Category: Art in Second Life

Now open at The Sim Quarterly is Impostor, an installation by FionaFei that explores both her art and her heritage – and makes for a thoroughly engaging exploration of self and creativity.

A relative newcomer to Second Life and its art world, Fiona is nevertheless one of the most engaging and visually impressive artists active within the platform, her work being truly unique. I’ve personally had the delight in discovering it and in writing about it on two occasions thus far (see: Captivated by FionaFei’s art in Second Life (May 2019) and FionaFei’s shuǐmò Reflection in Second Life from November 2019), and she was recently featured in one of the Lab’s Made in SL videos, being the first film in a series that will be examining art in Second Life as a part of the Lab’s ongoing work to market and promote Second Life.

Fiona specialises in reproducing shuǐmò ink wash paintings as 3D sculptures. Also called shuǐmòhuà (suiboku-ga in Japanese) shuǐmò, uses different concentrations of black ink to create an image. Found throughout East Asia, it first emerged in Tang dynasty China (618–907), before spreading to Japan (14th century), Korea and to India. Beside the use of black ink in place of colours, it is also marked by the emphasis of the brushwork being on the perceived spirit or essence of the subject, rather than directly imitating its appearance.

Through her installations, Fiona marvellously brings the entire essence of shuǐmò to virtual life. However, as she notes in writing about Impostor, something that causes her a certain amount of introspection about her own heritage, her art and expressionism, and her feelings of  – for want of a better word – displacement.

The inspiration behind this exhibit comes from my cultural background as a Chinese American immigrant and my technical background as an oil painter. While I am Chinese by descent, I have spent the majority of my life in the West. I have a fascination with Chinese history and culture, but I often feel like I’m viewing my ancestry through a filter of Americanized information and experiences. Furthermore, my artistic background has been in charcoal and oil painting mediums, and I’ve had very little experience in actual ink-brush painting. For these reasons, “Impostor” is meant to be a self critique and reflection of my inexperience with the actual ink-brush medium, where I feel like I’m never “good enough,” but I’m embracing it.

Given this, Impostor is a deeply personal piece, offering us insight into Fiona’s world, her feelings and the push-pull she experiences with regards to western upbringing and her Chinese heritage. It is also an installation that again brings forth her innate skill and artistry in presenting a modern-era form of shuǐmò, one that is both evocative and rich in symbolism throughout.

From the landing point, visitors embark on a journey along a set of wooden piers set out as a walkway amidst ink washed mountains, their charcoal outline an echo of Fiona’s artistic background. They lead the way on to a large paint brush – another reminder of her background – that in turn leads naturally into an ascent up through the ink wash mountains to where a pagoda-like temple.

The paint brush forms a physical and symbolic link between Fiona’s background in art and her desire / love of classical Chinese ink-ash art that forms her bridge to her Chinese heritage. More symbols are to be found throughout the installation, several of which Fiona notes herself – the red hands (her own, desperate to reach through her art and physically touch Chinese history and its ancient cultures), the black splashes of paint that splatter the landscape (again bridges between her training in oil and charcoal and the tradition of ink wash she wishes to embrace, red flowers and black trees (the contrasting colours that she uses to emphasise her work), and more.

Most poignantly of all, the red forest of lines and swirls that actually form the Chinese Characters 你是谁 (Ni Shi Shei? – asks “Who are you?”), a question that clearly occupies Fiona’s thoughts – and it is fair to say she is not alone in this; thus the words also touch us as we witness them. They stand as a tangled briar patch, a reflection of how thoughts of who we are can ensnare us. They also stands as a physical reminder of how easy it is to become captive to such thoughts, willingly or otherwise, depending on how our thoughts flow: touch them, and you can be set floating within their midst.  In this, they are one of several sit points that are to be found within the installation, so be sure to mouse around carefully.

