Category: Art in Second Life

Whispering Sky is the title Banagher Crisp has selected for an exhibition of his Second Life photography, currently being hosted by Lizbeth Morningstar in the guest artist of her Starborn Gallery.

This is a selection of predominantly greyscale images with a focus on avatar studies, although they are interspersed with colour images and landscapes spread across the two levels of the hall. They are both evocative and personal pieces, each one focused to evoke a specific instant in time, intended to project an emotion and / or idea, as Banagher explains within his introduction to the exhibition:

We all remember certain moments in our lives where they makes us feel happy, sad, angry, grateful, or loved. My work focuses on “moments” a paused second in a certain place that reflects many different feelings. Each person sees that moment differently and that is what I find fascinating.

– Banagher Crisp

Given this, these are all pieces that contain a richness of narrative that is quite extraordinary – made more so by the fact that Banagher has left each one untitled so as not to impose his thoughts or ideas onto our encounter with each image. Given this, I’m loathe to offer my own thoughts on individual pieces in this selection for the same reason; these are works that deserve to be seen fresh and unburdened by the interpretations of an intermediary.

What I will say is that the way they individually convey their emotional content: passion, regret, love, loneliness, joy, solitude, contemplation, honour, and more; is captivating, making each piece an image the eyes are drawn back to again and again. Even those without an avatar within them richly evocative in focus, colour (or tone) and content they naturally draw out an emotional response in which feelings and thought bubble.

This is, I believe, my first encounter with Banagher’s work; I’m not sure how long he has been producing pieces in-world, although I note his Flickr stream is no more than two years old – which might indicate the obsession which started as a hobby (to reverse Banagher’s own words) is recent. Be that as it may, both Whispering Sky and his Flickr speak to a depth of artistry I very much hope I will be expressed at more exhibitions in the future.

Also, when visiting Whispering Sky, do be sure to step into the second hall within the gallery, where the latest exhibition of Lisbeth’s own work, How Many Faces Do We Have? can be appreciated.

SLurl Details

• Starborn Gallery (Starborn, rated Moderate)

Opening on Monday, January 16th, 2023 in the Annex at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, is The Farigoule Collection, a series of images and settings by Jules Farigoule which – as always for Nitroglobus – offers a fascinating take on the art and expressionism of the artist involved.

The easiest way to introduce the collection is to use Dido’s own words:

A while ago when meeting with Jules in his loft, which is really a superb tastefully made place, I asked him if he was willing to exhibit his awesome art collection at Nitroglobus.  At first he hesitated and told me he was neither an artist nor was this a ‘collection’, just images which he likes to have around him; a very subjective and personal selection. .. a set of images, gathered from meetings, friendships and by chance, from the serendipity of Jules’s long Second Life.

Dido Haas

Now, on the surface, this may not sound so unusual – serendipity often plays a role in art, be in painting, drawing or photography, and in Second Life, photographs tend to focus on our personal moods or on the friends we make, the people we encounter and the sights we come across in our explorations. So what makes this collection so special?

Simply because, while it may not have any intentional theme or narrative thread, it is nevertheless something of a story about Jules – who hails from France – and his self-expression both in the physical world and within Second Life.

Some of the latter is expressed through the two settings occupying the floorspace of the Annex, and which offer a glimpse into Jules’ loft home in-world. Their simplicity of form and minimalism, coupled with the placing of the art on their walls and the sculptures, speak to a mind and eye driven by thoughts of beauty and balance, and something of a reverence for the female body – as well as the simple joy of taking photos.

More broadly – and intimately – the exhibition as a whole offers insight into the dual nature of Jules’ time in Second Life, where both a male and a female avatar – Gaia Republic – are used (with Jules now being the primary and Gaia – although older – the “Alt”). The images from Second Life – outside of those Jules has on display within the “loft” sets which originate with other artists (including Dido herself) – come from both the persona of Jules and that of Gaia, and examining the differences in style, tone and subject between the two.

Most of the images by Jules, meanwhile present fair more structured results in which the more technical aspects of each – style, focus, presentation, cropping and production. Thus, there is perhaps a femininity reflective of Gaia that naturally comes to the fore within Mes copines, whilst Jules’ piece might be seen as leaning towards a more “masculine” expressionism.

It’s subjective to be sure, and also subjective, given the technical skills required to produce Mes copines are as great as those seen within, say, ExMachina 04. More importantly, the contrasts speak to a person as ease within the skins of both Jules and Gaia, and makes for a delight layer of observation when viewing these pieces.

Mixed with the Second Life images are several which appear to have been brought into SL from the physical world, and these again offer insight into Jules’ outlook as an artist and the richness of his imagination.

Yet another engaging exhibition from Nitroglobus – and full kudos to Dido for persuading Jules to display his work, and to Jules for doing so.

