Category: Art in Second Life

Loss and life in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: How Isolde Got Lost

Opening on October 25th, 2018 at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is How Isolde Got Lost, by Arete of Cyrene (AretevanCyrene). It is a complex piece, a story in 14 part;, a story in images dealing with the complex subject of love, loss and healing.

Narrative in art is not unusual; I’ve often referenced it when writing about exhibitions in these pages. But with this particular exhibition, the story is presented through the chronological order in which the pieces are presented, the start indicated by the sign The Story Begins Here, located on one of the inside walls of the gallery space, then progressing from there in a clockwise direction.

As Arete states in her liner notes, mourning is a deeply personal experience, influenced by a number of factors: our closeness to the lost one; their place within our circle of family and friends and how they react to the loss; religious and social factors, and so on. In her book On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross outlined what she saw as the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. A sixth was later added, in the form of shock, preceding the other five. But as Arete also notes from her own experience the stages of loss can be more complex and can extend beyond just six stages.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: How Isolde Got Lost

In particular, the images here have not only been specifically created for the exhibition, they chart Arete’s on experience with loss (one of which also touches on Dido’s story, notably in She Found a New Home….). Nevertheless, the story here in one that is going to resonate with anyone who has suffered loss and grief.  Through them, we travel not only through the six acknowledged stages of grief, but also through the situations and actions that can both move us through them – or return us to one of them.

In this, Arete presents a simple, but forgotten fact of mourning: by labelling loss in terms of 6 “stages”, we tend to look at them as a linear progression: a series of steps from shock to acceptance by way of the other stages, all neatly in order. But the reality is, beyond shock, while we may well initially travel through the remaining stages in the order they are offered, we might also travel back to different stages of grieving. This can be as a result of a number of factors; perhaps as a result of finally packing possessions away, or clearing a closet of clothes that will no longer be worn, or simply witnessing something unexpected through the course of everyday life.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: How Isolde Got Lost

The healing process can also be found within the images, the return to “everyday” life; the support of family and friends; the taking up of new activities and filling the void as best we can. Given the personal nature of the images, and the nature of loss, singling out individual pieces in the series isn’t easy. However, it is the smaller, personal aspects of the story – such as Boxes – or the need to talk to the one now gone (which can be a vital part of the healing process: acknowledging that while a loved one might be physically gone, we can still keep them with us through memory as an integral part of us), that particularly struck a chord with me.

Love, listen.

To understand death, she so often talked with him to find spiritual acceptance.

Her words send to address unknown:

“Love listen, I must go on…but when I laugh, I feel guilty. When I forget you in a moment, I feel guilty. Please, try to understand, I love you and miss you so much but I have to let go of that guilt. Love listen, walk with me each day and we make that day together. Sleep with me each dark hour and share my dreams till we walk on the same soil.”

– Arete of Cyrene, How Isolde Got Lost

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: How Isolde Got Lost

There is more here as well; the images are not only unique to this story and exhibition, they are wonderfully constructed in 3D. To see the intricate layering of this, I recommend enabling Advanced Lighting Model and setting graphics to at least High. Also, do make note that the story can also be followed through a website created by Arete, and accessed by clicking the first image in the series for a link.

An exhibition of enormous depth and message, How Isolde Got Lost is a must see. And please note that while individual image are available for sale, all proceeds will go to The Catboat in Amsterdam, the only animal sanctuary that literally floats, sited on a canal. A tip jar for the charity is also available in the gallery.

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Blip Mumfuzz at Black Label in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Blip Mumfuzz: Photographs

Now open at the Black Label gallery is a new exhibition of art by Blip Mumfuzz.  Located in a sky gallery area reached via teleport from the gallery’s landing point, the exhibition can be found both indoors and out, within a large warehouse-like building in keeping with the gallery’s ground level facilities, on its outside walls and across the street. Also note that one of the “backdrops” to the setting is also one of Blip’s pieces.

Blip’s photography started as a means of recording her travels through Second Life in order to help her revisit them through memory. However, as she states in her liner notes for the exhibition, the focus of Blip’s images gradually shifted from capturing settings to capturing individual scenes or objects. In doing so, she started looking at potential subject from a variety of angles – and even as spaces between them to discover the stories they might offer.

Blip Mumfuzz: Photographs

I found that once I found saw something interesting I’d start moving the camera around. Looking over and under, behind and between. I began looking less at the things themselves…but at the visual and spatial relationships between things.

I am an improviser by nature…in life and in my art. My images are typically the result of an unplanned, spontaneous interaction with my environment. Some of the images in this exhibit, however, are more narrative.

