Category: Art in Second Life

Opening November’s Art at the Park in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Art at the Park, November 2016
Art at the Park, November 2016

The November 2016 Art at the Park exhibition opens at Holly Kai Park on October 29th, 2016 and runs through until November 27th.

For this exhibition, we are both pleased and privileged to be featuring the work of five more talented artists, who between them offer a rich diversity of art and styles. They are: Sheba Blitz, Maxi Daviau, Skinnynilla, Terrygold and Sorcha Tyles.

The exhibition will formally open on Saturday, October 29th at 12:00 noon SLT, with a live performance by Winston Ackland, making his first appearance at the park, with music streamed from 1:00pm onwards. Formal attire is requested for the opening.

We look forward to welcoming you to Holly Kai Park and our November exhibition, and hope you’ll join us for the opening event on Saturday, October 29th!

About the Artists

Sheba Blitz

Sheba Blitz
Sheba Blitz

Sheba Blitz is a SL and RL artist who exclusively paints Mandalas, and her who have captivated me since I first encountered it at Kayly Iali’s Gallery 24.

Mandalas are ancient and mystical symbols of the universe. And represent the way of the “peaceful path”. Classically in the form of a circle (the Cosmos) enclosing a square (Earthbound matter).

Sheba’s Mandalas generally contain what is called a quarternity or a multiple of four. This squaring of the circle is a common archetypal image of wholeness and order. Mandalas are perceived as sacred spaces and remind the viewer of the immanence of sanctity in the universe and its potential to themselves. Used for meditation, contemplation, healing and pure visual pleasure.

Sheba was born and lives in Australia; she has studied, explored and accumulated many Art Diplomas from different art processes over the years but always returns to her love of geometrical hand painted mandala designs in mixed media. As someone who loves mandala art, I’m elated she agreed to join us at Holly Kai Park.

Maxi Daviau and Skinnynilla

Second Life Partners Maxi Daviau and Skinnynilla are both superb second Life photographers and regions designers. The Mill, their homestead region is a delight to visit, and their Flickr streams completely absorbing.

Maxi Daviau and Skinnynilla
Maxi Daviau and Skinnynilla

“I have always loved and been amazed at the creativity in this virtual world. Exploring and taking pictures has always been my main hobby in Second Life,” Maxi says of her in-world time. “I love to see what all the residents create here,” Skinnynilla – show also goes by the sobriquet Shakespeare – adds.

Between them, they produce stunning landscape images that capture the very soul of the regions they visit, as well as producing incredible and intimate avatar studies. It is an absolute delight to have them exhibiting side by side at Holly Kai park.

Terrygold

terrygold
Terrygold

“I do not like to say I am an artist,” says Terrygold of her work. “In my spare time I make photos in which at time, a quick idea – like a flash – is a starting point. I develop the idea, and the trip begins.”

It’s a disarming statement, made in all genuine modesty, by a true talent within Second Life. Terry’s work, which I’ve covered on numerous occasions in my own blog, is never anything less than utterly captivating in form, style and presentation.

Rich in narrative, unique in approach, Terry’s work is attractive, and I am genuinely thrilled to see her work on display at Holly Kai Park.

Sorcha Tyles

Sorcha Tyles
Sorcha Tyles

I confess – much to my shame – to not having encountered Sorcha’s work until Skinnynilla pointed me in the direction of her Flickr stream.

I’m glad he did.

There is a deep, personal richness to Sorcha’s work which is almost overwhelming. She regards SL photography as perhaps her biggest addiction in Second Life, and looking at her work, one can not only see why, but also catch a glimpse of Sorcha herself. Her images gracefully combine landscapes with personal studies, producing a range of art that is bewitching in its breadth and intimate in its depth.

My thanks to skinny for introducing us, and to Sorcha for being a part of Art at the Park.