SLURL DETAILS

• Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated: Moderate)

Now open at Akiniwa, a region within the Akipelago estate of arts regions founded and operated by Akiko Kinoshi (A Kiko), is an engaging exhibition of art by Haiku (Haiku Quan), one of Aki’s partners in organising and hosting art and music events within Akipelago, and who is herself both a photographer-artist and patron of the arts in Second Life.

In this latter regard, and as well as the work she carries out with Aki and Violet Boa at Akipelago, Haiku founded the Free Museum on 2021, giving away copies of works by some of SL’s most gifted artists (with their approval). In 2022 she sponsored the first annual Lyrics Prize and awarded over L$100,000 in prizes to the residents who wrote the best original lyrics to a dozen popular songs.

Now at Akipelago, Haiku launches a new phase of her work in supports art in Second Life, a new complex of three gallery buildings of a unique neo-industrial design by Blue Tsuki, all of which are to be curated by Haiku and are ranged on three sides of an open air events area.  One of these units will eventually be home to additional works from the Free Museum, and the other will host rotating exhibitions by other Second Life artists. The fourth side of the venue is occupied by Nessuno Myoo’s As Mammoths In the Middle Of Butterflies, an installation I reviewed in April 2022.

As for the first unit, this is home to Haiku’s exhibition With Just who do you think you are? This is a collection of no fewer than 300 avatar portraits captured by Haiku. Many of the subjects are themselves artists and musicians using Second Life as their medium of expression, with one or two SLebrities mixes among them (see if you can spot Simon Linden for one…).

However, rather than being offered as individual pieces, Haiku has opted to place up to 16 portraits in a single frame and then use a scripted timer to rotate through them, showing etc i turn for a period long enough for us to appreciate each one. This results in an exhibit in which the pieces are almost constantly in a state of flux  (or change), presenting visitors with the choice of observing the changes a picture frame at a time until all the portraits it contains, or to wander around the gallery floor, each circuit revealing different portraits, giving the sense of walking through a space much larger than the hall.

In terms of the portraits themselves, they are almost all head-and-shoulder shots, the subject looking directly at the camera and with a minimum of post-processing. Thus they present an honest view of each avatar, unburdened by the play of digital tools – and in doing so, perhaps allow us a glimpse one their eyes to the person who lies, so to speak, within them.

Engaging and rich in content, Just who do you think you are? offers a noel manner in which to present avatar portraits – and I look forward to returning to Akiniwa and witnessing the development of Haiku’s new endeavour as the galleries all become occupied.

SLurl Details

•  Just who do you think you are? (Akiniwa, rated Moderate)

The greater portion of humanity’s history can, unfortunately, be told in terms of conflict and war. Whether driven by territorial desires, religious zealotry, political expediency, or inherent ethnic / racial divides, wars large and small, tribal, national or international have pockmarked the stories of successive civilisations. With the 21st century just into its 23rd year, we have already witnessed some 27 significant conflicts and wars around the globe – roughly twice the number seen within the first two decades of the 20th century.

Little wonder then, that London Junkers has chosen as he latest installation – opening on Wednesday, January 11th, 2023 at 13:00 SLT – to bring back Guernica, his 3D reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s famous oil painting, regarded around the world by many through the years as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history.

For those unfamiliar with the painting, from mid-1936 through until late 1939, Spain was torn apart by a civil war between the then-Republican government (notably aided by Soviet Russia and by Mexico) and the Nationalists, lead by a group of generals who had failed to seize power in a coup d’état in mid-July 1936 and were aided by Fascist Germany and Italy.

As a part of that conflict, General Francisco Franco called upon the German Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria to bomb the small – but to the Basques, historically and culturally significant – town of Guernica. Ostensibly, the raid was to deny retreating Republican army use of the town’s bridge to cross the Oka River. However, the use of incendiary bombs later the later raids carried out by the German Condor Legion and which set the town ablaze, does suggest the the bombing was intended to break the spirit of the Basque army.

The attack levelled almost all of the town, with it and the strafing of roads and streets by fighters was seen as a war crime. On hearing about the raid at his home in Paris, Pablo Picasso was horrified. Already been commissioned by the Republican government to produce a painting for the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exposition (and to raise funds for the Republican cause via exhibitions around the world), he decided to express his outrage at the murder of women and children – both of whom he saw as “the very perfection of mankind” – through a painting commemorating those lost.

In all, the painting – over 7.5 metres long and around 3.5 metres high – took Picasso 35 days to produce, and while it was the result of a commission by and for his nation’s Republican government, and he was himself an anti-fascist, and thus vehemently opposed to the likes of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini, he saw the painting as a means to express his overall abhorrence to the war and the effect the actions of both sides was having on his homeland.

The Spanish struggle is the fight of reaction against the people, against freedom. My whole life as an artist has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against reaction and the death of art. How could anybody think for a moment that I could be in agreement with reaction and death? … In the panel on which I am working, which I shall call Guernica, and in all my recent works of art, I clearly express my abhorrence of the military caste which has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death. 

