Category: Art in Second Life

Caught in Eternal Suspense

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise - LEA 21
The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise – LEA 21

The Eternal Suspense is the title of Giovanna Cecise’s latest full region installation now open at the Linden endowment for the Arts, as a part of the 8th round of the Artist in Residence programme.

A complex piece mixing geometrical forms with human elements, the installation extends several hundred metres into the air, encompassing a number of distinct levels. Within the lattices and sphere which give a sense of order to the the build, there is also an element of disorder: human figures rising from the lowest platform, climbing the lattices upwards into the sky, stretching up towards a white figure crouched at the highest level.

The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise - LEA 21
The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise – LEA 21

Giovanna has taken as her theme the Apollonian and Dionysian philosophical dichotomy, perhaps most famously expounded within Friedrich Nietzsche in his 1871 study, The Birth of Tragedy. in which he examines the nature of Greek Tragedy before going on to use the Greek model to understand the state of modern culture.

The central concept of the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy is that Apollo is the god of reason and the rational, while Dionysus is the god of the irrational and chaos; therefore the core of all great tragedy grows out of the interplay between the differing world views they represent.

The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise - LEA 21
The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise – LEA 21

Within The Eternal Suspense Giovanna embodies and interprets this concept artistically. “Man is poised between two or more emotions, he is always in a delicate step,” she states, “in a hazardous environment. Its location is never easy, he is a tightrope imprisoned in constant tension between his Dionysian side and the Apollonian one. But [do] you have really to choose? Or you have really to find a balance?”

Thus, this interplay is defined between the lattice (ordered and rational) and the mass of figures climbing it (disorder, chaotic). But it also runs deeper. The figures themselves are rising from a scene somewhat chaotic in nature, with what appears to be roiling waves (or perhaps flames) mixed with revelry; but while their ascent up through the lattice may seem chaotic, it is both purposeful (rational) and encompasses cooperation (order), the figures all assisting one another. Thus the tension we can experience in trying to find a balance between our Apollonian and Dionysian “sides” is embodied in their form and efforts.

The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise - LEA 21
The Eternal Suspense, Giovanna Cerise – LEA 21

To get around the work, you can either fly, or use the teleport spinning tops (the first is located at the landing point). Right click on them and select TELEPORT, and they take you up through each level. Giovanna recommends a sunset windlight for the piece; I’d actually suggest something more towards a dusk level of lighting.

The Eternal Suspense will be open through until the end of June 2015.

Living in a Bowl

Posted on by Inara Pey
Living in a Bowl
Living in a Bowl – Cica Ghost

Living In A Bowl is the title of Cica Ghost’s latest installation, which opened on May 10th. It presents the visitor with a tropical island where almost everything is on a gigantic scale: flowers stand taller than an avatar, their delicate heads large enough to offer shade from the sun; coconuts the size of a man hang from palms and gigantic wooden-framed tanks and enormous fish bowls tower over the landscape, holding huge fish and seahorses within their watery confines.

At first, this might seem some giant’s idea of cruelty to fish; the tanks are all placed within view of the oceans from whence these curious fish may have come, almost as though to taunt them. Indeed, the huge glass bowl with its seahorses appears to have been intentionally placed on a rise in one corner of the island, as if daring its captives to perhaps try and unseat it and so gain their freedom in the open waters below.

Living in a Bowl
Living in a Bowl

But are these fish even aware of their circumstance? They drift in their tanks and bowls, in ones and twos, seemingly completely unperturbed by their situation, their movements languid and almost hypnotic as they float over and between the ornaments placed in their tanks – some of which would pass for a modest house for you and I.

Are they the observed, or the observers? There is a serenity about them which suggests that perhaps they know more than we might imagine – or equally, that they are content in their ignorance. And what of their fossilised brethren scattered across the sandy landscape?  What do they say to us – or to the fish drifting in their tanks?

Living in a Bowl
Living in a Bowl

If all this sounds disturbing – it’s not. Quite the reverse in fact; the sound of the waves lapping on the shore, the gentle song of birds in their air together with the odd plaintive call of a gull, all combine with the gentle undulations of the glass-encased fish and soft swaying of the palms in the wind, to created a soothing feeling. The entire effect is, frankly, tranquil and further enhanced by the audio stream, a beautiful selection of music that had me exploring the island to a gentle, lyrical piano and then to soft a cappela Georgian chanting. Little wonder that those on the region with me all appeared to be rooted in contemplation and lost in the music and the motion of the fish.

Such is the peace offered in this strange, other-worldly environment, that I found myself drawn to the watchtower sitting on a little hill in the north-east corner of the island, and there sit down and watch the fish, the music washing over me.