Our Opening Event Musician

winston-ackland
Winston Ackland

Winston Ackland is making his first appearance at Holly Kai Park. An accomplished physical world musician, who in-world provides smiles and tapping feet with his clever original works and quirky adaptations of obscure covers. Somehow, it all makes sense as audiences relax in a comfortable atmosphere and enjoy innovative songs crafted from a blend of rock, blues, bossa nova, jazz and lounge.

In 2008, Winston’s physical and virtual lives merged when his cover of Lithium hit the big screen in 20th Century Fox Films, Marley and Me. In 2012 his cover of Psycho Killer was featured in Oliver Stone’s Savages.

Stories at the Park

In addition, this exhibition will feature a special Stories at the Park event on Saturday, November 20th from 3:00pm. Presented by Seanchai Library, Stories at the Park features readings of 100-word short stories and poems of up to 100 words, inspired by the art on display at the park, and written by some of Second Life’s top writers. The event is open for anyone who enjoys writing, and details of how to take part can be found on our Stories at the Park guidelines. Note that you do not have to read your own work if you prefer not to use Voice: Seanchai Library staff would be happy to read it for you.

SLurl Details

Giovanna’s Monochrome in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Monochrome - Giovanna Cerise
Monochrome – Giovanna Cerise

Open now through until the end of the year is Monochrome, a full region installation on three levels, designed and built by Giovanna Cerise. It’s a hard piece to quantify – if indeed it requires quantifying. Spread over its three levels, it presents three different environments / structures, offered in black, white and red respectively.

The black element is located at ground level, facing the landing point, with a teleport door providing to the next level – white – which then connects to the upper, red level. There is no specific windlight for the installation; visitors are encouraged to experiment with different times of day / settings.

Monochrome - Giovanna Cerise
Monochrome – Giovanna Cerise

Sitting over the water, the Black level presents a series of cubic and rectangular boxes rising into the sky, some interlinked and stacked like great square hills. Their walls are phantom, allowing visitors to walk  or fly through them (watch out for transparent floors when flying up!). Slender metal spars rise up around them, while string like strands loop through the air, threaded with cubes of their own.

At the centre of all this are three tall, cube-headed female figures. One stands threading a cube onto another metal-like strand, which is being fed to her by the seated and kneeling figures. One of these holds a pair of scissors, ready to cut the strand, presumably so it can also be set floating in the air once a suitable number of cubes have been threaded.

Monochrome - Giovanna Cerise
Monochrome – Giovanna Cerise

The pattern of cube-like rooms is repeated on the White level – only this time the cubes all occupy just one level, spread like a vast building across a white plain. Phantom in nature, they can again be walked through, only this time their walls can also be seen through from both sides. Once their bounds, this gives the feeling of being in some vast maze, one where many of the rooms have large magnifying glasses standing in their centres, while others are empty. Wandering through them, it is exceptionally easy to lose one’s sense of direction.

And on the upper Red level, lies a mass of red cubes, as if caught in a swirling wind lifting them into the air. At their centre is a red mass, like a congealed lump of spilled paint, on which four red figures appear caught in the same vortex, being pulled apart from the head down, their broken bodies rising and twirling together within the vortex, becoming a single strand rising into the sky, eventually to bind the spine of a huge red notebook.

Monochrome - Giovanna Cerise
Monochrome – Giovanna Cerise

All three levels offer intriguing montages. They challenge us to quantify them according to our own perception, by challenging that very perception as we study them each in turn. Is the binding of the book on the Red level really being drawn from the figures below, for example, or is it slowly unravelling from the book to fall and become those figures? And if it is, does this not alter our thinking about what is being portrayed here?

You decide.

SLurl Details

A metaphorical Tumor in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
MetaLES: Tumor
MetaLES: Tumor

“This work is my acknowledgement of greed for material things of human kind which is so powerful that it is going to cost us our own existence,” Igor Ballyhoo states of his new installation, Tumor, now open at MetaLES. “This is not [an] effort to fight it, it is not made in least hope to change anything, it is just a recording of my observation of human society at this point.”