– Blip Mumfuzz discussing her art

Blip Mumfuzz: Photographs

All of this is reflected throughout this exhibition, which Blip has opted to simply call Photographs.  Several are what might be called “conventional” images of places Blip has been: Ashemi Reprise, Keleland, Takeuti Town; while others are beautiful abstraction on locations, such as Kekeland Abstract 9, The Last Forever, BL Abstract and Drapes, to name but three.

It is these latter style of image, coupled with Blip’s vibrant use of colour, that perhaps tend to grab the observer’s attention, drawing the eye into them through the richness of colour and unusual perspective.  These show their location through an unusual perspective or offer a remarkable perception of space through their panoramic presentation, marking them as attention-taking pieces. However, among the bright paintings are a number that are more muted, their softer tones contrasting strongly with the bolder pieces. This gives the exhibition an added layering of effect; it is as if the brighter images are the loud extroverts at a gathering, demanding their presence is witnessed and their story heard. Meanwhile the softer toned images scattered among them come across as the introverts; they try to pass unnoticed, content to allow the other make all the noise – but their story is no less compelling when heard.

Blip Mumfuzz: Photographs

I’m not actually clear on when the exhibition closes; I assume it will be around mid-November, given it opened on October 13th. However, I do recommend taking the time to see it before then.

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Blip Mumfuzz at Black Label Gallery (Eternal Posession, rated; Moderate)

Jules at the new Artful Expressions gallery

Posted on by Inara Pey
Artful Expressions

Artful Expressions, the boutique gallery curated by Sorcha Tyles, made its return to Second Life, with a new skyborne location and an exhibition of monochrome photography by Jules (GiulianaNicol).

The new gallery is offered on a rocky platform surrounded by just enough foliage to suggest a garden / woodland setting, giving it a pleasant outlook through the large windows and open front door (the latter guarded by an owl to prevent people walking outside and slipping off the edge of the rock). A little smaller than previous iterations of Artful Expressions, the gallery offers a cosy, warm space for exhibiting art and as a place where art lovers can hang out and make use of the corner coffee bar.

Artful Expressions: Jules

For her exhibition, Jules presents a set of six self-portraits, each of which offers a life study and a broader narrative into which it can be framed. Each is powerful in both presentation and the story to be found within it, perhaps made that much stronger through the use of a monochrome finish.

The narrative for each piece is suggested through both the image and its title – and I do recommend looking at each of these pieces both independently of their titles – that is, before taking a peep via Edit – and after. Doing so can often result each perhaps has two stories within it – one shaped by first seeing it, the second by the title itself; making a visit double the viewing pleasure.

Artful Expressions: Jules

A small, intimate exhibition of some genuinely engaging and imagination-stirring art marks the welcome return of a boutique gallery that has been missed these last few months.  It will remain open through until the end of November 2018.

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Artful Expressions (Niaoupolis, rated: Adult)

DiXmiX: CapCat and Meiló

Posted on by Inara Pey
DiXmiX Gallery: CapCat Ragu

Saturday, October 20th saw the opening of a new joint exhibition by CapCat Ragu and Meiló (meilo Minotaur) at DiXmiX Gallery – “joint” because not only are the two sharing the exhibition, they are also close friends in-world. A further connection between them is there respective exhibits share something of a related surrealist / post-modern surrealist lean that offers a subtext on identity.

CaPCat’s exhibition reside in the gallery’s Black Gallery hall on the lower floor. Entitled Fading, it presents a progressive series of images of an avatar’s head and shoulders, each labelled simply as “fading” with a number. Starting with Fading #1, with what appears to be a slightly out-of-focus study, they offer increasingly overlaid images in which the subject’s features are increasingly offset and overlaid, increasingly more detached from one another to become almost collage-like in form.

DiXmiX Gallery: CapCat Ragu

By presenting multiple, overlaid images, each picture raises questions of who we really are: we offer so many faces to the world – even to each other, no matter how well was know one another – that who we really are becomes blurred and distorted; the different versions of self overlaying one another, something almost combining, other times trying to become separate.

Within the gallery, the pieces have apparently been deliberately arranged out-of-sequence, suggesting the order isn’t so important as the commentary each individual piece makes on identity / the nature of self. However, I admit to finding following them in ascending order from Fading #1, gave the pieces an added narrative.

DiXmiX Gallery: Meiló

Located in the White Gallery hall on the mezzanine level, Meiló presents Stranger in a Strange Land, a series of intriguing paintings – self-portraits? –  each bright with colour. They depict an almost albino-like figure making her way through scenes and settings, mostly alone, but sometimes in the company of another – although she tends to always be the focus of the pictures.