Fiona views herself as an inexperienced “impostor” when it comes to ink wash painting. I beg to differ; her work both richly embraces this most ancient form of art and also lifts in to a new and evocative form of expression and storytelling, with Imposter itself a captivating installation that will remain at The Sim Quarterly until the end of May.

SLurl Details

• Impostor, The Sim Quarterly (The Sim Quarterly, rated: Moderate)

Emergent is the name Ilrya Chardin has given to her latest gallery space in Second Life. Occupying a 1/4 full region minimally landscaped to present an setting pleasing to the eye and without overwhelming the viewer, the gallery presents a mix of indoor and outdoor spaces for the display of 2D and 3D art, and through until March 7th, 2020 (so I am getting to it on the late side), Ilyra is joined by four of Second Life’s more established and recognised artists: Sisi Beidermann, Eli Medier and Ladmilla, and PatrickofIreland.

When I first  encountered Ilyra Chardin’s art a good few years ago now, she was very much focused Second Life landscape images, capturing the places she has visited and offering considered reflections on their looks. Since then, she has considerably broadened her scope, up to and including a move to 3D art.

The latter, in the form of Mesh sculptures, is very much displayed in the grounds and courtyards of the gallery, It ranges from quirky characters, each with a story to tell, through more brain-poking pieces, by way of abstract elements. I admit to being particularly drawn to The Art of War, which as well as cleverly drawing on Sun Tzu’s most famous (and oft-quoted) work, also reminds us that chess isn’t the only game of strategy that uses an 8×8 chequered board as its field of combat (although draughts doesn’t have quite such an astronomical number of potential game variations).

Sharing some of the walls of the outdoor spaces and present in the first of the gallery’s indoor spaces as a number of Ilrya’s 2D digital art pieces that are both worthy of examination and – in the case of those in the hall – point the way to her the larger hall, where her guests art displaying their art, commencing with Sisi Biedermann.

I confess to being and admirer of Sisi’s digital art – as I’ve mentioned numerous times in these pages. She has become a master in the art of digital composition, presenting original pieces beautiful and most subtly layered, to present art that is instantly captures the eye, carrying us to marvellous worlds born of her imagination. This is instantly discovered in the first three images, sitting to the left as you enter the main hall. The Maid, The Boy on the Scooter and Ancient Beauty all offer black-and-white portraits from a bygone era, each carefully composited with soft-toned digital overlays to present three wonderfully evocative pieces. With her drawings, paintings and layered fantasy pieces also on offer, Sisi offers visitors a tempting look into her work.

Eli Medlier and Ladmilla are also no strangers to these pages. Describing himself as an “occasional poet in Second Life”, Eli has a gift with words he tends to share with images produced by his SL partner, Ladmilla, although looking at his website, it is clear he is no slouch when it comes to visual art, his photographs and images there as captivating as his poetry.

For this exhibition, he once again shares he words with photographs by the equally talented Ladmilla, an artist who has a unique and captivating way with visual artistry, and so makes an ideal partner to illustrate Eli’s words. In fact, so entwined are their imaginations that when viewing their work, it is possible to imagine each being inspired by the other, such that both words may have given rise to image, and equally, image may have given rise to image.

Similarly, PatrickofIreland’s art never fails to capture attention. Often thematic in presentation, his work is broad in style and frequently enmeshes narrative and social commentary.

Here, both indoors and out on the upper terrace, he offers a truly engaging mix of art that illustrates all of this, with images bordering on the abstract (Dawn of a New Era) and social commentary (Socially Connected) to fabulous fantasy pieces that stand entirely on their own to others that hint at possible hidden layering – looking at Empty Nest, for example, I found my imagination poking me with several narratives up to and including a play on the fall of Lucifer from grace – the fingers exhibiting claw like extensions as he is transformed into the devil, his angelic wings similarly transformed into what appears to be the fragments of a broken nest, symbolising all he has lost, sliding from his shoulders and down his plummeting back, more shards caught in the air through which he is falling…

An engaging, rich exhibition which, as noted, will remain open through until Saturday, March 7th, 2020.

