Category: Art in Second Life

Recently opened (October 3rd, 2019), at Diotima Art Gallery curated by Red Bikcin is Wandering Spirits, an immersive exhibition of 2D art with 3D elements by TerraMerhyem. It offers a fascinating trip into the artist’s imagination.

I started reading science fiction, fantasy and heroic fantasy at the age of ten and since then I have continued; this literature is one of the elements that has shaped me. It has taken me to live other lives, it has trained me to live in other worlds and I have always had a tendency to escape from what is called the “real world” – through writings and poetry, dreams, art, music, images and imaginations, trance…

– TerraMerhyem describing the inspiration for Wandering Spirits

Set behind an animated piece and against an ebony backdrop, Wandering Spirits presents visitors with glimpses into the worlds of fantasy to which TerraMerhyem’s imagination has carried her – most with her character prominent within them, a Barbarella-like figure rendered within intricate, fractal-like creations and hanging against backdrops of aliens skies and liquid forms.

I have spent a lot of time imagining – and I have the ability to feel, sometimes deeply, what I imagine … It has happened to me to be a wandering spirit: I have sailed in unfathomable places; I have brushed against the suns floating in icy spaces; I have met other spirits and entities, also wandering – always beautiful … I have screamed in the dark (but I think the universe has been deaf to my cries).

– TerraMerhyem describing the inspiration for Wandering Spirits

Along with these 2D elements are 3D pieces: the models use to give form to the spirits within each picture perhaps; but I confess it is the 2D pieces that most fascinated me in their composite execution. Two of the fractal-like forms that feature in them also appear alone in a pair of pieces towards the front of the exhibition, where they are set against backdrops of what might be the surface of Titan when cleared of its dense atmosphere. These serve to give the fractal forms a sense of life such that they might be considered alien organics, floating over their mother world(s), alive – and perhaps even aware.

By presenting these strange forms, with their reflective coatings an appearance of life, these two initial pieces convey the impression that the creations, other with the others like them that appear in the images with the human “spirits” are also living, and perhaps conscious. Thus, rather than simply being a “prop” or element around the figure sharing an image with them, they become a living part of it; a companion, if you will – perhaps, even the other spirits TerraMerhyem imagines in her thoughts and dreams.

Nuanced and layered, Wandering Spirits is engaging and – as noted – fascinating to witness, both for its art and narrative, and for its presentation.

SLurl Details

• Diotima Art Gallery (Gigli Waves, rated: Moderate)

Currently open at The Lovers Art Gallery are two exhibitions that recently caught my attention: The Colour of Love and Implied Horizons, by artists Carelyna and Etamae respectively. The two exhibitions are split between the ground and upper floors of the gallery, with Implied Horizons occupying the lower of the two.

Active within Second Life photography and art since 2018, Etamae has established a reputation for presenting transformational images: captures from around Second Life that she has then edited and post-processed to create something quite different and striking to the eye. She has also, in some of her exhibitions, has presented pieces that have been of an organic, abstracted nature (see A late summer exhibition at the Rose Gallery, August 2018) that are as equally as captivating.

With Implied Horizons, the focus is very much on the former of Etamae’s approaches: images from around Second Life that have undergone post-processing to give us something very different to the location or item that gave rise to them. The result is a baker’s dozen of images that are bold in tone, colour and presentation, some of which include perhaps a lean towards abstract in their finish (take Ferris, located on one of the easel at the front of the gallery space, for example), while one Ikea, has an almost surrealist aspect within it. All are richly engaging, demonstrating a marvellous eye for colour that gives several of the pieces – Two Stags and Town Limits, for example – a captivating sense of vitality.

On the upper floor, The Colour of Love presents 15 of Carelyna’s pieces. These offer something of a complimentary connection to the ground floor exhibition in that the majority of the pieces offered have also been post-processed, this time to give them the look and feel of paintings.

Given the title of the exhibition, it’s no surprise that several of the pieces in this selection are presented in warm reds, yellows, oranges, greens and soft browns, offering a feeling of warmth one might associate with love. However, even where colder colours – blue, white, grey and harder greens – are used, there is a sense of memory that suggests a recollection of intimate times.