Across a flat, misted plain – reached via teleport of the region’s skyborne landing point – strange structures rise, strange cubic conifers, denuded of branches and leaves. Underfoot, square stepping-stones of brown earth vie with an oily, sludge-like morass pulsating around them, The glowing mist hovers above this, with closer examination revealing it to be sheets of a digital grid pattern which blurs this strange, almost alien landscape into a soft focus.

MetaLES: Tumor
MetaLES: Tumor

But none of this holds the attention for long. Across the region a massive steel pylon raises multiple arms splitting and branching over and again as they reach into the sky. It stands as the embodiment of a the great metal pylons which march across many countries of the world, feeding our insatiable need for energy. Even the metal arms, rising into pincer-like pairs which seem to pluck and pull at the ball of the Sun overhead, offer a further metaphor for our energy greed.

More of these grasping metal arms and fingers can be seen overhead, stretching out from the sides of huge structures rising into the sky. Their blocky forms shimmering in the sunlight and defying the eye to pick out details, they rise one atop the last like great drilling platforms, oblivious of the strange, denuded and oozing landscape below, topped by a strange gigantic cube of cubes.

MetaLES: Tumor
MetaLES: Tumor

As a statement and as an art installation, Tumor is a powerfully visual piece, underlined by its dedication to  Georgina Hope “Gina” Rinehart, climate change sceptic and CEO of Hancock Prospecting, a company which could be said to have questionable concerns over the environmental impact of its projects. It will remain open until the end of November. At the time of writing, it overlaps lanjran Choche’s photographic exhibition, 5Y Smoking, which can also be reached via teleport from the landing point.

SLurl Details

Tumor (MetaLES, rated Moderate)

Stories at the Park: a personal review

Posted on by Inara Pey
The authors and storytellers: Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop and R. Crap Mariner
The authors and storytellers: Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop and R. Crap Mariner

On Sunday, October 16th, Holly Kai Park hosted the third in our join series Stories at the Park, run in partnership with Seanchai Library. It features stories and poems written about the art on display at each Art in the Park exhibitions read live in voice by the authors or members of Seanchai library.

Attending these sessions has always been fascinating for me. Writing is a passion, but the concept of encapsulating a story in just 100 words is something I find impossible to achieve. So, witnessing others do so and produce pieces with such incredible depth, and emotive power and range, always astonishes me.

Folk gather to hear the October Stories at the Park, October 16th, 2016
Folk gather to hear the October Stories at the Park, October 16th, 2016

Stories at the Park also offers a unique way in which the art on display at Holly Kai Park can be interpreted – through the words and eyes of others. For me, the stories and poems presented at each session never fail to open a whole new world of perception and narrative around a piece of art. And when there are two or three pieces written on the same piece, then the floodgates of thought and viewpoint are thrown wide.

The most recent event was no exception. In all, 32 stories and poems presented by the combined talents of three friends I admire very much: Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop and R. Crap Mariner. The range of style and depth of interpretation of various pieces currently on display at the park was again captivating; laughter, tears and quite contemplation flowed through the session as stories were read and poems recited.  

Gates of Melancholy; Inara Pey, June 2016, on FlickrWyeth Remembered (Gates of Melancholy) beautifully brought to life in prose by Trolley Trollop

This event was also very personal for me, given I’m exhibiting at the park; I confess to being both curious and nervous about how (and even if) any of my photos might be expressed by others. But what I heard left me amazed and stunned by the richness of interpretation; I found myself smiling, nodding, laughing in delight, and  – in the case of one piece in particular, taking a tissue to watery eyes.

Thank you, Trolley, for your wonderful interpretation of  Wyeth Remembered, it beautifully reflects the narrative I had for the piece. so much so, that I now wish I’d given it the name which first came into my head: Absence. Thank you Cale and Crap for also bringing my images to life so evocatively; you have me by turns smiling, laughing and looking afresh at my own images as I read and listen to your words.

It’s fair to say that Stories at the Park started as something of an experiment cooked up by Caledonia and myself. Having now experienced the event from both sides of the isle, so to speak – audience member and exhibiting photographer – I’m more than ever convinced that the series offers a very unique way to appreciate art in-world, and also to gain familiarity with in-world storytelling. My thanks to all the artists participating in Art at the Park and to Seanchai Library for making these events possible.

