Category: Art in Second Life

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).

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

Currently open at the Lost Unicorn Gallery, curated by Natalie Starlight, is a special exhibition of fantasy photography by Dusty (DustinPedroia), featuring himself and model Justice. Special, because all proceeds from the sale of any of the images will benefit Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society.

This exhibition has been my first exposure to Dusty’s work, and while he does not limit himself purely to the fantasy genre – as a look through his Flickr stream will demonstrate – but given the venue for the exhibition, the choice of fantasy as a theme is well taken – and Dusty demonstrate he has a talent for framing scenes and stories that are richly expressive of the genre.

I’m from the United States and I’m an amateur photographer and art lover in real life. I’ve spent the past few years learning and developing my virtual photography in Second Life. In SL, I do a variety of photographic work for clients, both personal and business. My passion is in creating pictures that tell a story and express emotion.

I like to use songs, real-life events, personal observations, poetry, music, and even friendly challenges to find inspiration. Flickr is my primary platform for expressing art.

– Dusty (DustinPedroia)

From vampires through Vikings, to hints of legends such as Arthur and Guinevere and George and the Dragon, these are pieces laden with story. They also demonstrate the talent of a man who has studies the arts of image creation – angle, focus, cropping – and those of post-processing to perfectly craft and frame his art in a manner befitting the story he wishes to tell.

Located throughout the ground floor of the gallery’s hall and modesty priced, these are pieces fit to grace any collection and offered in support of a very worth cause.

SLurl Details

• Lost Unicorn Gallery (rated Moderate)

Currently open within the Sky Gallery at Mareea Farrasco’s Imago Art Galleries is Vague Disclosures, a collection of twelve images by Carelyna, who herself runs the ArtCare gallery within Second Life.

Having studied art, focusing on oil-on-canvas, Carelyna has carried her love of painting into the digital realm, using the tools available to her via her computer to take the images she produces using the viewer and turn them into digital paintings. This gives her work a freshness and an almost tangible depth rich in a sense of life.

This is very much in evidence with the pieces presented at Vague Disclosures. No gallery or artist’s notes are supplied for the exhibition, leaving all twelve open to personal interpretation. There is no accident or oversight in this: Carelyna openly admits she does not plan her works in advance; each piece she creates is part free-form composition, part experimentation and part therapy / a release of a sense of creative fun, often given birth through a need to delve in a new world of such expression.

Vague Disclosures is such a dive; whilst each piece is unique and open for study / interpretation, all of them offer explorations in the use of soft focus / depth of field as a starting-point for expressing moment of shared and personal intimacy.  Each suggests a story within its frame; but what that story might be is up to the eyes of the beholder to decide.

Is the ring mounted on extended finger a gift symbolising the love the giver wished to express to the wearer, or might it be a something the wearer saw and liked, and so purchased on  whim? Is there perhaps another story waiting to reveal itself to you? Similarly, and across the room, is the single arm and hand resting languidly along the side of a bath as the owner luxuriates in hot water and bubbles? Might it be a hand gripping the back of a sofa or bed in a moment of passion, or again, something else?

Thus, throughout, there are stories here; from initial opening to final chapter; stories capable of remaking themselves each time we look at them, allowing us to share in Carelyna’s explorations and discoveries in her journey through art and expression.

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• Imago Sky Gallery (Rising Phoenix, rated Moderate)

Running through until March 11th, 2023 is La Serenissima, a two-part exhibition at the Venezia/Venice region in Second Life by Sophie de Saint Phalle (Perpetua1010). I say two parts, as the exhibition is split between indoor and and outdoor display area.

Sophie is an artist in the physical world who uses Second Life to reach audiences who might not otherwise encounter her work. She does this through exhibitions like La Serenissima and also through her own gallery/studio space Subcutan Art Gallery and Multimedia Centre. I’ve covered her work several times in these pages and have thoroughly enjoyed doing so; her art is rich in content and form, drawing as it does on many of her own travels and experiences – as with Infinite, a magnificent celebration of indigenous Australian art I reviewed a year ago.

Some of the pieces from Infinite are displayed in the outdoor section of La Serenissima, together with some pieces from an exhibition hosted at Niccoli Sweetwater’s Basilique region back in September 2020, and which formed my introduction to Sophie’s work. I point to both of these exhibitions not because I’ve written about them, but because the appearance of pieces from them nicely underscores the focus of La Serenissimia: a personal retrospective by Sophie featuring a selection of art she has produced over the course of the last decade.

A graduate of the Academy of fine Arts Vienna, Sophie is by turn also a cartoonist – having had a particular focus on political satire -, an author and a ghost writer for certain well-known comedians. As an artist, her focus was initially the nude body and abstract art, but her range and scope have since broadened, even reaching into 3D art within Second Life. She is very much an experimentalist and also an expressionist – as her work repeatedly demonstrates.

A red carpet leads the way to the indoor exhibition. Occupying three floors, this section features gouache paintings on the lower floor, watercolours on the middle floor and a selection of her nude studies on the upper.

All three levels are as captivating as the outdoor works, but I have to admit to being drawn particularly to the middle level watercolours as they depict Sophie’s travels through Italy and Switzerland. For me, they are pieces which capture the spirit of the places they represent in a fabulously minimalist and / or focused style.

For those familiar with Sophie’s work through individual exhibitions, La Serenissima offers an opportunity to experience the breath of her work in a relaxed setting. For those who have not seen Sophie’s work before, I recommend a visit to this exhibition while it remains open, perhaps followed by a visit to Subcutan Art Gallery and Multimedia Centre.

SLurl Details

• La Serenissima (Venezia/Venice, rated Moderate)