Some of the places within these pictures may be easily familiar (perhaps most notably in the case of Calas Galadhon’s Santorini and also with Mandingo Quan’s Hazardous); other may tug at the seasoned SL’s traveller’s memory, although a right-click and examine might be required to bring the place properly to mind. However, wherever they were taken is really secondary to the emotional essence each contains. Meanwhile, there are two pieces that sit perhaps a little apart from the rest: Waiting for My Real Life to Begin and Autumn Wings. In comparison to the other images presented, Waiting… has undergone far less post-processing and retains the look and feel of a photograph while Autumn Wings has a soft, abstracted look to it. Different to the others they may seem to be, but again, there is no escaping their emotional power.

These are two engaging exhibitions, well presented, and with pieces that are fascinating to see and appreciate.

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• The Lovers Art Gallery (The Lovers, rated Adult)

Now open at Black Label Exhibition Corner is an exhibition by Calypso Applewhyte entitled Feelings, a selection of her distinctive self-portraits offering a mix of monochrome and colour images.

Self-taught with Photoshop, Calypso entered Second Life in 2010 with – as she describes it herself – “no specific goal”, but while exploring the grid, she found an outlet in Second Life photography. As her interest grew, so did a parallel interest in both her own avatar and the ability to use this virtual domain as a means to explore emotions and feelings.

This is powerfully reflected the selection of pictures displayed within this exhibition, as indicated by the title. Reached via teleport from the Black Label Exhibition Corner (please read the notes there about viewer settings), Feelings presents Twenty-one images by Caly (some of which are intentionally duplicated to offer a different means of presentation). Some of the pictures have appeared in selections of Caly’s work seen in other exhibitions, but which in their inclusion here certainly fit the theme.

Each piece captures Caly’s avatar in a variety of looks and poses, some with a science fiction edge to them, others leaning towards steampunk or fantasy and others more classical in nature. All of them are drawn together by the depth of emotion each conveys. In this, we often use the phrase “the eyes are the windows of the soul”, but Caly proves feelings and emotions can be conveyed through pose and / or look even when the eyes themselves are unseen: just take Romeo and Juliet, CA-418 and CA-395 as examples of this.

Although that said, there is no denying  those images that do show Caly’s eyes have a particular emotional attraction, as shown with the likes of Green Girl and a piece I’ve seen previously seen exhibited and have admired: La Tristesse.

When visiting – and as per the instructions at the landing point – it is essential you have Advanced Light Model active in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics), or what I’ll refer to as “The Mirror” mini-collection of four projected images within the main exhibition will not be visible.

Another engaging exhibition by Calypso, perfectly presented by the Black Label Exhibition Corner, managed by AnnaFrancesca Kira.

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• Black Label Exhibition Corner (Eternal Possession, rated Moderate)

Somewhat unusually for this blog, I’m covering three exhibitions of art split across two galleries – Club L.A. and Kiku Gallery  – that between them presents three very individual displays of art by Second Life artists, and which are each small enough to make a joint interesting and contrasting visit for those who enjoy art in Second Life.

Opening at L.A. Club and Gallery, curated by Wintergeist, on September 28th, 2019 and running for approximately two months are exhibitions by Maloe Vansant Sue Kass, two very different artists.

Maloe is always a provocative in her work, and with A Glitch in Time, she again shows this to be the case, with a very mixed set of predominantly physical word photographs – and I have to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to make of them. This is something I say without any intention to be dismissive towards the exhibition, but simply because the mix of images offered is so diverse, it really needs individual viewing and contemplation, rather than any attempt to understand them through the eyes of another.

Sue Kass, meanwhile, is an artist I’ve not previously encountered. She presents a selection of 16 avatar studies offered as a mix of photographs, paintings and drawings. I have to admit, they make an engaging collection; each one captivates the eye, offering a perfectly framed image complete with the strong suggestion of a surrounding story; so much so that again, they deserve an direct visit to view, rather than a second-hand interpretation here. However, I will say I found myself drawn to those pieces that suggest a drawing or watercolour – notably Fall, Hug and Flowers, seen below, and Ink.

Running through until November 8th, 2019 at the Kiku Gallery curated by Suzanne Logan is an exhibition of photography by Ktahdn Vesuvino entitled A Closer Look, a series of marvellous close-up images from the physical world captured using a digital single-lens reflex camera with (for the most part) a 100mm macro lens. These are combined with a small series of photographs of the most astonishing series of sand sculptures.

When I go for walks, I see most people with heads down, looking at their telephones. The world presents beauty in great detail, everywhere one chooses to look. I know there is also ugliness. It’s part of our reality. I choose to focus on things I see as being beautiful, and attempt to make a photograph that will show some of the beauty to others… and be worth looking at again.