SLurl Details

• Emergent Gallery (Mystique Isle, rated: Moderate)

Currently open at Vegetal Planet is an impressive 2D / 3D interactive installation led by Cherry Manga, made with the support of JadeYu Flang, that makes for a fun, and also thought provoking visit.

State of Mind is a journey through 20 popular idioms and expressions, taken without the need to move that far. It’s a journey that requires visitors to enable Advanced Lighting Model (Preferences → Graphics), although you do not require shadows to be enabled as well, if you’re concerned about viewer performance.  With ALM set, touch the sculpture at the landing point to deliver you to the main exhibition space.

Located in a skybox, this is an environment that is in a state of flux, the scene within it changing periodically, gently paging through the 20 idioms. Visitors can either stand and watch the show or, by touching the east wall, can become a part of it, floating serenely as the scenes change around and below them.

Each idiom  / expression is presented as a complete scene, with the expression written in French or English and French against the wall that can set you floating. While is it easy to look at this and translate what is written, it’s more intriguing to observe the scenes as they appear and decrypt what is being illustrated. Sometimes this is easy – as with Head in the Clouds, Walking on Eggshells, Stars in (Your) Eyes, others may take a little time to figure out, and some may not have an literal translation from French / English, so may not always be familiar to everyone.

All of the pieces are, however, cleverly presented, often inviting the observer not just to try to identify the idiom being presented, but also consider how it came about – particularly with those that border on cliché. Take Thinking Outside the Box as an example – where did it originate, and how did it descend into a management consultancy cliché? Turns out it may well have originated with management consultants in the 1970s as a result of the “nine dots” puzzle, only to circle back to them through wider use to become a common training cliché.

Consideration of the derivation each saying is encouraged by the lack of any explanation for each setting beyond the expression appearing on the wall. Thus, in looking at the passing scenes, the grey matter is naturally stirred into questioning just why such expressions have become so recognised, that nine times out of ten we’ll happily use any one of them without otherwise considering where and how it might have be born and then enter into common usage.

Fascinating, intricate and engaging, State of Mind will, I believe, be open for at least the next month.

SLurl Details

• State of Mind (Vegetal Plane, Oak Park, rated Moderate)

Open through until Sunday, March 22nd at the Lost Unicorn Gallery is Razor Cure: Man of Many Faces, an exhibition of art by Razor Cure.

A Second Life photographer with a lean towards self portraiture, Razor doesn’t so much present characters and settings in eye-catching images, but actually inhabits the character he creates. some of these are born entirely of his imagination, others inspired by film or legend, while all of them reveal a man in love with stories, as he notes in writing about himself:

I go by Razor Cure, the name itself semi-borrowed from a book I was reading when I made my SL account … I came to SL for naughtiness, after my favour game, City of Heroes, died (and its back now, woo!) and ended up getting into picture taking. Now most of my time here is spent hunting for cool new outfits and attachments, exploring sims, tweaking poses…

This love of inhabiting characters and telling stories is very much in evidence in the pictures selected for this exhibition. Within it, we can join with Harry Potter at Hogwarts, ride a magic carpet with a Prince of Persia, watch as a Baby Groot borrows a certain stone-laden gauntlet, confront a Joker-esque villain or a masked anarchist; all of whom are framed in in a manner that sets them within a story our imaginations can unfold.

Alongside of these are pieces that might be regarded as more “traditional” avatar studies: the ring master, the cowboy, the hunter, and characters from fantasy. But again, Razor makes them characters he can inhabit, rather than just offer them as static studies, again making them stories in art.

Man of Many Faces sits within the main hall of the Lost Unicorn and several of the surrounding halls. This both provides plenty of space for Razor’s art without overwhelming the visitor whilst also offering gentle encouragement to explore the other gallery spaces and the art and artists they have to offer.

SLurl Details

• Lost Unicorn Gallery (Faerie Tale, rated Moderate)