Living In A Bowl will be open for the next few weeks, and is well worth a visit.

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LEA open AIR 9 land grant applications

Posted on by Inara Pey

LEA_square_logo_60Applications are now open for round 9 of the Artist in Residence (AIR) programme operated by Linden Endowment for the Arts.

Twenty regions (LEA10 through LEA29), donated by Linden Lab and managed by the LEA, are offered under the AIR programme, and successful applicants will be given the use of one full region for a period of five months. The region may then be used on an individual or group basis for such diverse activities as:

  • Full sim exhibitions and / or immersive installations
  • Curated projects, especially those which have a connection to physical exhibitions and events (mixed reality).
Borderlines, LEA24
AIR 8: Lemonodo Oh – Borderlines, LEA 27 – review

Artists are asked to take no more than 3 months to execute their build, so that their installation is open to the public for at least the last 2 months of their grant. However, artists may also open their installation ahead of the three-month build deadline, and many artists in the past have used their land to have multiple exhibits.

The timeline for application as it currently stands is:

  • Application deadline: May 30th, 2015
  • Notification by: June 14th, 2015
  • Sim handover and public announcement: July 1st, 2015
  • End of round: December 31st, 2015.
AIR 8: Haveit Neox - City Inside Out, LEA 20; review
AIR 8: Haveit Neox – City Inside Out, LEA 20; review

The application form can be found at the end of the official announcement for AIR round 9. Those needing assistance in completing the form can refer to some guidelines provided by Honour McMillan.

In hell’s ninth circle with Frankx Lefravre

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell
Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell – LEA 18

I first became enamoured of Frankx Lefavre’s work at the start of 2014, when he participated in the LEA’s “interim” series of installations, and I met him at the piece he’d built which he informally called “light and glass” (and about which you can read here). Since that time, I’ve reported on a number of his set pieces at the Linden Endowment for the Arts, and for the 8th round of the LEA’s Artist in Residence series, he is back once more, with arguably one of his most ambitious projects yet – and one which was bound to grab my attention.

Cocytus: the 9th Circle of Hell, now open at LEA 18, is a dramatic 3D representation of the ninth and lowest of the circles of hell Durante degli Alighieri wrote about in Inferno, the first cantica of his Divine Comedy. This is the resting place – if such a term might be used – of those who have committed treachery or acts of fraud, and within it are four “rounds” leading inwards, and through which Dante travels with his guide, Virgil. Within each round, and according to the form of their treachery, are the souls of the damned, buried in ice to varying degrees, from semi-submerged through to completely entombed.

Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell
Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell

The four rounds of Cocytus are described by Dane as, Caina (after Cain from the Bible), where can be found those who betray their blood relatives; Antenora (after Antenor), where can be found those who betray their county; Ptolomea (after Ptolemy, the governor of Jericho) where can be found those who betray their guests; and Judecca (after Judas Iscariot), where can be found those who betray their benefactors and masters.  At the very centre of  this round lies Satan, bound up to the waist in ice.

Visitors to Cocytus: the 9th Circle of Hell take something of Dante’s journey through the Cocytus of Inferno, starting with their arrival in a dramatic, desolate landscape dominated by a red-rimmed Sun which fixes them with a baleful stare. A slender wooden bridge directs people to a path which zig-zags down to the maw of a cavern, and the first of the rounds of of which Dante wrote.

Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell
Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell

The path through the installation is also a zig-zag, and the windlights should change progressively as you make your why through the four rounds – I’ve used different lighting in the images here for effect). They are atmospheric in tone, but you may need to pick your way with care to avoid blind turns or dead ends. There are some torches along the way to mark a part of the path, so keep an eye out for them, and a further wooden bridge will bring you to the innermost round.

While representing Dante’s work, in a vivid manner, Frankx also takes a couple of diversions as well – his Satan is not the three-faced beast Dante witnessed, for example – which is not to say it is any the less imposing. More particularly, where Dante saw Cocytus as a frozen lake, Frankx’s use of the path through the caverns and over the four icy rounds gives the impression one is following the course of a frozen river, albeit one broken by sections of hard  stone. In this way, the ice here carries an echo of the original Cocytus, the river of lamentation (or wailing) in Greek mythology, and one of the five rivers surrounding Hades.

Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell
Cocytus: the 9th circle of Hell

This is the second interpretation of Dante’s Inferno I’ve seen mounted at the LEA, the first being Rebeca Bashly’s Inferno in October 2011, which marked the inaugural AIR / LEA installation. Like that installation, Cocytus: the 9th Circle of Hell is an involved and beautifully executed representation of of Dante’s poem. It will be open through until the end of June, and a visit is recommended.

