art in Second Life

The September exhibition at Attention Gallery, owned, managed and curated by Isle Biedermann and Mirabelle Sweetwater (Biedermann), opened on Saturday, September 5th. It offers a double-header of an exhibition, displaying the art of Jon Wyck and Deckhard Neox  in what are two somewhat contrasting exhibitions in terms of their respective themes, which can perhaps best be described as “light” and “dark”.

With Perspectives of light and Life, Jon Wyck presents ten images that offer a mix of landscapes and avatar studies, each neatly reflective of its title. Each is intriguing in its representation of light, be it Moonlight over a shadowed tower, sunlight filters through drapes that adds warmth to a sculpture, the metronomic sweep of a lighthouse lamp caught in mid-rotation, the curtain of light created by the skyscrapers of a city backdrop, or use of colour throughout an image as a whole.

At the same time, and as the title of the selection indicates, each of the images in this selection offers a comment on life, from the desire for an island retreat to the thrill of living on the edge trying to control a powerful machine, going by way of reflections on art, mysticism and and beauty of nature around us.

With October and Halloween once again approaching, Deckhard Neox offers a trip into the darker side of life with his ten pieces, as he explains in his introductory notes:

PANDEMONIUM is my small gift to horror genre in film and literature, genre that I loved and feared since my early childhood. Emotions, either beautiful, uplifting, inspiring or in this case terrifying make us human and thus curious, enchanted and alive, forever searching for mysteries of life … and death.

– Deckhard Neox

The result is a series of images that celebrate all that we tend to bring to mind when we consider in the silver screen’s (and television’s) delight in thrilling  / scaring us: werewolves, vampires, knife-wielding and masked maniacs, balloon-carrying clowns, the threat of shadows moving in the darkness and more.

These are – in a literal sense as much as thematically – dark images (so much so, I admit to finding myself wishing they were perhaps presented in a larger format just to bring more of their details to the fore). Each evokes a sense of atmosphere whilst also playing due homage to the film it is intended to evoke, sometimes clearly – as with The Well (The Ring) Halloween (Halloween), They All Float (It – film and mini series), etc. Others are more subtle – such as Ave Satani (The Omen – which also carries a hint of a certain “hell hound” from Holmesian mythology that has oft been played for horror).

Two small but engaging displays that will be available through until the end of the month, I believe.

SLurl Details

• Attention Gallery (HaStArA, rated Moderate)

The Third Eye, curated by Jaz (Jessamine2108), opened its September 2020 exhibition on the 29th August, once again offering a double header of art featuring Lynn (Titaniclynn Ayres) and pieces by Jaz herself.

Lynn is a Second Life photographer whose work tends to centre on landscape photography, but also can encompass art and avatar studies. For Photos by Lynn she offers 18 pieces in both colour and black and white that are taken from her extensive portfolio of landscape images, and which incorporate some of Second Life’s popular public destinations.

The colour images, encompassing places such as Boulder, Jambo, A Taste of Africa, Cherishville, Venesha – all of which are well known to seasoned Second Life travellers – offer unique views of their subject that are rendered in rich colours. In some, this post-processing suggests a painting-like finish, in others they provide a sense of warmth and lightness. All, however, do full service to their subjects.

Similarly, Lynn’s black and white pieces encompass SL’s more popular destinations of recent times and are all equally evocative – if not more so, given the way black-and-white images tend to draw out the secrets of their subjects. In this – and while I enjoyed Lynn’s colour works immensely, I found the black-and-white pieces like Waiting.., Tralala’s Diner and Elvion, to contain a particular vitality.

For her exhibition, Jaz offers Navarasa a visual journey through emotions in Indian dance. The Navarasa is a dance form that represents the nine rasas, or emotions that an individual might display according to their situation. These are: Śṛṅgāraḥ (romance, love, attractiveness) Hāsyam (laughter, mirth, comedy), Raudram (anger, fury), Kāruṇyam (compassion, mercy), Bībhatsam (disgust, aversion), Bhayānakam (horror, terror), Veeram (heroism) and Adbhutam (wonder, amazement).

Each of these emotions is portrayed in a pair of images: the uppermost a scene captured from within Second Life, the lower a photograph over which has been set the dance step representative of the rasa itself. It’s an engaging, evocative display, dance figures and background photos (including in places the use of colour wash) capture the emotional mood, whilst the accompanying image from Second Life provides an expressive narrative for the emotion.

Two intriguing and captivating displays of art.

