Category: Art in Second Life

Currently on display at the Kondor Art Club is a richly engaging exhibition of images captured by Bee (Filipa Emor) paired with words (mostly) written by Anaïs Nin. Entitled Anaïs Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life, it’s both a highly personal exhibition, forming a tribute to Anaïs and her writings from someone who admires her work, and t the same time an approachable and artistic means of introducing those less familiar with her life, her writing and her influence to all three.

Born in France in early 1903 to Cuban parents, Anaïs Nin is hailed by many as one of the finest writers of female erotica. She was one of the first women known to explore fully the realm of erotic writing, and certainly the first prominent woman in the modern West known to write erotica. Her work in this regard is both rich and deeply complex; she first became aware of erotica literature in the 1920s or 1930s, after she, her first husband, Hugh Parker Guiler and her family moved to Paris in 1924, and her fascination with it grew from there via interests in psychoanalysis, her own emerging sexuality and her explorations of self.

One by one, I read these books, which were completely new to me. I had never read erotic literature in America… They overwhelmed me. I was innocent before I read them, but by the time I had read them all, there was nothing I did not know about sexual exploits… I had my degree in erotic lore.

– The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume 1 (1931-1934)

In truth, Nin’s life was complex – she never divorced her first husband, but this did not stop her from marrying again in 1955, this time to actor Rupert Pole (later annulled in 1966 as a result of – essentially – tax complications!), and throughout her life she had multiple affairs and relationships.

Of the latter, the one that influenced her life to the greatest was with American novelist, short story writer and essayist Henry Miller. What started as a friendship grew into a deeply passionate and complex relationship which influenced both Nin’s sexuality and her writing. Nin was also an avid diarist throughout her life, recording her thoughts and feelings daily, reflecting on her growth as a woman, on her sexuality, on her loves and desires.

This desire to give expression spilled over into her relationship with Miller, the two of them sharing intimate thoughts in prose as well as engaging on a heated affair whilst Miller’s wife June (to whom Nin had initially been drawn) was away. Within Anaïs Nin – Feelings, Love, Passion, Life, Bee offers a series of black and white images encapsulating a sense of erotica whilst also offering to illustration Nin’s thoughts, feelings and – as one travels on through the exhibition – her desires for Miller.

Presented with a passage from one of the volumes of Nin’s collected journals or later publications which drew together her writings that focused on Miller and his wife), the images are a marvellous reflection of Nin’s thoughts and emotions, her feelings towards Miller (and also his towards her).

In this, the exhibition appears to be progressive in nature, with the images and texts starting on the left side of entrance to the hall and then proceeding around the inner and outer walls, gradually progressing from Nin’s inner thoughts through to her thoughts on, and exchanges with, Miller (with the images also shifting from singular pieces to those involving couples). Thus Bee weaves a visual journal, if you will reflecting Nin’s thoughts in an intimate and engaging manner.

All told, an emotive, poignant and visually captivating exhibition.

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Club, Kondor Art Centre (Royal Tea, rated Adult)

It’s All Blinn-Phong to Me! is a new and relatively light-hearted art exhibition by EtaMae (Etamae) and being hosted at Akiko Kinoshi (A Kiko) at her Akijima arts region with her Akipelago chain of Islands.

For those who may not be familiar with the term, Blinn-Phong is a reflection / shading model which, in terms of Second Life has been the mechanism by which materials and their reflectivity worked exclusively prior to the arrival of glTF / PBR in SL (and indeed, still work – they haven’t gone away with the arrival of PBR).

While Blinn-Phong is the correct name for this type of shading / reflection model, the fact is that for many, it is another odd term being ushered in alongside a tonne of others as glTF makes its presence felt in Second Life. There’s glTF and PBR themselves, together with metallic roughness, base colour, emissive, transmission, index of reflection, and so on. All of which can start to sound like a foreign language and seem quite frightening when really all they signify is an effort to bring SL graphically and technologically in line with modern rendering engines and the toolsets and standards used in content creation.

And that’s something of the “message” behind this art exhibition: don’t worry about all the terms; they are either just new ways of expressing what you’ve been doing all this time, or indicating there are new ways of doing things you’re always done, whilst offering new little tweaks you can make to things.

