Category: Art in Second Life

Currently open at Galerie Principale within the United Arts of Second Life hub, is an exhibition of pieces by Melusina Parkin, showcasing her minimalist approach to telling stories through her photography.

A Minimal Gaze is not a retrospective in the strictest sense of the word, but it does contain some images that admirers of Melu’s work may well recognise. What it does present is a rich cross-section of Melu’s style, something which might be called “moments in solitude”, whereby she focus on aspects of scene within Second Life and presents a image with a single cynosure, drawing our attention to that focus alone.

Thus, the focal point stands in solitude in terms of their in-world surroundings, the framing of the image, and its ability to hold our attention. However, at the same time, a much broader narrative canvas is presented by the background and what lies just outside the frame of the picture; things not seen, but which nevertheless whisper to our imaginations. This gives Melu’s work a sense of unique individuality: the familiar seen without broader context other than what is suggested by the mind’s eye.

It’s an approach that Melu has used throughout the majority of her more than 10 years of Second Life photography, and which I’ve never ceased to appreciate, both for the above expressiveness and for the way it causes us to look at Second Life itself in a new way, bringing this digital world to life in a most unique and singular manner, unmatched by more “traditional” forms of photography (very much including my own) which provide broader, more contextualised views of the places visited and recorded within them.

In the notes she provides for the exhibition, Melu notes that she is currently experimenting (like so many) with AI-generated images – but that also, she is not deserting this approach to her photography. It’s an assurance I appreciate, as a Second Life without her unique insight to its many faces and places would, frankly, be a diminished world.

Surl Details

• A Minimal Gaze, UASL (Karpov, rated Moderate)

Now open at Kultivate Magazine’s Windlight and The Loft Galleries are a trio of exhibitions, one of which recently opened, the others of of which have been open a while (and so may be coming to an end – be warned).

The newer of the exhibitions is an ensemble selection of art waiting to be found in the ground floor level of the Windlight Gallery within its main hall. As always with the Kultivate ensemble exhibitions, it features a rich cross-section of artistic styles, with a focus on Second Life-derived landscape art.

The participating artists comprise captainofmysoul, Sheba Blitz, Angel Heartsong, Johannes Huntsman, Jamee Sandalwood, Hannah Starlight and Veruca Tammas. Of these, Angel Heartsong offers an engaging series of images of Jade Koltai’s Panjin region, a place I wrote about in A Red Beach in Second Life. With little (or very light) post-processing, these are images which perfectly capture the spirit of the region.

Along the wing of the ground floor between the staircase is a second exhibition, with works mixing Second Life landscapes with avatar studies. This features the work of Pam Astonia, Reya Darkstone, Jesse Janick, Vaness Jane, Anouk Lefavre, Kalina Sands, and Jamee Sandalwood (again). Tempest Rosca Huntsman is also listed, but at the time of my visit was not displaying within the group.

Upstairs, meanwhile, and spanning both arms of the gallery’s mezzanine level which forms The Loft Gallery, is a richly engaging exhibition of single-frame stories by Myra Wildmist.

Always an evocative artist,  Myra is a regular exhibitor at Kultivate, and never fails to engage the eye and mind. Within this selection of art – which has been open since at least early March, she offers a series introspective pieces mixing monochrome and colour to present what might be seen as both a potentially personal series of images that reflect moods and emotions which are simultaneously recognisable and understandable as they all reflect feelings and dispositions we have all experienced for ourselves.

With their rich cross-section of art and technique, these three exhibitions, housed within a single space, make for a rewards visit.

SLurl Details

• Kultivate Windlight Gallery (Water Haven, rated Moderate)

A recent visit took me to Psygallery, operated and curated by Twister Grut, for a couple of small exhibitions by two well-known Second Life artists: Ilyra Chardin and Deyanira Yalin which, while individual in content, do compliment one another quite nicely.

Located in the lower level hall facing the landing point, Ilyra presents Once Upon a Where, a selection of her original paintings reproduced in-world. This comprises a series of nine images located around a central sculpture – Time in a Bottle -, which nicely encapsulates the central theme of the exhibition: fairy tales, stories and flights of the imagination.

