Category: Art in Second Life

We all have facets of personality we reserve for different occasions – and home with family, at work, and so on – and which we are able to wear or switch between without conscious thought. They provide us with a degree of agency over in terms of how we are perceived by others and what we chose to reveal about ourselves.

But what of those aspects of self we don’t, for whatever reason, reveal, even to those closest to us? Those traits which we’re aware of but strive to keep hidden, most likely because we fear what might happen were we to express them, either to others or ourselves. We treat them as pariahs, pushing them down and away from our thoughts, but they never really go away; they remain just below the surface of thought, waiting for the opportunity to take hold, to tear friendships and relationships apart or terrorise us with fears we cannot express or really face because of the sense of panic or upset they induce.

These are the facets of self explored by Etamae within Pariah – The Hidden Persona, now open at the Hannington Arts Foundation. Eta is an incredibly expressive artist who uses both 2D and 3D forms in both static and interactive pieces, together with a use of space which tends to draw people into her installations and exhibitions. Within Pariah she again demonstrates with with the use of 2D and 3D pieces, some of which are animated, and within which the presentation space is very much a part of the overall installation – as is the environment; when visiting, it is essential you have your viewer set to Use Shared Environment (World → Environment) in order to view the installation under the intended environmental lighting.

The installation is set within a large cube space which extends above and below the visitor, being split by a transparent floor. On the walls of this cube are images of faces, male and female, each offering an expression and utilising a subtle animated texture which might be taken as the flow of thought / emotion. Floating within this space, again above and below the floor area on which the visitor stands, is a series of transparent cubes. On (and within) these are etched further faces bearing a look / emotion, some of which echo those on the wall. Some of the faces of these cubes are are animated, he images on them appearing to slowly pulse back and forth to give a further suggestion of the ebb and flow of feelings and emotions, and that inner struggle we can face with aspects of our own persona.

Also on the walls are extracts from the lyrics of Keep the Streets Empty for Me, a track from the debut studio album by Fever Ray, an alias used by Swedish singer-songwriter / performer Karin Dreijer, and first released in 2009. The lyrics of the song are well suited to this exhibition, containing as they do introspective reflections / pleas, with the Outro refrain in particular well suited to the theme of the exhibition.

I don’t want to see too much more about the art or the installation, as by its nature, Pariah – The Hidden Persona is a “personal” piece in that it will speak to each of us differently, and as such should be visited and experienced first-hand. There is simply no way the manner in which the images and words within the installation will impact you as they did me. So this being the case, and having hopefully set the scene, I invite you to visit the installation yourself.

SLurl Details

• Pariah – The Hidden Persona, HAF (Xeltentat Enterprises, rated Moderate)

Currently open at the Third Eye Gallery, curated by Jaz (Jessamine2108), is a selection of pieces by Thus Yootz which might be seen as both enigmatic and also revealing.

For those unfamiliar with Thus, she is an artist based in Greece who has been active in Second Life for over 12 years as a creator, region designer, SL wedding planner, photographer and artist. She studied for a BA and MA in art over 5 years at the Athens School of Fine Arts, studying under masters such as Christakis Tassos, with her physical world art since being publicly exhibited, spanning as it does drawing, painting, etching, sculpture, and photography.

Within this exhibition, visitors are presented with images reflective of Thus’ broad range, with some of the pieces focused on drawing and landscape work, others of a more abstract nature, and some potentially reflective of Tassos’ work (I fount this possibly evident within The Brides and My Longing, without in any way being derivative).

These are pieces which can each be taken individually, or as a series of explorations through thoughts and emotions and reflections on life and living. But whether these explorations are purely through the mind of the artist (as might most clearly be seen in Real Life Pictures within a Picture) or, due to the pieces presented in the collection perhaps resonating with the observer, an opportunity for self-reflection on these themes, is down to personal interpretation – the artist wisely leaves this open by not imposing any liner notes for visitors.

I admit that – outside of the potential for echoes of Christakis Tassos within a couple of the pieces – I found myself heavily drawn to Three Dancers, Running Away Through the Magnolias and A Mountain of Blossoms for their strong oriental flavour: use of form, colour, texture, their presentation and even their titles, together with the rich vein of abstraction each carries.

