Category: Art in Second Life

Now open at MetaLES is Romy Nayar’s brilliant Sparkys, quite possibly the most engaging art installations to be seen in Second Life so far this year – and one quite possibly set to remain so in people’s minds. It’s an immersive, interactive piece which offers charm and fun to visitors – although it’s worthwhile taking your time to explore, or you might miss out on the major interactive element.

Visitors arrive in a land formed of greyscales. Colour seems to by almost entirely absent; tall slits, hinting at something overhead, rise from the surrounding grey/white water lapping at one’s ankles; a single set of step leading upwards to… nowhere, it would seem. However, climb the steps and an elevator will descend, offering you passage upwards to a multi-level town, precariously balanced atop the high stilts.

Houses, shops, stations, restaurants, parks: all sit at differing heights, all connected by various means: railway train, balloons, rickety-looking walkways, fragile seeming bridges, elevators – all of which make the act of exploring the town a joy in itself. For the daring, there’s even the opportunity to grab hold of the legs of a young man who has invented his own little gyrocopter, and ride with him as he flits back and forth between one house and another, the latter (I’m guessing) that of his log suffering mother, who keeps her attention square on sweeping the front path, rather than offering him encouragement in his madcap adventures.

As you wander this grey world, you’ll likely start to notice that some of the local residents are experimenting with paintbrushes, attempting to add a little colour here and there. This is because one enterprising young man has discovered the titular Sparky’s, bee-like creature that produce paint, which he is collecting, and (again, I’m guessing), his mother is making available to the townsfolk. The problem is, of course, that colour is a new concept here, so the locals aren’t entirely sure what should go where…

This is where visitors can help. Find your way to the little old lady operating a small market stall, and you can obtain a paint HUD. Join the group listed in the note card accompanying the HUD (just copy / paste the group link into local chat and click on it) and you’ll be able to help paint the world yourself, simply by selecting options in the HUD menu and then going to mouselook and   left-clicking / dragging the cursor.

Get your position and draw distance right, and a lot of fun can be had. don’t worry about spoiling the environment – all the paint is prim-based and will “dissolve” after a while, although if a lot of people are slapping paint around, you might find prim limits are hit and have to wait a while for things to clear.

All told, Sparkys, as mentioned, is one of the most delightful, engaging and fun installations currently in Second Life, and will be open to explore through March and April. Do take your time when exploring, and be sure to cam around a lot – every platform has a little story to tell (complete with local sounds), which further adds to the delight and fun.

Related Links

• Sparkys SLurl (rated: Moderate)

Update, October 10th: Cammino e Vivo Capovolto and Ocho Tango have relocated to Retrospect.

As is evident in these pages, I am something of a fan of Mistero Hifeng’s mesh sculptures in Second Life, having written about his work in both in January of this year and in October 2014. So when he contacted me to inform me he has now moved his gallery and shop to a new location, and invited me to pay a visited, I was only too happy to do so.

Now located on one half of Blossom Land, a Homestead region shared with the Ocho Tango dance venue, of which more anon,  Mistero’s new gallery retains the minimalist feel and rich atmosphere of his last location, whilst also offering visitors something new to experience.

Gone is the coastal feel, with a partially flooded beach across which Mistero’s works are seemingly scattered at random. Instead, the land is almost entirely flooded, the only relief coming from a number of scattered trees a single stone bridge arching over water, and – of course – Mistero’s art.

The latter have all been carefully placed across this watery landscape in such a way as to stand either as individual pieces, rising from the water or occasional sitting on a little sand bank of their own. Great use is made of the available space, the water surrounding most of the pieces on display tending to direct one’s focus solely on each sculpture, while the trees provide an interesting framing for some of the pieces, and the bridge has allowed Mistero to make a little vignette of his work, focused on what (I believe, at least), is a new piece, E’ Rubero per te la luna (And for you, the Moon, Rubero – seen immediately above), which is a very striking piece.

Another piece I don’t recall having seen before is Un vita quasi umana (A life almost human), which can be found towards both the centre of the gallery space and towards the west side. More familiar pieces such as Volare (Fly) are also present, and always pleasing to see, together with Per Te, which I’ve always found evocatively powerful and edged in love / tragedy.

To the north of Mistero’s new space, and linked to it by both a series of paving stones forming a narrow path and the span of another stone bridge, lies Ocoho Tango, sitting atop a broad, flat plateau. This is a place which may well need no introduction to some; but one which I’d wrongly assumed to have vanished from Sl a while ago – so finding it alongside Mistero’s gallery came as a pleasant surprise. It also marks Blossom Land as a place to which I’m liable to be making frequent return visits, both for Mistero’s art and for the opportunity to dance!

Mistero’s work is, to me at least, deeply evocative, and his original gallery space displayed it well enough. With this new space at Blossom Land, however, he has gone even further, presenting a richly layered environment and atmosphere which allows each piece to come to life before you. As such, if you’ve never seen his works gathered in one place, I do recommend you pay a visit.

While there, don’t forget you can still TP to her store and purchase most of his pieces there, all of which can be resized. The teleport can be found alongside the landing point, and also offer a quick way up to Ocho Tango.

Related Links

• Cammino e Vivo Capovolto – new location (Rated: Moderate)

Dathúil, meaning “colourful”, “lovely” or “beautiful” in Irish (also dhathúil), is the name of a new art gallery in Second Life, which opened at the start of March 2015. Run by Max Butoh, the gallery is located on his region of Floris, which is also home to the 1920s themed The Sable Club and the more adult-oriented The Chamber Society (the main venue for which is located well above the ground level of the region).

The gallery is imaginatively presented within the cavernous hall of an old distillery, complete with three great copper whiskey stills towards the back of the hall, and unused whiskey barrels stacked around the room or used as part of the furnishings. Together, these add a suitable additional ambience to the gallery.

Dathúil will feature the work of invited artists, with exhibitions currently looking set to be on a monthly basis. Featured for the gallery’s debut month is none other than Whiskey Monday, (appropriately enough in some respects given the gallery’s theme and her name), who offers visitors Recently, a collection of her more recent pieces.

Those familiar with Whiskey’s work will know that her photography is generally an evocative, provocative, intimate and fascinating mix of observation, questions of identity and of self, and semi-autobiographical thoughts and illustrations.  Her art grew as a natural exploration of her self-expression through mediums such as writing and social media, and as a result of her being inspired by Botgirl Questi, who has also pushed the envelope in the use of social media tools and digital media as a means of self-expression and exploration of identity and self.

What is on offer within Dathúil is a further illustration of Whiskey’s work through a marvellous series of images, all beautifully composed in such a way the the observer is immediately drawn into each and every piece, most likely experiencing a sense of self-identity with the subject matter underlying many of them. Several of the pieces on display include the props used in their creation, adding a subtle degree of additional depth to each them.

All of the pieces on display are available for sale, and Whiskey’s work can also be obtained in the physical world, via Fine Art America, where the individual items on offer can be purchased in a variety of formats, complete with world-wide shipping, and which really are all quite superb.

With Recently forming its debut exhibition and set to run through until the end of March 2015, and with work by Yannick Whoa due to be displayed through the month of April, Dathúil is already establishing itself as an art venue of choice. With an entire themed region built around to it also explore, why not pay a visit yourself (donations toward keeping the gallery and venue open always welcome!), and explore a corner of the 1920s as well as enjoying the art on display?

Related Links

• Dathúil direct SLurl (Rated: Adult)