Category: Art in Second Life

Eupalinos Ugajin fired over an invite for my to join a group of friends trying out How’s the Water? This is a giant catapult Eupalinos has been able to install over the Holtwaye ArtSpace.

I last visited the gallery, which is co-managed by WayneNZ and Holter Rez, back in June, not long after it had opened. So as well as visiting How’s the Water? I took the opportunity to see what was going on down in the gallery itself.

How’s the Water? is a wonderfully huge piece of interactive art / fun involving – as noted – a giant catapult. But this isan’t any catapult; at one end, where the “missiles” sit, is a huge wash basin with hot & cold taps, and a large counterweight at the other. Across a void sits a tall tower. The aim – literally – of the game is to add one or more objects to the basin using the cold water tap, and then fire them at the tower using the hot water tap.

The objects which are “fired” can be selected from a menu, and feature pieces from a number of artists, some of which can be sat upon, if you wish to take a ride yourself! When the hot water tap is touched, a giant strawberry (what else? 🙂 ) descends from the sky to add its mass and velocity to the counterweight, swinging the catapult into action.

Hitting the target tower – despite its size – isn’t easy. But should you do so, there’s a bit of an explosion, and rather than collapsing, the tower is bent back from the force of the impact, juddering and weaving with the imparted energy before righting itself for the next onslaught.

A small red canon and lawnmower at the base of the tower may also be worth investigating…!

If you’re looking for art that is a little … calmer … in nature, then down on the ground and inside the Gallery is a new exhibition entitled Be Our Art: Pink Edition, featuring pieces by Tomais Ashdene, Bryndarkly Cazalet, Awesome Fallen, Hottie Biscuit Lockjaw, Ziki Questi and Bianca Xavorin, all of which have, as the name suggests, a pink theme to them. Fuschia Nightfire also presents a piece for the exhibit in the media room, entitled Faerie Grotto. You’ll need to stand just inside the room and have media enabled to play this.

Also still on display in the various gallery areas of the building are works by Chuckmatrix Clip, Fordis Flores, JJ Goodman and Waynenz, which I reviewed last time around, and Olio, a series of images by my friend and fellow SL aviator, Tomais Ashdene; while sculptures by Bryn Oh, Nessuno Myoo and others can be found in the gallery and its surrounding grounds.

If you’ve not had the chance to visit Holtwaye ArtSpace before now, I do recommend to add it to your list; not only are the exihibitions there worth seeing, as I noted in my original piece, the building itself – designed by Waynenz, who also designed the beautiful Toru, the Enchanted Forest.

Related Links

• Holtwaye ArtSpace SLurl (Rated: Adult)

Now open at MIC Imagin@rium is Mexi Lane’s installation, That’s Italy, a curious piece combining elements from a previous work, with the hulk of a ship, containers and … hovercraft.

You arrive on the familiar sandy shoreline of the MIC Imagin@rium art region, co-curated by Mexi, standing alongside a wooden jetty. Out to sea sits the ship, the titular Italy, listing to port as if she’s run aground, objects in the waters around her surrounded by a mass of objects which at first might suggest the tops of the rocks upon which she has come to grief. A closer examination, however, reveals the objects in the water to be the flotsam of her cargo, either driven from her deck as a result of whatever accident befell her, or perhaps subsequently pushed overboard as jetsam as her crew fought to refloat her…

Draw closer still, and the cargo reveals itself to be somewhat unusual; while the metal hulks of containers sit in the water, the majority of the seaborne cargo is tiny houses, more of which are jumbled on the freighter’s tired deck and scattered in her rusting hold – the Italy is clearly a vessel that has seen better days.

Buoys mark the ship’s location, red lights winking as if in a baleful warning, “keep away! Keep away!” Seagulls wheel over the ship while, when seen from certain angles, the MIC Imagin@rium island forms a backdrop, it’s Roman style adding further depth to the piece to the enquiring mind, conjuring images of seafaring accidents which have scarred otherwise picturesque coastlines.

So, is there a message here? Perhaps there is – although what it might be is up to you to decide, as Mexi says of the piece herself, “[It is] a vision that I wanted to communicate. A state of mind? A metaphor? I do not know, you decide.”

Metaphor is certainly here, and richly layered as well, both with the piece as it is seen and in how it has been put together. Is it, for example, perhaps a commentary on how our consumer-driven need, represented by the little houses, is impacting the world through pollution (the oil drums floating amidst the flotsam) and man-made disasters (the wreck of the Italy itself?). Or is the fact that a portion of the piece  – the houses – are re-used from an earlier work, now all carefully re-textured, a commentary on the need to recycle, to re-use and so reduce to potential burden we place on this world in dealing with our waste and rubbish?

The best way to drawn any conclusions is to visit That’s Italy for yourself. Oh, and the hovercraft, mentioned at the top? They’ your transport out to the wreck, if you wish; just keep in mind that the warning buoys I referred to are there not only to warn passing ships away from the wreck, but also to alert you to the presence of the region boundary.

Related Links

• That’s Italy, MIC Imagin@rium (Rated: General)