But having said that these are pieces which all have something to say to the eyes that pay attention –  and definitely an engaging and richly diverse selection of work from one of SL’s most versatile artists.

SLurl Details

• Mountains, Mandalas and Magic, Third Eye Gallery (Ravenglass, rated Moderate)

Les Fleurs du mal, an exhibition of images by Celestial Demon being hosted on a sky platform at Onceagain Gallery by onceagain (Manoji Yachvili), is an interesting installation in that its title appears to be juxtaposed with its intention to venerate, something which immediately piques the curiosity.

Across the platform, which is dressed as a garden – or perhaps a meadow in which is centred a small, modern building apparently built within the ruins of a slightly larger, older, house – there sits a total of six small display areas, each home two images of women presented with floral surrounds which may have been part of the original set used to create each of the images or added during post-processing – although which might be the case isn’t actually important.

Reached by selecting Les Fleurs after clicking the teleport disk at the entrance to the ground-level of the Onceagain gallery spaces, the building-within-a-building of the garden platform acts as a central introduction and hub for exploring the six pairs of images, On the wall, in both English and Italian, can be found the dedication for the installation, which reads:

This moment of my life is dedicated to the marvellous creature called woman.
To her who despite the storms and demeaning periods, she always manages to flourish.
To her who blossoms into a smile despite the incessant rain of the darkest night.
May the earth beneath her feet be always soft.
For her, Les Fleurs du mal.

It’s a charming and disarming dedication, encapsulating the central theme of reverence for women; however, it cannot be denied that the idea of presented women who have so captivated with les fleurs du mal jars a little; or perhaps the expression is used in reference to those self-same storms and rains of dark night the subjects of these images have overcome. I’ll eave that for you to juggle with when visiting.

What I will say is that is little doubting the expression of reverence and the desire to off a visual dedication to the women – to all women, perhaps – presented through these pieces, each of which is available for purchase on a limited number basis.

Through graceful posing, a degree of soft focus through depth of field, and the employ of a plain white background and in some either the softest touch of a primary tint to match the floral arrays and or a gentle suggestion of shadow, the 12 presented pieces are eloquent and captivating in their depth of beauty and narrative. Each image is attended by more words – again in Italian and English – as an expression of the character and nature of the individual featured in each piece.

Poetic, graceful and set within a location in keeping with the ideas of reverence and dedication, a garden one can wander in silence and come upon each pair of images and their words free from the distractions of surrounding pieces, complete with places where one can sit and contemplate, Les Fleurs is an idyllic exhibition of art from a gifted teller of visual tales.

SLurl Details

Remember to use the teleport disk to reach the exhibition platform.

• Onceagian Gallery (Peaceful Mountains, rated Adult)

I dropped into Alpha Auer’s Alphatribe Island to take a look at Mythologies, a rather interesting installation she has created which is part cultural collection, part experimentation and entirely fascinating. Alpha is best known for her own original creations and installations, some of which I’ve covered in these pages (most recently in 2019). However, this is something a little different, and the easiest way to explain it is through Alpha’s own words:

Mythologies is a curation of cultural artefacts that were found on a vast 3D resource called Sketchfab where many museums from all over the world, as well as private individuals upload all sorts of 3D models but with an overwhelming emphasis on heritage material that can be downloaded and freely used under Creative Commons licenses.

Thus, instead of doing my own modelling this time around, I decided to use this remarkable bounty to put together an architecture and a number of small landscapes in which deities and characters from different mythologies across history could be present virtually – sometimes sharing spaces and sometimes thematically separated.

– Alpha Auer

The result is a series of islands placed across a glass-like platform, each the home to the models Alpha has imported, each one more-or-less represent different cultures and their heritage. These range from renaissance Europe through North America to the Middle East, Asia and Far East. However, to define this as a dive into these cultures and mythologies would in part be a mistake, again as Alpha notes herself:

I do not pretend that this is a museum or any such serious endeavour. After all, I do not give any explanations or descriptions – rather it is one of my “follies” to be looked at as such. That said, should you wish to find out more about who these deities and characters are you can find them on sketchfab.

