Category: Art in Second Life

At the end of 2015, the population of the world will reach 7.3 billion human beings, among which more than 50% are in urban areas. In 2050, UNO forecasts, as a central scenario, 9.6 billion people, with 2/3 living in cities, which therefore will have to host 2.5 billion additional inhabitants in the next 35 years. Tokyo gathers more than 35 million people, while New Delhi, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shangaï and Osaka account already for more than 20 million.

Thus Gem Preiz describes the theme for his latest exhibition of fractal art, Metropolis, which opens on Saturday, June 6th at the Influence Art Community.

Those familiar with his work know that Gem’s fractal art often suggests huge architectural landscapes and forms: towering fingers of colour and light, sweeping cityscapes frozen in time, a glimpse of places of the future and perhaps of worlds away from our own – as much in time as perhaps in distance.

With Metropolis, as his opening description suggests, Gem presents nineteen of these magnificent vistas to comment on the increasingly teeming nature of our global civilisation as more and more of just enter the world, live longer and bring forth a need of ever bigger and more complex cities, which themselves become ever more indistinguishable one from another as our reliance on technology homogenizes them such that shopping malls, business centres, even our lifestyles, become as standardised as everything else we reply upon.

The pieces are arranged in such a way as to suggest the visitor is within the huge metropolis of the exhibition’s title. Spread across multiple levels, linked by catwalks and teleport elevators, the images are suggestive of huge, glass-fronted towers and views across a gigantic cityscape.

To give a senses of scale to this “city”, and to link back to the theme of our ever-expanding and increasingly technology and business-driven civilisation, the squares and levels through the exhibition space are filled with the black silhouettes of people all apparently moving hither and thither, carrying briefcases, pulling travel cases, hurrying to this or that appointment, talking on their cellular ‘phones, haling one another and … occasionally, trying to catch-up with news the old-fashioned way: leafing through a newspaper, or holding a hand to their chin as if pondering – or lost.

So it is that Metropolis works on two levels. Taken as a whole, it admirably stands as an installation that reflects the central themes of Gem’s introductory notes; it demands one cams back in order to take in all of the scenes presents as broadly as possible, to witness this as a a city awash in activity. At the same time the images demand our studied attention, because they are all individually quite simply breathtaking in scope and form; there is a wealth of detail and complexity within each that is truly magnificent. So real do they feel, that it is hard not to wish you could step into them and walk along the halls and corridors that seem to lie behind their tiered, windowed facades, or wander the avenues and paths that sit between their ornate structures.

This is another masterful display of fractal art by Gem which will remain available for at least the rest of the month. Not only has he provided the art and the theme for the exhibit, Gem has also provided a suitable musical track on his You Tube channel which can be listened to while exploring the installation. Recommended.

SLurl Details

• Metropolis, Influence Art Community (Rated: Adult)

One of the strengths of Second Life that’s often pointed to is the collaborative power that lies within the platform. Thanks to the broad range of tools and capabilities offered, collaborative efforts can take many different forms, from content creation through to teaching or music, cinematography, research, and so on.

Where art is concerned, the platform can be a very effective means of collaboration, and I’ve covered a number of examples through the arts reviews in this blog (menu: EVENTS-REVIEWS-TRAVEL > REVIEWS > SL ART AND LEA). However, Kylie Sabra drew my attention to a particularly interesting collaboration between herself and Nils Urqhart, which is currently the subject of a modest exhibition now open at the gallery space at W.E.at Home.

“It started as a whim,” Kylie says of the exhibition. “Upon a visit to Nils’ photo gallery, I was taken once more by the beauty of his work. I’ve always been a fan of macro lens photography and began to see the possibility the work afforded as an art medium; a beginning point for a new view.

“Nils and I worked together choosing just the right pieces and then I headed in to the Photo Shop and went to work. It was freeing and I had a wonderful time with the project. ”

The result is an intriguing series of paired images, an original macro lens photograph by Nils, who has a passion for colour and lighting, as evidenced in the pictures on display, together with a digital art piece by Kylie which takes all or a part of Nils’ original and offers a different interpretation / perspective on it.

Taken together, the paired pieces offer a fascinating view of how a subject can be uniquely interpreted and presented, while at the same time, each individual piece by Nils or Kylie, works entirely on its own, offering an eye-catching work that lends considerable grace to any in-world wall and home, with all of the pieces are offered for sale individually.

As noted, this is a modest exhibition, offering just 6 pairs of images. Nevertheless, it stands as an ideal introduction to what I hope will be a continuing collaboration between Kylie and Nils.

SLurl Details

• Collaboration at W.E. at Home (Rated: Moderate)

Set to open at 15:00 SLT on Wednesday, June 3rd, is the latest exhibition at Max Butoh’s marvellous Dathúil gallery. Visionary Tales features the  artistry of Pollyanna4, who describes herself as a “photographic storyteller” – and a visit to Dathúil will reveal why.

“My artworks are stories, people, places and moments in time.,” Pollyanna explains. “I am inspired by many things, music, a lyric, a verbal conversation, or the mood and atmosphere of what greets me.”

The result is a series of 21 images, which can also be found on Pollyanna’s stunning Flickr stream, and here divided into three story sets, which she describes as, “Coming Home ~ Trials and tribulations of a difficult journey”, “Dolls ~ From the Heart” and “Abstracted world (stories/people/views/outlooks)”.  Each of the pieces includes a small book in the lower right corner which, when clicked, will offer a short piece of text in personal chat to help frame the image; and these can themselves be powerfully emotive:

Lost and alone, cold and confused.

She fell to her knees and screamed to the heavens above Dear God, help me…there has to be a way!

Falling in a heap on the wooden slats of the bridge, she closed her eyes.

“Often, I create from the idea itself and build my imagery around the idea,” Polyanna continues in describing her work. “However, on other occasions it is a glancing feeling which makes me get out my camera and capture the essence. Texture and shadow within a photograph are things I enjoy exploring, giving many different variations on the normal photographic image created by the SL camera.

“My aim, is to make people think. To look at every part of the photograph and read for themselves, with the help of the title and or music/poetry, just what the story is being told. ”

The result is a series of pictures and associated texts which encourage the observer to enter into the piece that are looking at, to share in the story that is being shown to them, and thus to carry it in whatever direction they take – or it leads; .both images and words beautifully evocative.

This is another outstanding exhibition in what is fast becoming my favourite gallery in terms of its design, ambience and the range of exhibitions featured since it opened. I have no hesitation in recommending Visionary Tales as an exhibit worth seeing. In keeping with the theme, the formal opening event on June 3rd will feature singer and storyteller Russell Eponym. Thereafter, Visionary Tales will be open through until the end of June.

My thanks to Lucy and to Max for the warm invitation to drop-in and preview the exhibit.

SLurl Details

• Dathúil Gallery (Rated: Adult)