Category: Art in Second Life

The October exhibition at Kultivate’s The Edge Gallery opened on Sunday, October 13th. Primarily a black and white / monochrome exhibition space, The Edge features for this exhibition images from both Second Life and the physical world by aht1981, Angyel, M8ty, MTH63, John Bianna, Lena Kiopak, Anouk Lefavre, Moora McMillan, Veruca Tammas and Tintin Tuxing.

As with such ensemble exhibitions, this is a very mixed collection of art, each display offering something unique and potentially appealing to visitors.

Perhaps the most striking in terms of catching the eye due to the colour text used, is aht1981’s The Future Is Yours, a set of three portraits of avatars presented with mini interviews with each of the subjects, together with an introductory set of notes. The latter reveal the images are part of a planned larger project intended to present images and interviews of some 20 people, the interviews intended to give greater depth to the portraits of the interview subjects.

Along the back wall of the lower level of the gallery are three displays that particularly attracted me: those of M8ty, Angyel and Lena Kiopak. For his work, M8ty, presents a series of avatar portraits that are striking in their presentation and depth. Alongside of his work is the display by Angyel, a wonderful mix of landscape-style images some encompassing famous locations within Second Life and the physical world. Similarly, but equally fascinating in presentation are the half-dozen pieces presented by Lena Kiopak offering unique visions of in-world locations.

When dealing with an exhibition like this, I often say that singling out one or two artists or pieces in an review like this isn’t entirely fair to the exhibition as a whole, which is why I emphasise that while I might only mention four artists here, all of the displays within this exhibition have much to offer, as noted above. As such, I do encourage those lovers of art in Second Life to drop in to The Edge gallery over the next four weeks and see this exhibition for themselves.

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• Kultivate The Edge Gallery (Water Haven, rated Moderate)

From ancient times through to modern tales, by way of Poe and even the graphic novel, corvus corax, the common raven has held a special – if mixed – place in the tales and mythologies of the northern hemisphere.

For some, they are seen as the companions of deities, or even the embodiment of deities – a trait perhaps drawn from their intelligence: not only are ravens natural social in their nature, they have also been known to use other birds and animals to their advantage, such as calling wolves to strike down easy kills and then cleaning up what’s left once the wolves have had their fill.

For others, and perhaps more widely in more modern times and doubtless arising from the fact they are – like their cousins corvus corone, the carrion and hooded crows -, carrion scavengers (although they are also omnivores), they are associated closely with death, witchcraft and dark arts.

In this latter regard, modern-era horror stories, poems (such as Poe’s famous The Raven) films and Halloween have also served to help make this time of year the one in which we perhaps think of ravens more than we might at other times of the year. Hence why the Ravenheart Museum, owned and curated by Talus Ravenheart, is currently hosting a mixed media exhibition A Conspiracy of Ravens.

Primarily located on the ground floor of the museum, A Conspiracy of Ravens offers an engaging look at the role of the raven through human history and mythology, with seven perched ravens acting as guides. Featuring photographs, drawings, paintings, illustrations and note cards, the exhibition includes a look at the realities of the raven and a bird, its interweaving into folklore a older mythology as a harbinger, familiar, deity and reputation for intelligence, as well as their roles in lore – notably that of the British Realm – and horror (Poe once again), and even their use in stamps around the world.

The art – reproductions of  illustrations from books through to sketches and photographs and including a trio of CybeleMoon’s beautiful multimedia pieces – is richly diverse and presented as a series of seven themes, each with one of the aforementioned  raven guides (you can find the last two upstairs). Click on each raven, and you’ll receive a note card on the theme presented by the accompanying images. Further, several of the items presented to support some of the displays, and even pieces of the art, will either also offer a note card when clicked, or take you to a web page where a story might be found.

Elegant in its presentation, A Conspiracy of Ravens offers engaging insight in our relationship with the raven, and for those who enjoy haunting and spooky tales that might include a raven or two, at 19:00 SLT on Tuesday, October 15th, the exhibition will be hosting Caledonia Skytower from Seanchai Library, who will be reading a series of short stories in The Spooky Classics.

And while visiting, do be sure to take in the magnificent (and I gather permanent) display of Libertine Eggs. Featuring the entire collection of these fabulous miniatures by Ali Baroque, each smaller than an average avatar’s head, this is also an exhibition that really requires first-hand viewing to truly appreciate the intricate beauty in each of the 60+ eggs on display.

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• Ravenheart Museum (Rosehaven Laudanum, rated Moderate)

In July, I had the opportunity to visit Ani’s Gallery, a new home for the art of Anibrm Jung, and for exhibitions of art by invited artists (see: Art, nature, and stories in Second Life). As is often the way with thing in Second Life, since that time Ani’s Gallery has relocated  – and in the process gained a new look. This being the case, I was delighted to be able to jump back and visit the latest exhibitions currently in progress.

As I have noted in previous reviews of her work, Ani is an award-winning photographer in the physical world who has been active in Second Life since 2006. Based in the Netherlands, she has specialised in photographing nature, many of her images captured from her own garden, and all of them recorded using only natural light, with everything framed directly through the viewfinder, and with no subsequent cropping or image manipulation.

More recently, Ani has broadened the scope of her exhibitions in Second Life to incorporate images taken in-world, and this is very much demonstrated with the portfolio of images she has on display in the Gallery’s lower level. Featuring two dozen images, it is an engaging selection that might be broadly split between landscape images and others more reflective of the art that can be found in Second Life.

In this latter regard, Ani is particularly drawn to the mesh sculptures of Mistero Hifeng, with five of the images representing his work. As an admirer of Mistero’s art, I can understand the attraction: his pieces always encompass a depth of narrative and powerful sense of emotion, and through her framing and composition, Ani adds to both as she presents pieces to be found on Mistero’s own region in a manner that invites further emotional and narrative translation.

Also evident in this particular exhibition is a talent for considered post-processing – something Ani avoids within her real life photography, as noted above. Here, she offers a lightness of touch and eye for balance and tone to present her work in a variety of finishes: watercolour and pen-and-ink; colour and monochrome. In doing so, she adds further depth to an engaging exhibition.

Located on the upper level of the gallery is an display of Second Life photography by Jeremynl. This is largely focused on avatar studies, which can perhaps be split into three groups: those featuring Jeremy on his own, those modelled by Dianna, and those featuring Jeremy and Dianna together. Sitting a little incongruously but nevertheless captivatingly among these are two pieces, each entitled Tree of Life Painting and which, I must confess, particularly held my attention due to the richness of expression each holds.

Which is not to say Jeremy’s portraiture fails to captivate; far from it. There are stories to be found within his studies, sometimes suggested by their titles – as with Tougher Than the Rest and I will be right here waiting for you, but more often simply by the image itself (particularly as some pieces appear to have all ended up with the same title).

I do confess to being more drawn to the images of Jeremy himself; no disrespect to Dianna (or indeed to Jeremy and Dianna where they appear together), but there is a more natural, less intentionally posed look and feel to several of those of Jeremy on his own – again, take the two pieces noted above, together with Playing and Who’s Got a Lighter?  – that offer an open invitation to frame a story around them.

Both of these exhibitions make for an engaging visit, and Jeremy’s work will remain on display at Ani’s gallery through until October 30th, 2019.

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• Ani’s Gallery (West Grove, rated Moderate)

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.

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• 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)