Category: Art in Second Life

Arachnid is the title of Cica Ghost’s latest installation, which opened on May 22nd. As the title suggests, it’s one that might have arachnophobes (like me!) a little cautious about entering. However, this is Cica’s work, and so it contains much of her delightfully fanciful outlook, rather than being intended to outright scare – although I did find possible hints of double meanings here and there which may or may not have been intended.

On arrival, visitors find themselves inside a large cage within a foggy environment. Are the bars perhaps a warning about venturing forth? Or are they there to present a feeling of security and safety?

Other cages loom nearby, some on the ground, others on pedestals. Several present a bedroom scene; beds are a frequent motif in Cica’s work, and thus we have something of a connection between this and her earlier installations, such as Moonlight. Here however, the bedrooms seem to offer one of those double meanings.

“Rooms are a kind of hiding places,  so they look like cages.” Cica said to me as we talked about her work. I suggested there’s another aspect however: bedrooms offer us the comfort of sleep, but also the risk of dark dreams, which oft can feature spiders; thus our bedrooms could be cages trapping us in our nightmares. “Could be,” Cica replied, enigmatically.

There’s certainly a hint of this darker aspect to be found as you explore: in one corner of this landscape, filled as it is with strange, twisted tree-like forms, a web holds a couple of human victims. Suspended above the ground and cocooned to their necks in spider silk, looking for all the world like they are snuggled in sleep.

Elsewhere, webs strung across the strange trees have captured large butterflies, wings flapping helplessly, alerting the spiders to their presence. The butterflies in turn, seem to have emerged  from a huge garden cloche, where some are still feeding on the vegetables growing beneath it.  Given cloches are intended to protect the items grown beneath them, is there perhaps another message here in keeping with the (false?) security suggested by the cages?

Whether one chooses to seen meaning or message in the installation or not, time should be taken to explore, as there is much that is presented here which might easily be missed. One of her little stick figures from the likes of Ghostsville resides within a wardrobe, for example, while touching the televisions in some the cage bedrooms will, if you have media enabled in your viewer, play music videos. Be sure to click around elsewhere as well, as there are spots you can sit and float and become part of the setting.

Meanwhile, towards the south-east corner of the region, a pianist plays on a stage, his only audience a crow and little rat. Hie seems oblivious to the surrounding webs, although one has captured some of the butterflies close by, and he pays scant attention to a spider lurking nearby. If the music videos on offer through he televisions are not to your liking, then the sound stream offers a perfect accompaniment to his playing.

And the spiders? Yes, they’re here as well, both on the ground and overhead. But again, arachnophobes need not fear. These aren’t prone to pouncing, stinging, wrapping or devouring. Rather they are content to observe the comings and goings of visitors; and if they do spin webs, it’s likely to happen we all aren’t looking!

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• Arachnid (Rated: Moderate)

Ani (Anibrm Jung) is an award-winning photographer in the physical world who has been active in Second Life since 2006, where she has a gallery, Art By Nature, displaying her own work. And if you enjoy natural photography, then I can say up-front this is a gallery you’re going to want to visit.

Based in the Netherlands, Ani specialises in photographing nature, many of her images captured from her own garden, and all of them recorded using only her Nikon D60 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.

The result is a stunning series of images, spread across the gallery’s two floors, offering a fine show case of the photographer’s skill in using macro, soft focus, depth of field, lighting, framing, etc., to produce works of art.

Not that any of the images on offer are in any way clinical or technical in look or feel; quite the reverse Ani’s skilled touch and eye with her camera really do enable us to share in the natural beauty and wonder of her pictures, some of which incorporate a unique approach to framing which can add to their depth whilst also again enhancing that feeling we are witnessing the scene with Ani as she captured it with her camera.

From the delicate touch of a bee collecting pollen through to the majestic power of rolling surf, going by way of the usually unseen intricacy of a single barb within a wire fence or 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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• Art By Nature (Rated: Moderate)

The Path is a new installation by Cherry Manga, currently being hosted at Dividni Shostakovich’s Split Screen installation. It marks her first major Second Life exhibit in around 18 months, Cherry having largely moved to FrancoGrid in 2014. It is also just a foretaste of things to come: Cherry is working on a much larger piece which will feature in FrancoGrid’s annual Fest’Avi avatar-focused art event, which opens in September 2016.

At the arrival point, visitors are invited to take and wear a free, full-permission avatar, Line of Light, as well as a memento of their time in The Path, prior to teleporting to the installation proper. Here, against a cosmic backdrop of stars, sits a circle of meditative pose balls on which visitors are asked to sit and partake of a journey. Hypnotic music ebbs gently around travellers as animated lines radiate outward from the circle and the heavens all around are filled with wireframe figures and patterns, while a  quote from Einstein, Creativity is contagious, pass it on, drifts and tumbles through the space.

There is a double meaning in this quote which is, for me beautifully reflected in this preview. On the one hand, it encompasses the idea that human creativeness is contagious, passing between us and between generations, driving us forward down through the ages as much as has our desire to understand all that lies around us. On the other, there a more cosmic element: everything that has happened since the dawn of time some 14.5 billion years ago, has grown from a single creative instant. Every galaxy, every star, every planetary system – each and every one of us – stem from that single point of creation.

These two concepts are perhaps embodied in the figures to be found in The Path. On the one hand, we have the constant figure holding forth a star-like sphere in which a smaller figure sits; a symbol of human creativeness passed from generation to generation, as well as, perhaps, the echo of creativity in its most natural form: birth and life.

Then there are the seated figures which flare into existence, follow their own path for a time before suddenly dissipating, with new figures appearing elsewhere. They are like the massive stars of the galaxy, which burn brightly, before throwing off their bulk in a vast, gaseous nova, through which the next generation of stars are born.

Travelling through The Path with these thoughts flowing through my head, another quote sprang to mind, which would also appear to fit here. As Carl Sagan once observed, “We are made of star stuff”; we are an inherent part of the creative process which gave birth to the cosmos. A process which continues to this very day, in everything we do, again as Sagan also observed when he famously said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

I will admit to finding the jerky motion of the pose balls a little distracting when following the path through the installation (as was the presence of other avatars sitting with me). However, this is still a fascinating glimpse of what should be an interesting immersive installation at Fest’Avi – and it is certainly one built on ideas which strikes a chord in me.  The Path will remain at Split Screen through until the end of July.