Incorporating a blurred, hazy quality, the paintings have a similar surreal edge to them as the photos in the hall below. This not only causes the viewer to focus on the main subject, but also highlights the idea of travelling through a strange land: a world defined less by shape and form and more by colour. In doing so, they again seem to suggest a questioning of self: who we are within the world through which we travel, and what our place might be within that world. In this the albino-like presentation of the main figure adds to the questions raised, perhaps causing us to question who we are within this world – physical or digital.

DiXmiX Gallery: Meiló

When taken individually or as linked collections, Fading and Stranger in a Strange Land present thought-provoking exhibitions, something a little different for DiXmiX, but also something worth visiting and evaluation for yourself.

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The artful collages of Janine Portal in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lin C Art Gallery: Janine Portal – two perspectives, one image, The Twilight Zone 2

Now open at the Lin C Art Gallery, curated by Lin Carlucci, is an exhibition of art by Janine Portal. Untitled, it is a fascinating display of art perhaps not often seen in Second Life, utilising animations and prims to present remarkable collage pieces with a surrealist edge that are quite captivating to see.

At first glance 2D art, Janine’s work is actually more complex than a flat prim canvas. By layering elements together and using animations, she creates pieces that not only incorporate motion (something often seen in 2D art in SL) but which can also offer changing perspectives and one cams over them.

Lin C Art Gallery: Janine Portal

I’m a first life artist, but I’ve also been making art in Second Life for a few years now. Visual effects that I could only dream about on paint and canvas can be realized here in prims and textures and, for that, I’m grateful. Sometimes I use my own images in my work, but I nearly always add found images, most of them in the public domain. This sort of visual collage seems to me to be very similar to the musical practice of “sampling.” I find a bit of this here, a bit of that, there, add unique elements and then weave and layer what I have into a new and pleasing whole.

– Janine Portal on her art.

The result is some of the most unusual art and effects I’ve seen in Second Life for a while, each piece offering an unexpected view of what might otherwise appear to be and ordinary scene or photo, or presenting a melding of ideas and / or narrative that is quite engaging.

To fully appreciate Janinie’s work, it is essential a couple of recommendations she offers are followed. firstly, set your local environment to CalWL, if possible. Secondly, rather than standing still when looking at her images, gently cam or tilt from side to side to witness the changing collage / effects, even with the pieces that already appear to be animated. If you have a flycam capability using a Space Navigator or joystick, this is really idea to witnessing the changing face of the images.

Lin C Art Gallery: Janine Portal

I could wibble on about the pieces presented in this exhibition, but really, this is art that should be seen to be fully appreciated, simply because of the way in which it has been created and presents itself to the eye. What I will say is that as well as the mobile elements of the art, there is a marvellous blending of styles and ideas, with some images incorporating layers photographs, others offering almost cartoon elements and still others built from what might be almost classically styled paintings, all of which adds further depth to an already intriguing exhibition.

However, the best way to appreciate Janine’s art is to see it first-hand, so I’m going to suggest that you hope along to the Lin C Art Gallery between now and November 13th, 2018 and have a look for yourself.

Lin C Art Gallery: Janine Portal

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Ani’s Art by Nature in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Art By Nature

Art By Nature is the name Ani (Anibrm Jung) uses for her physical world photography presented through Second Life. I’ve covered her work in the past (see here and here), as I’ve always found it a stunning tour-de-force of photography sans the need for post-processing; and I’m happy to be able to say that she has returned once again to hosting her own gallery space in-world, this time located on the mainland region of Gimchi.

Based in the Netherlands, Ani is an award-winning photographer who has been active in Second Life since 2006. She  specialises in photographing nature – hence Art by Nature – and captures many of her images in her own garden using only her camera and natural light. Everything is framed directly through the viewfinder, and no cropping nor image manipulation is used after the fact. In this way, we are able to see each picture exactly as she did when taking it, allowing us to share her own sense of closeness with her subjects.

Art By Nature

The result of this are images that are completely captivating in their depth and presentation, which Ani rightly displays in-world in a large format (although I believe her work is resizeable post-purchase). Split across two floors, her new gallery presents pieces that combine her marvellous work with the macro lens with her broader landscape work, offering the visitor a rich mix of her art.

Broadly speaking, the ground floor focuses on Ani’s landscape work and features some truly stunning photos of sunrises and sunsets, the majority making beautiful use of water and light to produce genuinely wonderful images. On the upper floor, the focus is towards Ani’s macro work – and this really has to be seen to be fully appreciated. It is in her close-up images of flowers and Ani captures the majesty of nature we can all too easily take for granted when captivated by the broader scenes of the world that nature presents to us.

Art By Nature

From the delicate touch of a bee collecting pollen through to the beauty of trees and contrails caught against a sunset to the playful delight of a cat, there is so much here to capture the eye, making a visit more than worthwhile.

All of the images displayed are available to buy, and if you do visit the gallery, please consider a donation towards its upkeep.

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