Category: Art in Second Life

Sunday, December 27th saw the opening of Cica Ghost’s latest installation Roots. Like all of her installations, it is a beautifully fascinating piece; one which clearly draws on some of her earlier pieces, offering a new interpretation of them while at the same time presenting something that is both captivating and tinged with a soulfulness that is quite moving.

The clearest inspiration for the installation is Cica’s marvellous Little Village from March 2014. The little houses, clinging to their little hills, paths running around and between them, are all here; but something is very different. The gay colours have faded, the paths are in places broken, frameless windows stare sightless across a darkening landscape, while doorways sit slack-jawed  without doors,

Cica tells us, “The people have gone… the village remains, and time and nature now live here …” and so it is. Roots rise up from the ground and spring from gaunt trees, passing through empty windows to rise through roofs, while trees sprout new growth where once chimneys puffs the comforting smoke from fireplaces, and the fences alongside the paths broken and bent.

Sitting under s sombre sky, the little village slowly surrenders itself to nature, quietly decaying and fading. Even the bright flowers have been mostly replaced by poppies, the flower so often associated with sacrifice and death. However, this shouldn’t be taken to mean all is dark and foreboding here.

There is a melancholy beauty within Roots which has to be seen to be appreciated. There is something also Burton-esque in its construction that tugs at the heart; walking through the village, it is hard not to be captivated and enthralled. And when you do, you’ll come across other touches echoing Cica’s earlier works. A face peeking around the window of one house hints at Strings, while a strong echo of Dreamers can be found in the form of sculpted heads; a suggestion that what we are seeing is but a dream, or simply decorative pieces left with the rest of the village?

Should you wish, you can also take the air, balloons float, hover, drift and bob their way around the village, and you can hop a ride on them. Whether you float via balloon, walk (or do both), do be sure to have the audio stream on as well; the music does much to complement the installation, helping to enhance one’s feelings and response to the build.

I make no secret of my admiration for Cica’s work; her imagery, her use of motifs, her presentation and the joy she brings to her art always captivates me. At the same time, she can often challenge our thinking or our perceptions as she tells a story through her work.

Roots is another wonderful piece, and one not to be missed. It’s also one I made sure I made time to film, having missed the opportunity with Prison and Strings.

SLurl Details

• Roots (Rated: Moderate)

Coma: I Can’t Speak!, is a collaborative installation now open at the Black Label Exhibitions Corner. Conceived and produced by Storie’S Helendale (GlitterPrincess Destiny) with the support of Kristine Blackladder, AnnaFrancesca, Monique Helendale and models  Fritz Citron, Aleks Piers and  Terrygold, coma: I Can’t Speak! uses images and a poem, read out over the audio stream, to convey a story.

The arrival point offers instructions on how to enjoy the exhibition to the fullest. first among these is the suggestion you run the viewer with the graphics quality slider set to Ultra; however, I’d respectfully suggest that it’s more important that you are able to have ALM enabled, and Shadows set to Sun/Moon + Projectors, so I’d suggest adjusting your viewer to whatever settings work best for you to achieve the latter (including cutting back on the draw distance, if this further helps with frame rates). Do make sure you enable the audio stream as well, this is an essential part of the piece.

Once you’re set, step through the scrolling image to enter the installation proper – preferably during the break between playbacks of the music. This will allow you time to collect a copy of the poem from jut inside the entrance.

The poem is read by Storie’S Helendale over a soulful, piano / cello piece, the story unfolding in images around the walls, running from the left as you enter. The images are beautifully presented; muted tones set against a black background, projected lighting framing them perfectly.

To fully appreciate both poem and images, they must be taken together; their relationship entirely symbiotic, flowing and intertwined, emotional resonance ebbing and flowing between them and, ultimately, surrounding the observer.

And what is the story being told? That is something I’m not about to reveal; spoilers never sit well. All I will say is that the story here – to me at least – is layered, and you might find your interpretation flexing and changing as the poem unfolds and you move from image to image, or as you examine the images sans words while the music plays on, or again while the poem is again read. Love, loss, hope, regret, fear, longing, all seem to be threads of narrative waiting for the listener / observer to catch.