Our next session, featuring a new line-up of artists, stories and verse will be on Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 15:00 SLT; I hope you’ll mark it in your diaries and join us. In the meantime, please do hop over to the Holy Kai Blog, where you can read all of the stories and poems from October’s event, and please be sure to visit the exhibition in-world before it closes on Sunday, October 23rd, 2016.

Links Summary

A Woman in Red and Furillen Yours in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
DixMix Gallery: Woman In Red
DiXmiX Gallery: Woman In Red

Now open at DiXmiX Gallery are two new exhibitions, Woman In Red and Furillen Yours, which opened on Friday, October 14th and Sunday, October 16th, respectively.

Woman In Red is the larger of the two and occupies the White Galley within the complex. It features sixteen images by photographer Vallys Baxter. These all appear to be self-studies shot in a monochrome format, but each with a strong statement of red, be it a dress, leggings, a body harness, a full-face helmet, a hat, or other items of apparel.

DixMix Gallery: Woman In Red
DiXmiX Gallery: Woman In Red

“Red,” Vallys notes, “is my dark side.” With these images, I’d equate “dark” with “sensual / erotic” – both of which are evident in several of the images, while in a couple of them, the “dark” might be said to be literal. With nudity apparent in some of the images, this is a collection not best suited for work viewing, but the sensual power conveyed in most of them cannot be denied. This is particularly evident in pieces such as The Persuaders, Red is My Dark or  Keep Me Wild, which cast those viewing them into the role of voyeur, catching glimpses of what might be intimate moments between lovers. All told, an intriguing, graceful exhibit.

Furillen Yours occupies the entrance foyer to the gallery complex, and features the seven winning images from a recent photography competition jointly presented by DixMix Gallery and Serene Footman, and which focused on Serene’s region of Furillen (which I have written about here and here).  The pictures are by MollyWolliDoodle, NikaLee, Oyona, Hayel Bracula, Mrs S (LauraLar), Magic Maker, and Iolanda Weidman.

DixMix Gallery: Furillen Yours
DiXmiX Gallery: Furillen Yours

SLurl Details

Sunday, October 16th: Stories at the Park in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Holly Kai Park: Storyteller's tree and garden, surrounded by the art displays
Holly Kai Park: Storyteller’s tree and garden, surrounded by the art displays

Sunday, October 16th will see the third in the Stories at the Park series, jointly presented by Holly Kai Park and Seanchai Library – and I hope that you’ll pop along to the event, which starts at 15:00 SLT.

Stories at the Park coincides with the monthly Art at the Park exhibitions at Holly Kai Park. Each month, story writers and poets from Seanchai Library and beyond are invited to visit Holly Kai Park and view the 2D and 3D art on display, and then to write a short story (“drabble”) or  a poem about any of the pieces of art which inspire them, with the following criteria applied:

  • Stories must be  exactly 100 words in length
  • Poems can be UP TO 100 words, but no longer, and in any format  (blank verse, iambic pentameter, haiku, sonnet, whatever appeals).
Holly Kai Park: Art at the Park, October 2016
Holly Kai Park: Art at the Park, October 2016

Submitted stories are then read in the live voice session for each Stories at the Park event, which take place at the Storyteller’s Garden in the centre of the art display area. Authors can either read their own works or if they prefer, have one of the Seanchai Library staff read them. Submitted stories are also published on the Holly Kai Park blog.

For October, Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop, and R. Crap Mariner will be on hand to read pieces inspired by our current artists at the park: Anibrm Jung, John Brianna, Giovanna Cerise, Wildstar Beaumont and Inara Pey.

So, why not join us for some superb stories and poetry from 15:00 SLT at Holly Kai Park? Just climb the steps by the lading point. And of course, you’re welcome to come early and explore the art and the park, or stay after and wander the paths and tracks of Holly Kai Park.

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