– Alpha Auer

That side, the way the pieces are set out does actually encourage their study and consideration of the times and culture which gave rise to them and what they represent. To help sate curiosities, Alpha also cites sources from within Sketchfab, such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Bonn Centre for Digital Humanities collection –  Alpha can provide licenses to those wishing to find out more, and also – in terms of cultures. Wikipedia is your friend.

The second Level of the installation – reached via a broad stairway – offers access to Alpha’s own store, including her fabulous avatars, and a smaller store containing many of the pieces featured on the main platform, complete with their Creative Commons License.

Hailing from Istanbul, Alpha is an academic and graphic designer / artist. Widely published, she has presented papers and works are conferences and art spaces, some of which have spanned both the virtual and the physical worlds – such as her co-authored LPDT2/3 series of installations in Second Life and OpenSim, which she developed with MosMax Hax and Selavy Oh, building around Roy Ascott’s concept of distributed authorship – Ascott being one of the artists under whom she studied for her PhD. She very modestly does not consider herself an “artist” or “designer”, but rather a “thingmaker” – it’s an interesting term, given the range of her work, but I personally cannot help but think of her as a marvellously gifted artist / designer.

Separate to these main platforms are a pair of floating island and a third platform; these can be reached by the local teleport system. The islands continue the theme of mythologies and cultures.

The uppermost platform is home to one of Alpha’s own installations, From Here On There Be Dragons. Originally displayed at Dividni Shostakovich’s now sadly closed Split Screen, it presents a celebration of these mythical, mystical beasts and much of what they represent  both culturally and in terms of our own psyche – and you can read more on my own thoughts from that 2016 installation here. It adds a further dimension to what is a very different exhibition, one very much worthwhile visiting.

SLurl Details

• Mythologies (Alphatribe Island, rated Moderate)

Open at the main gallery space at the Kondor Art Centre through until March 10th, 2023, is Endless, an exhibition of original art by LikaCameo, and reflections on life, feelings, and the nature of time.

Split between the lower floor and the mezzanine level of the hall, this is in some ways an exhibition of two parts, woven together through the use of words. On the lower level is a total of 13 monolithic plaques (including the exhibition’s title piece). Each is semi-translucent with an image captured from within Second Life offered on one face in colour and the other in monochrome, each one offered with a quote.

Twelve of these pieces represent the months of the year, each one bearing the colours / tones most associated with the month it represents. The quotes accompanying these images have been drawn from a number of sources ranging from Dr. Seuss (or possibly more correctly, Georges Duhamel, given Seuss appears to have used an English variation of words first used in print by Duhamel), Confucius, Vincent Van Gogh, Albert Einstein, David Viscott (although oft attributed to either Pablo Picasso or William Shakespeare), and more – I’ll let you research the for yourself. However, attribution here is less important than the content of each quote and what it has to say about life and how we live it.

Accompanying this collection is a series of white-on black drawings (also in places offered as glass-like etchings placed in front of some of the images). These drawings are reproductions of a further set of 12 images to be found on the upper level of the hall.

The latter comprises 12 monolith plinths with a colour image on one side and a monochrome version on the other. Their positions match those of the plinths on the lower floor. Also like those, each image represents a month of the year, but rather than being accompanied by a quotes, they instead appear with an noun (primarily) or adjective as a means of defining a mood or feeling which may have an association with the month (e.g. January / Inception; December / Fate perhaps reflective of birth (the start of the year and our eventual demise (December)); however, I Ieave it to you to visit and decide.

Linking the two halves of these upper level at the head of the stairs  – and thus linking the twelve upper images with those on the lower floor – are the core lyrics to Circle of Life, perhaps one of the most poignant songs of life to be written for a Disney film.

Evocative, layered and richly presented, Endless offers an engaging essay in images and words, marking it as a rewarding exhibition which should be witnessed for itself before it closes on March 10th (also, do note the blue sign regarding purchases of the pieces on the lower level of the gallery).

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Centre Main Gallery (Wka, rated Moderate)