The images are all mixed digital media finished in the style of paintings, eight of which plumb the depths of visual storytelling to great effect, with the ninth forms a superb life study of a coastal bird bearing the title Not All Who Wander Are Lost, which. The latter, depending on your perspective, might call to mind Tolkien, Shakespeare or perhaps Lana Del Rey. Whichever might come to mind, there is no denying that the title fits the images perfectly allowing the imagination to take flight – if you will – in thoughts of the subject’s life on the wing, and where it might have journeyed from and journey onwards to.

Accessed via the teleport board is Col-or-ing, a series of vividly striking images by Deyanira Yalin. This is a richly diverse selection of pieces all joined one to another by equally vivid narrative content as well as their sheer beauty. As with Once Upon a Where in the gallery space below, the eleven images are framed around a central sculpture by Deyanira, a piece as rich in colour, and with a life and motion which matches the vitality of the digital paintings.

The latter – as is all of Deyanira’s art – are immediately captivating in tone, content and style. Each speaks to its narrative equally as strongly  the next, but I confess I was very much drawn to Africa, Lady Under a Red Moon, and In My Room – the latter very cleverly bringing a certain literal interpretation of the old metaphorical idiom about elephants and rooms in a most delightful manner. Africa, meanwhile, caught my eye as an expression not just of natural beauty, but a beauty encompassing the whole of the temperate African continent.

That said, all eleven pieces within Col-or-ing are attractive and engaging, the stories waiting within them  – as noted above – joining this exhibition with Ilyra’s as eye-catching expression of storytelling through art.

SLurl Details

• PsyGallery (Charm, rated Adult)

‘Twas back to at Galerie L’autre Monde curated by Lady Anais (Anais Yuhara) and located at The Uzine, for me recently, to witness an ensemble exhibition entitled Hello Spring. Featuring the work of seven artists, the exhibition combines both real-world photography and digital artistry in a celebration of the coming burst of colour and light (for the northern hemisphere at least!) as spring brings forth new blooms and blossoms to brighten our world.

My visit marked the second time I’ve dropped into the gallery – the first having been at the start of February 2023. At that time, I pondered whether out not the design of the gallery space was specific to the exhibition being mounted at that time, or the gallery’s natural appearance. With my return to view Hello Spring I was pleased to note it appears to be the latter; there is something quite engaging about the use of partially demolished / destroyed buildings with the detritus of human habitation scattered around, all caught under a twilight / night sky (make sure you have your viewer set to World → Environment → Use Shared Environment) that makes this striking gallery space.

The artists presented within Hello Spring are TerraMerhyem, Rage Darkstone, Hermes Kondor, Tutsy Navarathna, Lalie Sorbet, Nils Urqhart, and Deyanira Yalin, Each presents at least two pieces of art representing the arrival of spring, each artist using a section of the gallery’s ruins.

For their pieces, Hermes and Nils present stunning macro-level views of flowers in bloom, Nils presenting his with a subtle vignette finish, his backdrops suggestive of a dark sky to bring the focus of his images to the fore in all there natural beauty. Hermes similarly uses a vignette effect to frame his subjects, but counters it with a more obvious use of depth of field. In both cases, the results are stunning life studies of nature’s beauty.

Artistic couple Rage Darkstone and TerraMerhyem present a vibrant mix of digital art and colour. Terra offers three pieces which suggest an unfolding story of sorts. To the right is a single sakura, carrying with it all the promise of spring mixed with a sense of mysticism – the latter enhanced by the soft illumination of sunlight through clouds to produce a pink sky tinged by a rainbow refraction as if from a lens to one side as the Sun edges its way around the clouds to the other. In the next two, the tree appears to have been transplanted into what might be otherworldly places, suggesting the universiality of rebirth and renewal. With his pieces, Rage uses light and geometry to present flowing, living forms rich in the colours of spring and a marvellous mix of fantasy and marine life.

With their pieces, Deyanira, Tutsy and Lalie also use digital techniques to offer us views on spring, with Deyanira presenting more macro-level views of flowers and springtime insects, with Spring – I believe – combining photography and digital rendering – offering a fabulous journey into a flower to reveal the anther and filament. Tutsy’s pieces bring together image and metaphor, and Lalie similarly using metaphor in the form of avatar-like people in a triptych of pieces visualising the richness and beauty of spring.

Warm and vibrant, Hello Spring is a richly engaging exhibition.

SLurl Details

• Galerie L’autre Monde (The Uzine, rated Adult)