– Pablo Picasso

Interpreting the painting tends to be subjective; while there is clear symbolism throughout, some of which is clear – such as the woman on the left mourning the loss of her babe-in-arms; the woman with arms upraised to the right, the lick of flames both above and below her, the fallen, dismembered soldier -, so to is there symbolism (or metaphor) which is harder to discern. The presence of the bull and horse, for example; both animals have enormous significance in Spanish culture, and would appear to have significance here – but Picasso himself warned against reading too much into their presence other than, perhaps, as symbols of his nation.

But that said, the overall horror and destruction, the pain, death and sorrow that surround war is all too clearly evident throughout the piece. As such, when visiting London’s installation, I strongly recommend viewing it from far enough back so you can see all of the piece in a single frame such that it might be viewed as the original. From here all the nuances of the piece can be seen, such as the way the horse’s nose, nostrils and teeth offer a stylised human skull, for example. By moving / camming close helps to bring individual pieces within London’s interpretation of Picasso’s work, allowing us to ponder their meaning.

This symbolism also extends to the landing point / event stage for the installation. Sharing the same black / white / greyscale tones as the painting, this area features two Junkers dive bombers (not actually used in the Guernica raid, but utterly symbolic of the terror of warfare), swooping down on the stage. Between them, a dove – the symbol of peace – sits trapped within a sphere, a symbolism which speaks for itself. Above this sits the trunk of a tree, representative of both the line of Gernikako Arbola, or [oak] Tree of Guernica – a central facet of the Biscayan people (and by extension, Basques as a whole); and the third tree in the series (1858-2004), which  miraculously survived the bombing of the town. Finally, two board on the stage provide, respectively, an introduction to the installation and London’s own indictment of war, in the form of a poem, might be read.

When writing about the original presentation of this installation in 2012, I noted it might be said that the bombing of Guernica washed away the last vestiges of the romanticism so often afforded war through word, verse and idealism. Sadly, it did not bring an end to war itself, as witnessed by the events that followed on the heels of the Spanish Civil War, and all the conflicts since, per the opening comments of this piece.

In this, and given all that is occurring within Ukraine in particular (and before it, Georgia), the return of Guernica to Second Life at this time helps reminds us that so long as we are driven by the need for power, for dominance (and dominion) over others and in elevating politics and / or religion above our fellow humans, the innocent will continue to suffer under the yoke of war.

SLurl Details

• Guernica, Aster’s Dream (Montague Island, rated Adult)

Headgear has long played is significant role within societies around the world, particularly in terms of denoting spirituality or royalty. This is potentially for two reasons. The first is that, as the highest point on the human body, the head is the best point from which to indicate authority, and so elaborate or distinctive headgear the best means to signal said authority. The second is that, being the part of the body with the proximity to the heavens, and thus potentially the first point of contact with the divine or spirits descending from on high, the top of the head is considered, and thus should be covered as a sign of modesty and deference.

More widely, hats, headwear, traditional headdress, and so on, having long been a means of expression throughout societies and communities the world over. They can indicate everything from broader religious adherence to social status / profession, societal adherence (it is not that long ago that in many western societies it was considered uncouth for anyone of educated means – male or female – to appear in public without a hat, and one only has to travel back a little further to reach a time when women were expect to wear a hat, indoors and out), or basic social status. In this, just think of the worker’s flat cap, the British bowler, the Stetson, the fedora, the fez, and allow they evoke.

Some of these ideas are explored within the January / February 2023 art exhibition occupying at the ground level gallery at NovaOwl Gallery, curated and operated by ULi Jansma, Ceakay Ballyhoo & Owl Dragonash, featuring as it does the work of Caly Applewhyte.

Self-taught with Photoshop, Caly entered Second Life in 2010 with – as she describes it herself – “no specific goal”, but while exploring the grid, she found an outlet in Second Life photography. As her interest grew, so did a parallel interest in both her own avatar and the ability to use this virtual domain as a means to explore emotions, feelings and ideas, generally through the use of minimalist settings intended to bring the intended focus, the essential theme and emotion, of each piece to the fore.

Within Crowns, Caly offers a series of beautifully minimalist set of pictures exploring the expressive nature of headdress, particularly in terms of spirituality (although there is also a hint of royalty about them as well).  Each is highly individual in both form and the style of headdress, one to the next, yet all carry within them core recognition of the implied authority, faith and prowess of the wearer. Not, note that the wearer is necessarily gifted with these abilities – just that their headdress encourages us to view them as such.

In keeping with much of Caly’s work, Crowns does not require a lot to be written about it – each piece clearly and evocatively speaks for itself, with all of them collectively offering a narrative which is easy to follow. As such, I recommend Crowns should be viewed rather than written about – and I’ll leave you with the SLurl once more to allow you to do so.

SLurl Details

• Caly Applewhyte at NovaOwl (Novatron, rated General)