Update, January 15th, 2025: Artsville has relocated.
It shames me to think that despite us both having been active in Second Life for over a decade and a half, and given the fact I have visited on a number of occasions, I’ve yet to actually write about The Wastelands.
I have no excuse to offer on this, nor would I insult NeoBokrug Elytis, the community’s founder and curator, in trying to do so; the most I can offer is an apology to him and the community as a whole for not as yet having made the effort to blog about their work, and to offer here views of The Wastelands as seen through the eyes of another traveller (and more particularly – artist), whose meanderings through the 12 regions that make up this post-apocalyptic setting form an end-of-2023 exhibition at Frank Atisso’s Artsville Galleries.
Kitten (Joaannna Resident) is a Second Life artist-photographer whose landscape work I first encountered in 2022, although it wasn’t until later in that year that I blogged about it after catching Noir, a series of avatar-centric studies in celebration of the film noir genre both in terms of her approach to the pieces and the tone in which they were presented, and the fact that they offered an unfolding tale much in keeping with the genre (see A Kitten’s Noir World in Second Life).
Within Tales from the Wastelands (presented in Gallery 3 at Artsville) Kitten once again takes this approach; starting with an introduction in her own words to both the exhibition and the setting (complete with a landmark giver for those wishing to make their own foray through The Wastelands), this is a series of 10 images which carry us through various aspects of the regions in a manner of a non-linear story.
Which is not to say this selection is in any way derivative of Kitten’s earlier work; it is not; within Noir the story was ever-present within each image, if open to interpretation as to what it might be. Tales, by contrast offers moments from a traveller’s story; scenes which are not quite vignettes, but which offer enough within themselves for our imaginations to paint a unique story around each one. As such, they can be shuffled together howsoever we prefer when viewing them, each scene / story standing in its own right as a complete piece – but at the same time, as freely shuffled as they might be, the 10 scenes remain joined through a subtle sense of narrative in that each represents a chapter in a broader story.
Predominantly presented in Kitten’s trademark panoramic style, the 10 images are a tour de force not only in her ability to capture a story-in-a-frame, but also in her skill as a compositional artist; the framing of each piece is both natural and cropped to perfection; the use of both colour and black and white images demonstrating a measured and skilled ability to evoke feelings and emotions. The use of angle, depth of field and focus both masterfully drawing us into the scenes and stories as if we are in fact part of them whilst we remain separated by the fourth wall of the camera lens; thus a further sensation is invoked within us: the desire to follow in her footsteps and see this world of anarchy and danger, beauty and hope, for ourselves.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 