On offer are a series of beautifully abstract pieces by Eta, 15 in a larger format, created using Blinn-Phong materials and seven smaller pieces (including the one at one of the entrances to the gallery space) created using PBR materials. Each set incorporates subtle animations, and both look very similar – emphasising the fact that whether you call them Blinn-Phong, PBR or just “materials”, nothing has changed in terms of what the finished results can be – or might be; we can still build and create and display – and have a few new treats to boot, such as the mirror elements Eta has added to her PBR art (and which could have been as easily built using Blinn-Phong materials).

It’s an elegant, simple statement; as Eta notes: it’s not profound, it’s not deep – but it it is illustrative. Just because the terms are new and the technology is changing, there’s no need to be frightened or object to what’s going on. SL is still a place where we can express ourselves (physically and artfully). So just chill, have fun – and enjoy!

SLurl Details

• It’s All Blinn-Phong to Me! (Akijima, rated Moderate)

I recently returned to Venus by the Water, the Homestead region created by Elizabeth (ElizabethNantes) and Cecilia Nansen, a place I first visited in April (see: A Venus by the Water in Second Life). My reason for this visit was to see the latest exhibition at Gallery Bjork, featuring the work of Angelika Corral.

Angelika is for some perhaps best known for her time operating the DaphneArts centre alongside of Sheldon Bergman (SheldonBR). For the length of its run in Second Life,  DaphneArts was one of the foremost galleries in presenting persistently engaging exhibitions and installations, a gallery I always enjoyed visiting. However, Angelika is a photographer-artist with a gifted eyed and the ability to tell a story – even a life – of emotion and spirit within the single frame of an image.

Within I Am A Woman, she presents a dozen images (I’ll come to the final two in the collection further into this article) focused on the female form. Presented in black and white – the medium Angelika prefers to utilise for her photography, these are images intend to speak to the beauty of the female form, yes; but not necessarily the beauty that is seen from without – although that is very evident through all of the pieces through look, pose, poise, framing, focus, etc. Rather, the beauty being celebrated here is that with lays within: the beauty of strength and grace women demonstrate in a world which has too long been biased more towards the male gender.

Across the globe many women and girls still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. Gender inequality underpins many problems which affect women and girls, such as lower pay at work, lack of access to education, domestic and sexual violence. Women are roughly four times as likely as men to say they have been treated as if they were not competent because of their gender.

– Angelika Corral, I Am A Woman

However, to assume from the above that this is some form of “political” treatise on the “unfairness” of life when it comes to gender – it is not (although were it to be so would not lessen its message in any way given what is going on right now in many parts of the world – including the the United States, albeit not solely aimed at those of us of the female gender). Instead, within I am Woman Angelika offers up reminders of who we area as women; creates really not that different to the male of the species: creates of love, hope, strength, vulnerability; people who can love, thinking, create, manage, and excel.

Women artists have used photography as a tool of resistance. Self-portraiture has always been a tool of empowerment for women. The exhibition is dedicated to the “divine feminine” and intends to celebrate women’s power and grace.

– Angelika Corral, I Am A Woman

Each of the twelve primary images carries with it a reminder of the beauty, grace and strength to be found in a woman. Sometimes identifying all three is easy, in others, it is more nuanced. In this latter regard, I found The Flower particularly powerful, with its subtle references to natural beauty (the flower held in one hand, the naked back), and the clear references to fertility, and the core role of women as the mothers of all humankind and the truth that, without us, there would be no humankind.

Which brings me to the final two images within this collection, which sit within the gallery’s smallest room. Presented as a pair one male (the only such male image within the collection) and one female. They are entitled Gemini Male and Gemini Female, and serve to underscore the the fact that, when all is said and done, not only are men and women really not that dissimilar, the vast majority of the so-called differences we encounter in life: inequality, discrimination, perceptions of value / worth / competency, are as much artificial constructs as the garments in which we clothe ourselves. In this these final two images also underscore the question Angelika poses throughout this exhibition, once again asking visitors (of any gender) to contemplate it further:

Don’t we all want to find new ways to live in a fair and just society, in a world of equity and equality?

– Angelika Corral, I Am A Woman

Powerful and evocative, an exhibition of beautiful artistry and powerful reflections. When visiting, do be sure, as well, to read Angelika’s dedication to her daughter – ad the all daughters of the world.

SLurl Details

• Gallery Bjork (Golden Island, rated Adult)