Category: Art in Second Life

The Edge, the fashion division of Kultivate Magazine, is celebrating it’s one year anniversary between November 11th to 30th, As a part of the celebrations, Haveit Neox has been commissioned to design and build a special, one-of-a-kind artistic runway, bringing together art and fashion.

Entitled Baroque Dreams, the installation serves a dual role, both as an art installation, which will formally open at 16:00 SLT on Sunday, November 13th, with a live performance by Dimivan Ludwig, and as the setting for a special The Edge anniversary fashion show featuring the designs of Lyrical Bizarre, which will take place between 14:00 and 15:00 SLT on Sunday, November 13th. Thereafter, the installation will remain open to visitors for a period of a week.

Baroque Dreams takes visitors to one of the fashion capitals of Italy and the world: Venice. On arriving, visitors walk between two tall figures and into what might be a portion of the Grand Canal; gondolas lay moored on the water, and buildings rise on three sides. A set of stepping-stones mark the way to where the runway rises from the water, arched like a canal bridge before it splits and loops  around audience seating. From there it climbs towards a set of fountains – another Venetian landmark, to where a huge Fashion Queen rises as if toy oversea proceedings, her headgear and dress suggestive of St. Marks Basilica.

Within this are many of Haveit’s hallmarks: a rich use of colour, sculpted centaurs, proud ships – also indicative of Venice’s history as a centre of commerce and seaborne trade. While around everything, the tall buildings of Venice rise.

Compact and yet with a grand sense of scale, Baroque Dreams is a unique installation, ideally suited to embodying The Edge’s aim to bring together art and fashion. Congratulations to all Eles, John and all at The Edge on this first anniversary.

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Baroque Dreams (Water Haven, rated: Moderate)

Second Life is a powerful medium for machinima. It caters for everything from promo videos for events, stores, and activities through to music videos, or showcasing region builds and role-play locations, etc., through to offering the perfect medium for telling narrative series and short films.

One of the great masters of machinima in Second Life is the award-winning Tutsy Navarathna. At the MetaLES art region, curated by Ux Hax and Romy Nayar (and reached via teleport from the landing point), he is presenting a special retrospective of his work.

Tout Est Allumé (“everything is lit”) is a festival of 16 of Tutsy’s films  – including the award-winning The Residents and Metaphore. The films are being shown together with 19 of his animated shorts, and a series of 3D art pieces by Yoon (Toyono) and Romy Nayar.

It’s a machinima tour de force, one which ideally requires more than one visit in order to capture everything, particularly given the display environment itself requires a little exploration. However, the effort is mote than worth it; Tutsy’s mastery of the medium and his gift for storytelling are both outstanding and guaranteed to capture your eye and mind.

There is just one slight technical point to note: it is recommended that the films are watched using QuickTime. However, QuickTime is no longer supported on Windows, leaving it with some potential security vulnerabilities. So, if you are a Windows user, and your viewer can’t play the videos at MetaLES, it might be preferable for you to swap to the current official viewer rather than installing QuickTime. This uses the VLC media plug-in, which will play the videos without issue (TPVs are in the process of swapping to VLC or GStreamer for Windows media support as well).

But this aside, Tout Est Allumé is an outstanding opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of one of SL’s more visionary and creative visual storytellers. Just catch The Residents, from 2013, below, to get a flavour of his work and then hop on over to MetaLES to see the rest.

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Tout Est Allumé (MetaLES, rated Moderate)

Now open at Dathúil Gallery, curated by Max Butoh and Lυcy (LucyDiam0nd), is a display of art by Mi (Kissmi), entitled Overviews. In some ways, it’s a curious exhibit, comprising 20 very large format pieces, together with an assortment of posters and 3D items. However, as one spends time within it, so the artist’s approach falls into place.

“To make and exhibition is much more than to show my images,” Mi says of the display. “It is also to have a project, to think about it, to build it, to share with others and it making sense.
Every look on our work is a particular look, and obviously interesting. I don’t pretend to be an artist, I am just a sensitive person who likes to create images. My exhibition at Dathúil is named Overviews because it is a panel of pictures showing abstracts and more realistic topics.”