And I do recommend remaining to hear the poem at least twice, and taking the time to appreciate the images whilst just the music is playing. You might be surprised at how your interpretation might reshape itself as you follow the various threads of narrative.

I’m not sure how long Coma: I Can’t Speak! will run, although it only opened on December 23rd, 2015, so I would anticipate it being available for a while. And I most certainly do recommend it for viewing.

SLurl Details

• Coma: I Can’t Speak! Black Label Exhibitions Corner (Rated: Moderate)

Scene IV – The Death is the title of the fourth and final part of Ux Hax and Romy Nayar’s 4-part series of scenes entitled Escenas / Scenes, now open at MetaLES. Taken together, all four parts are apparently intended to tell a story, although they are not necessarily being presented in chronological sequence – and the first, second and third parts have certainly been intriguing, with their rich influences of the major arcana from the tarot.

This tarot theme continues, and is perhaps most evident in this final scene, which is subtitled The future dawns, the loneliness will be difficult for us – although how we construct a story from it might well be down to each of us to determine. As with the first three parts of the series, this piece is on a truly gigantic scale; something which quickly becomes apparent on arrival, where you find yourself standing on top of a huge table, complete with an equally large bowl of fruit and two toppled goblets. But these draw the attention only briefly; it is the individuals around or near the table which capture and hold the eye.

Sitting to one side of the table is Death, skull covered by a cowl, left arm outstretched, on which sits our friend, the crow, messenger of the underworld. Resting her hand lightly on that of Death, and seated alongside him, is a woman dressed in a bridal gown and veil, a goblet of wine delicately held in her other hand.

At the head of the table, helping himself to a bunch of grapes is the Devil, whom we originally encountered in the second part of this series. On the table in fromt of him lie the other cards of the major arcana previously seen in Escena / Scenes – the Hermit, the Chariot, the Scales of Justice, the Wheel of Fortune,  the Fool and the Tower. Facing the Devil, and standing at the far end of the table, stands Temperance, pouring forth another goblet of wine.

Of all the characters here, only the veiled woman might seem a little out-of-place. At least until one considers the High Priestess of the tarot. Originally called La Papessa, or “The Popess”, a woman shown in papal gowns, and a triregnum. Later, it became the High Priestess, and catholic influences removed, to be replaced with more subtle hints – the pillars of Boaz and Jachin, which also have symbolism within freemasonry, and between which the High Priestess is usually depicted as sitting.

In this tableau, it would seem the bridal gown might be symbolic of La Popessa, and the idea of the church as the “bride” of Christ, echoing the more catholic elements of the early tarot, which the tall candelabras standing either side of the chairs on which she and Death sit  might be seen as symbolic of the pillars of Boaz and Jachin. There is also, perhaps, something else here: a subtle inference of the relationship between religion and death.

So what are we to make of all of this, the four scenes taken together? One possible interpretation might be that taken as a whole, this could be seen as a commentary on our relationship with death: the one aspect of the tarot which has been present throughout, if not always visible until this point in time. His is a presence which can be seen is the old woman’s struggles to escape the hole in EL Tiempo / The Time: in the presence of the Hanged Man himself in Decisiones / Decisions: and the vanishing / materialising cradle in El Miedo / The Fear. They are images which remind us that Death is ever-present, and can call on us at any time.

Hence the use of the tarot, and the religious symbolism such as the allusion to the church through the High Priestess and the boxed presence of what appears to be a set of rosary beads on the table. Through the one, we attempt to divine our fate, and through the other, we seek comfort from our fear of death. Yet the fact remains, Death is always our companion; never seen, but always present, playing our fates like a deck of cards. And thus he presides at this table, and through the unfolding tableaux Ux and Romy have presented.

But that’s just one idea; you might well see things differently.

SLurl Details

• Escenas / Scenes: Decisiones / Decisions (Rated: Moderate)