Category: Art in Second Life

Now open at MetaLES, curated by Ux Hax and Romy Nayar, is OpeRaAxiEty,  by JadeYu Fang. Reached via teleport from the landing point, it presents a haunting mix of ideas and images  intended to play on our anxieties – albeit at times in the most subtle of ways (make sure you have local sounds enabled when visiting).

A misty landscape awaits visitors, across which web-like lines faintly ebb and flow and the air throbs with a steady beat, warping at times into the high-pitched beep of an electrocardiogram. These combine to offer the first play on feelings of discomfort.

In the distance, a huge structure glimmers its way into the sky, figures limned against its glow while darker shapes sit on the horizon. Closer to hand, a hill rises from the surroundings, crowned by twin human torsos atop stilt-like legs, each holding a sphere in which two more figures, back-to-back, stand surrounded by eggs as large, blood-red spiders sit on their abdomens as if about to suckle. Apparently genuflecting before this scene on the slope of the hill, is a crystal Arachne (as perhaps popularised more by fantasy than mythology).

A web forms a bridge from these figures to the floating crystalline structure, its arches and general form suggesting a temple. Here, green female figures fade and form as one cams around them, bright trails of light curling and twisting around their bodies, kneel in a circle as a black arachnid female offers up eggs to a female human. Above all of this, watching, sits another crystal Arachne.

Elsewhere, human figures lie wrapped in webs, tended by more arachnids, while before the glimmering, cathedral-like structure stand three android torsos raised on great plinths. Within the arches (vaults?) of the “cathedral” white human forms float over their barbed wire doppelgängers. Flanking this, on either side, are two groups of plinth-mounted female forms, heads encased in televisions sets / computer CRTs.

With the ebb and flow of the webs on the ground at this point giving way to flickering data displays (which also form the walls of the cathedral), and data wrapping itself through the misty air, OpeRaAnxiEty offers an ethereal, fascinating environment. But what might it all mean? The artist offers few clues; it is for us to create our own narrative.

To me, the arachnids are a metaphor – albeit perhaps a multi-faceted one. There is the obvious spider-as-phobia element. Many of us are put on edge on seeing spiders, and it would seem that is the intent here. But it is also true that we are by nature complex creatures;  we weave and create so much that often it can ensnare us or confuse us – hence the webs. This idea is also perhaps manifested in the armless figures with their heads encased by screens: they are helpless to prevent their total immersion in a media-driven overload of information which creates is own reality around them.

Thus, OpeRaAnxiety might offer a warning: that the unequal blending of humanity and technology may give rise to something potentially unpleasant. Hence (again) the use of arachnids and their link to images of gestation and hatching / birth (might even the heartbeat throb in the air and the ECG be indicative for new life?).

But perhaps there is also hope here as well. Might the figures floating over their barbed wire doppelgängers within the data-walled vaults of the great “cathedral” be a metaphor representing the potential for technology to yet free us from the mortal constraints  imposed by our own bodies?

OpeRaAnxiety will remain at MetaLES  into the New Year.

SLurl Details

• OpeRaAnxiEty, MetalLES (MetaLES, rated: Moderate)

“We’re trying to show new people much of what is possible in Second Life,” Damian Zhaoying informed me. “As part of that, we want to promote art and music. We’ve already held recitals by Latin singers – Merkabah Oh, for example.”

“Art must be present in the new user experience,” Mona (MonaByte) added, “It’s an important strand of Second Life.”

We were standing in the foyer of one of two galleries spaces hosted by the Ayuda Virtual Community Gateway, which has been designed specifically for Spanish-speaking people around the world, and which is part of the Lab’s Community Gateway programme.  Both Damian and Mona are prime movers behind the project, and our conversation came about after I dropped into the region to see the art space – which is curated by Mona – after artist Storie’s Helendale (GitterprincessDestiny) pointed me towards it.

Two artists are currently on display within the galleries: LeMelonRouge (LeMelonRouge Onyett) – aka Francesc Palomas – and Desy Magic. They present very contrasting exhibitions which illustrate the breadth of 2D art potential in Second Life, whilst also touching on 3D art in-world as well.

In one, LeMelon displays BCN, LON, NYC, a selection of his physical world paintings of the cities of Barcelona, London and New York.  Presented in bold, striking colours, the paintings show street scenes, parks, public walkways and café views, their rich colouring perfectly capturing the vibrant nature of all three cities. For me, and having spent more time in them than I have Barcelona (which I’ve only visited the once 😦 ), both London and New York are instantly recognisable, and not just because of their respective taxi cabs! I’ve wandered through Camden Market often enough to instantly identify it, even without the sign, while Piccadilly Circus and Brewer Street are unmistakable, as is New York’s Times Square.

The second gallery space is exhibiting Desy’s art, which features both 2D and 3D pieces. The former are primarily avatar studies presented in a range of styles and finishes, from “straightforward” portrait style studies through nudes to abstract works. Again the use of colour is vivid and striking, with the images amply demonstrating what can be achieved when using SL as a medium for artistic creativity. Also on display are a number of 3D works, at least two of which are prim-based, with all of them further demonstrating the versatility of the platform for creating / displaying sculpture-based art.

Including art within a Community Gateway is a welcome idea, and I was pleased to hear from Damian and Mona that Ayuda Virtual consider art – visual and performance – as an important aspect of Second life which should be showcased to new users. Which should not be taken to mean the Ayuda gallery spaces and these two exhibitions are intended just for new users coming into SL through the gateway. Both are richly expressive, are open to visit by anyone – and are worth taking the time to see.

I’ll be covering more on Ayuda Virtual at a future date, as there is a lot to see within the region.

SLurl Details

Ayuda Virtual Galleries (Ayuda Virtual, rated: General)

In July 2016, Giovanna Cerise invited me to explore The Lost Harbour, her (then) new gallery space in Second Life, shortly before it opened to the public (see here). Occupying the north-east corner of a region, it’s a superb open-air exhibit space, and Giovanna recently extended it with the introduction of a new skyborne section, which can be reached via an Anywhere Door at The Last Harbour’s landing point  (just follow the arrows on the floor to the door), or alternatively, you can teleport directly to it.

The extension continues the theme found at the gallery’s ground level, offering a series of platforms on which elements and reproductions of Giovanna’s 3D installations are displayed, with her 2D work occupying panelled wall sections mirroring some of the floor areas on the ground level.

Of particular note to me on my arrival were two scale reproductions of elements from Giovonna’s Monochrome (open until the end of December 2016 and which I reviewed here), and her Ice Castle, which recently formed a part of her display at Holly Kai Park (see here). All of the pieces are offered for sale to the collector, and included a scripted resizer.

As a long-time admirer of Giovanna’s work, I can only say that the sky platform is a superb extension to The Last Harbour, offering an excellent reason for a re-visit  – or for those who have not taken the opportunity to drop in, to have twice the reason to jump over and enjoy Giovanna’s art.

SLurl Details

• The Last Harbour (Southern Marcel, rated: Moderate)
• The Last Harbour sky gallery direct