SLurl Details

• Third Eye Gallery (Midnight Sanctum, rated Moderate)

I first visited Love & Love Art Gallery, curated by Lylaya Love (lylaya), back in June 2020. Since then, it has relocated, and earlier in August, two new exhibitions opened, featuring the work of Kerupa Flow and Norton Lykin respectively.

Kerupa Flow presents another series of her truly remarkable tablet-and-pen creations, the majority of which are monochrome in nature. There is a richness of diversity present in these pieces, suggestive of multiple roots for Kerupa’s work. To take just a handful: When it Rain, for example has an ink wash style about it, whilst Hug and Curious Walker hint at pen-and-ink drawings whilst Lurking Now is surreal in nature and the landscape of Indelible Night carries an abstracted element within it.

I admit to finding Kerupa’s work quite fascinating since first encountering it in 2015; her work is always rich in the narrative it contains, and all of the pieces offered here carry that same strength and depth – perhaps most notably her 3D piece, I’ll be sure to find you.

Across the hall, Norton’s work tends towards the striking, with bold, strong colours, and this exhibition is no exception. Twelve pieces of a somewhat abstract nature with a twist of futurism are presented here, offering reflections on love, life, art and the cosmos.

Several of the pieces reflect the art of others – Mario2 Helstein and Giovanna Cerise, as re-imagined through Norton’s eyes. These are particularly striking, while Sunrise with Shadows and Red Moon present unique views of the most recognisable occupiers of our solar system (outside of Earth).

When visiting, be sure to take the teleport mat to the gallery’s lower floor where, at the time of my visit, Patrick Moya’s iconic art was still on display, nicely balanced by a display by Oblomov (Jos Bookmite) I reviewed back in June 2020.

SLurl Details

• Love & Love Art Gallery (Incanto, rated Adult)

Currently open at ArtCare Gallery, curated by Carelyna, is an ensemble exhibition featuring Black Rose, Juidlynn India, Eva Burroughs, Ladmilla and Eli, and Patrick Ireland, all of whom are presenting theme selects of their art.

For States of Mind, Lamilla and Eli present 24 of their image / poem combinations focused on reflections on life, love, relationships, some of which can lean towards darker, more regretful thoughts, all of which are richly evocative in both form and words – as is always the case with this unique pairing. Rounding out the exhibition is a thirteenth piece sans words, that offers a slide show of images that are again intended to poke at the grey matter.

With Flowers and Sea, Black Rose offers two selections of her physical world paintings which, as the title of her exhibit indicate, focus on flowers and on the sea. The former total seven pieces that are rich in colour, reflective of the vitality and life of their subject matter – which in this case includes butterflies as well as plants.

In the neighbouring bay art eight pieces representing the sea that again use colour to reflect the changing nature of both the ocean and our relationship with it. Some are offered in lighter, paler colours or given predominantly in blue, suggestive of the colder nature of the sea, or the way in which oceans and weather can so often quickly change their moods. Other offer warmer tones – yellows, oranges and reds, with the Sun sitting low over the waters and / or lighting the bellies of clouds. With their softer, warmer shades they remind us of our more romantic views of the sea.

Warmth might also be an adjective that could be applied to Judilynn’s selection of art, presented under the title Texture and Tone, given the deeper colours on offer in these paintings. Another might be tactile, because  – and again in reflection of the title of the collection – these are pieces that are visually physical in their layering on paint and colour.

Most of the pieces are richly abstract in form – and thus powerfully evocative (just look at The Lighthouse, for example, and the richness of colour and narrative it contains). Two perhaps lean more to a suggestion of neo-impressionism with a modern edge.

Eva Burrough’s Visus Aquam (the sight of water) returns to an aquatic theme, the focal point of which is a stunning rendering of water bordered on either side by two sets of superb images of tropical and semi-tropical fish. beyond these, on the wall separating this collection from that of Judilynn are three abstracted images of coral that are as captivating as the six fish paintings, and which offer something of sense of flow between the two exhibits, given their abstracted style. Facing them, and rounding-out the collection are images of ships and lighthouses captured from within Second Life, and two intriguing monochrome studies of coral.

In Carnival, Patrick Ireland offers an unusual trip through his art, and I mean that in a literal sense: re a bumper car, take a seat and get up close and personal with Patrick’s remarkable avatar studies, all of which are powerfully expressive and rich in narrative.

SLurl Details

• ArtCare Gallery (Prychek, rated Moderate)