Ktahdn Vesuvino, describing A Closer Look

This is another captivating collection of images, Ktahdn’s macro pictures offering a fabulous series of portraits, while those taken on the beach marvellously underline his comment about people being so focused on their smartphones they can literally miss life passing them by.

Taken together, and as I said at the top of this review, all three exhibitions make for individually absorbing visits.

SLurl Details

• Club LA and Gallery (Amano, rated Moderate)
• Kiku Gallery (Amatsu Shima, rated Moderate)

If you’re into fine and classical art, then you are going to want to drop in to the Museum of Fine Arts in Second Life. I confess, I knew little of the museum prior to recently receiving an invitation from Tonem, the museum’s curator to pay them a visit, so I was delighted to be able to accept the offer and learn about the gallery.

Originally founded in Twinity in 2013, the museum moved to Second Life in 2015, where it is located on the Mainland continent of Jeogeot, occupying a palatial and very fitting château (the work of Kaya Angel) that provides 20 rooms of exhibition space, with a further annex to the rear.

The goal of the museum is to provide a non-profit educational facility displaying art from the physical world. Each piece presented in the exhibition spaces is a faithful photographic representation of the originating art, with care taken to ensure only pieces that reside in the public domain in their country of origin are reproduced, and that they free from known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights.

When the group was founded [2013] there was a debate on the kind of art to include. And the conclusion to not exhibit user created art was for three reasons: the difficulty of establishing provenance; the lack of expertise [at the time] regarding modern art in our group; and the fact that there are many, many art galleries in Second life presents in-world artists and photographers with the ability to display their work, but only a handful available for exhibiting fine and classical art from the physical world.

– Tonem, describing the background to the Museum

As an advocate for the presentation of suitable physical-world art through Second Life, the museum’s focus is something I approve. SL provides the means to create exhibitions that can bring together a wealth of established art from around the globe and present it to an audience in a manner impossible win the physical world without the need for what could amount to a lot of globe-trotting; while for the modern artist in the physical world, it offers the means to reach a global audience in a more immersive and personal manner than images on a web page.

This first point above is particularly true of the current exhibitions at the museum; there is no way on Earth the rich diversity of pieces offered could have been brought together by a single gallery in the physical world. Nor does it end there. Great lengths have been taken to ensure a visit to the Museum of Fine Art is as “real” as possible.

The two exhibitions currently in progress are German Art in the 19th Century, which represents the gallery’s main autumn / winter 2019 exhibit, and Marie Bracquemond One of the Grand Dames of Impressionism, running through until October 22nd, 2019. Each demonstrate the care taken in presenting the art in the museum: the images are correctly scaled one to the next, whilst each has its own information card, a-la a physical world museum. For those who prefer, images can also be left-clicked to have the information text displayed in local chat.

German Art in the 19th Century includes a wealth of introductory information in the museum’s foyer, and I recommend viewing it before progressing through the gallery’s halls. In all, some 34 German painters are represented, with over 200 individual pieces of art faithfully reproduced. The exhibit follows the evolution of German art from the romantic period (late 18th and early 19th centuries) through to the period of German Expressionism in the early 20th century. There is no set path through the exhibit, But given the volume of art, I would recommend setting aside time to genuinely appreciate it, as it has taken a lot of time and effort to pull things together, as Tonem notes:

Of course, because we can use almost anything in the public domain also makes it more of a challenge! The museum did a lot of small exhibits focusing on particular parts of movements or periods, but the didactic value seemed minimal. Something sweeping like this should be much more valuable to people learning about art – but it was a tremendous amount of work to bring it all together!

The exhibit celebrating the art of Marie Bracquemond can be found in the annex to the rear of the museum, on the Lindal Kidd terrace (Lindal is someone who over the years has leant support and assistance to the gallery).

Alongside Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, Madame Bracquemond is regarded as one of les trois grandes dames of the French impressionist movement. This is a much smaller exhibit, as one might expect given the focus on a single artist, but the works offered within it are again presented with the same care to detail and scale. At the time of my visit, some finishing touches had yet to be made (including the introduction to the exhibition), but this shouldn’t put people off – should you want to find out about Marie Bracquemond, Google is your friend.

The Museum of Fine Arts is a gem of a gallery museum in Second Life, and I thoroughly recommend it to all who have an interest in physical world fine and classical art. I’d also like to thank Tonem for her time with me during my visit, and I look forward to returning in the future and writing about further exhibitions at the gallery.

SLurl Details

• Museum of Fine Arts (Jieut, rated Moderate)