Witnessing Molly’s Brain-Gasm

Posted on by Inara Pey
Brain-Gasm
Brain-Gasm (click any image for full size)

Now open at The Living Room, the art and music space curated and managed by Owl Dragonash and Daallee, is the latest exhibition of Molly Bloom’s remarkable 3D art.

Created  entirely within Second Life, with minimal additional post-processing, Molly’s work  is beautifully intriguing because with it, she plays with our perception of depth. For Brain-Gasm, The Living Room’s gallery space has been dressed as a schoolroom, which Molly uses to frame an invitation for people to share in her special moments of creation.

“Brain-gasms come from everywhere, a visual, a smell, the sound of a song or an emotion.   Sometimes the effect is fleeting, and sometimes you find yourself with the overwhelming need to express,” Molly notes in discussing the exhibit. “Creativity flows, and not just in the traditional arts, but maybe cooking an extraordinary meal, creating an astounding business deal, or the perfect computer program.   If you are lucky to have a fulfilling outlet, your expression becomes tangible.

“Often an artist expresses themselves in a much deeper raw form than the onlooker can even understand, drawing you into their ‘gasm’,” she continues, “trying to turn you on as much as they were.  Each and every gasm is not only a personal learning experience but also invites onlookers to learn about the artist.”

Brain-Gasm
Brain-Gasm

The pieces represent a mix of individual and paired works (Molly often creates duet and triple pieces); and I was delighted to see Cops and Robbers among those selected for this exhibition. This captivated me when I first saw it in 2014, and it was the springboard for my appreciation of her work.  Also at Brain-Gasm, I was strongly drawn to Political Prisoner (below, left), and the deeply compelling The Survivor (seen in the image at the top of this piece).

As I’ve said in the past, and will doubtless say so again in the future, Molly Bloom is one of the most engaging and engrossing artists working in the photographic medium in Second Life. If you’ve not seen her work before, Brain-Gasm offers you the chance for an introduction, and shouldn’t be missed.

Brain-Gasm
Brain-Gasm

Other events occurring at The Living Room this month are (all times SLT):

  • Thursday, May 14th – music with:
    • 17:00 – Bat Masters
    • 18:00 – Blindboink Parham
  • Tuesday, May 26th – Molly Bloom exhibit closes, with music by Bronze

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Eyerotica: through the eyes of the voyeur

Posted on by Inara Pey
Eyerotica
Eyerotica

Erotic photography can be a difficult subject to present; there’s a tipping point where such work ceases to be purely erotic and slips into the pornographic. The problem is, bring any cross-section of a community together to view erotic art, and you’re bound to get clear differences of opinion as to where the tipping point resides.

Given this, there are bound to be conflicting opinions on the latest  exhibition Max Butoh is staging at his Dathúil gallery. Eyerotica, a series of images by Ash (Ashratum), is definitely NSFW, focusing (no pun intended) as it does on the issue of voyeurism; although it does so with a subtle twist.

“Voyeurs are often seen as male in cinema and photography,” Ash notes. “While females are frequently the observed subjects. My gendered and embodied point of view, a feminine point of view, is my small contribution for this  “other side” of the power of looking.”

Eyerotica
Eyerotica

The result is a charged but nevertheless fascinating series of images covering the wide variety of sexual encounters we might experience in life (physical or virtual), in which both the voyeur plays as much a role as the scenes which captured their attention and some of the many different aspects of voyeurism are touched upon.

There is for example, the study of the accidental voyeur, the individual happening upon a situation perhaps entirely unexpectedly; then there is a the voyeur-as-a-participant, a witness to unfolding activities, perhaps even for their arousal; and there is the voyeur unseen, chancing upon a situation through security cameras or while processing a roll of film, these and more are uniquely offered, the angle of the shot, the deliberate use of light and shadow, the blurring of subjects all serving to draw us into the tableaux we see before us.

Eyerotica
Eyerotica

And herein lies the power of these pictures: yes, they are erotic, yes some may well tip into waters pornographic; but each of them also has a story to tell. There is a depth of execution within these images that demands we frame a story around each one. At the same time the vibrancy each contains underscores Ash’s fascination with the subject, and she sees herself in such situations. “The keyhole, even though it is a frequent metaphor for voyeurism, doesn’t describe my personal spectatorial desire,” she states. “I’m more like a voyeur participant, a body whose presence simultaneously sees and is seen, someone who takes part and affects what she observes.”

Visitors to the exhibit can further share in the experience of the photographer – be it as a voyeur or the capturer of erotic images. Just stand at one of the cameras scattered through the gallery and click Peek in the dialogue box that’s displayed (you may need to tap the ESC key to free your viewer’s camera and see what the in-world lens is willing to reveal).

Eyerotica runs through until the end of May.

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