The more abstract pieces Mi refers to can be seen on the mezzanine level of the gallery, where current installations by Livio Korobose (The joy Formidable) and Boefje (Bufje) (Ephemeral) are represented with six impressions by MI apiece. The bold colours used within these images offer a striking contrast to, and interpretation of, the two exhibits which inspired them – something I found to be particularly true with the images of Ephemeral, which is otherwise a predominantly white installation.

It is also with regards to these two installations Mi used as her inspiration, that some of the additional elements within the exhibition space align. The two large paper aeroplanes by Livio, for example, point our attention to Mi’s interpretations of his exhibit, in which paper aeroplanes also appear. Similarly, the ladders, which can again be found within The Joy Formidable, present visitors with perches from which they can further appreciate the art. Meanwhile, the small field of flowers and the figurine placed before the images of Ephemeral stand as a physical link to that installation.

However, I confess to finding these sets of images somewhat overpowering – possibly in part due to their enormous size – they are by far the largest I’ve seen displayed at Dathúil, the layout of which perhaps isn’t the best for gaining a broader perspective of such enormous pieces. Instead, I found myself drawn more to the five images displayed on the ground floor of the gallery.

Equally large format, these benefit from being presented in a more enclosed space, thanks to the mezzanine area above. This gives them a more intimate presentation, which is ideally suited to their subject matter. All five, together with an additional pair of images on the mezzanine over the gallery’s entrance, offer scenes of a personal nature; moments of contemplation, reflection, and more, caught in a flick of frozen time, each as evocative as the name it has been given.

This is another exhibition where more than a casual glance is required; the images offered, upper and lower levels offer such diverse approaches in style and content, that Overviews could be taken to be two exhibitions in one, each offering a glimpse into Mi’s approach as a photographer and – despite her claim otherwise – an artist.

Overviews will remain open through until the end of November 2016.

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• Dathúil Gallery (Rated: Adult)

Softie Gallery, a part of the Black Label Exhibitions corner opened its doors on Saturday, November 5th with an ensemble exhibition featuring artists from across Second Life – including two who have not previously shown their own in-world in public before.

Organised by Storie’s Helendale (GlitterPrincess Destiny), Kristine Blackadder and AnnaFrancesca Helendale (AnnaFrancesca Kira), building on an idea by Storie’s, the three storey gallery space features work by Aldiladeisogni, Astralia, Bryn Oh, Catt Scorpio (cattivella), Cica Ghost, Ciottolina Zue, Eleseren Brianna, John Brianna (Johnannes 1977 Resident), Enrico Yamden, Judy Barton (mitla) LeMelonRouge Lil (Lilarya), Magda Schmidtzau, Mistero Hifeng, Poala Mills, Seersha Heart, Terrygold, Vangogh Rembranch and Stories herself. Joining them, and showing their art in-world in public for the first time, are Blip Mumfuzz and  MM Mysterr).

“I am excited because this gallery was empty so long a time,” Storie’s told me ahead of the opening as she gave me a preview of the exhibition. “I was honoured when so many artists said they would exhibit here, so now the gallery can live and breathe again!”

The gallery space is presented in black, offering a strong contrast to the 3D and 2D art on display. The latter leans strongly towards avatar studies in a range of complimentary styles: colour, monochrone, photo and painting; together with sculptures, real life art, one or two landscapes, to more abstract-like pieces, and real world,  all of which, combined with the 3D from four artists I greatly admire, makes for a fascinating mix of styles and presentation.

I understand the gallery is a permanent exhibit space for the artists, although they are going to be encouraged to rotate the art they place on display there.  Art installations focused on specific artists and / or ideas will continue to take place up in the air above the region. As such, I look forward to seeing how the various displays evolve over time.

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• Softie Galley (Eternal Possession, rated:  Moderate)