Category: Art in Second Life

In 2020, Hermes Kondor presented an exhibition of his physical world photography focused – pun intentional – on the Tejo Power Station (and now museum) in Lisbon. It was a captivating collection of photographs, richly demonstrating Hermes’ skill as a photographer and in the manner in which it tweaked curiosity about this outstanding Portuguese landmark. It’s also one I covered in The beauty of steam machines in Second Life.

While I am admittedly getting to it a little on the later side – the exhibition having opened on July 7th, 2023 – Hermes is now back with a further collection celebrating another or Lisbon’s historical industrial landmarks, and which again offers an opportunity to both admire his photographic eye and to learn about an important physical-world landmark.

Mechanical Whispers, hosted by Mareea Farrasco via her IMAGO Suburbs Galleries, presents a series of monochrome images of Lisbon’s Museu da Água (Water Museum), formerly the Barbadinhos Steam Pumping Station, responsible for pumping fresh water to the city delivered to the artificial Barbadinhos reservoir by the Aqueduto das Águas Livres (“Aqueduct of the Free Waters”), itself one of the most remarkable examples of  18th-and 19th-century Portuguese engineering.

From the 1880s through until 1928, the steam engines of the pumping station pushed water to more households across Lisbon that had been able to be reached prior to it entering service. Given its historical significance, safter its working life ended, the station eventually became a museum, retaining the great pumps and engines used to drive water from the reservoir to the city proper.

Such was the historical importance of the museum’s role in the conservation and dissemination of European cultural heritage, in 1990 it was the recipient of the prestigious Council of Europe’s European Museum of the Year Award, remaining (at the time of writing) the only Portuguese to be so honoured. Since then, the museum has continued to evolve, encompassing modern display areas offering insights into water and its importance to life, research, science, and topics such as developing sustainable supplies of fresh water in the face of climate change and population growth, as well as providing event spaces for conferences, etc.

However, it is in the steam and pump rooms where the museum holds its magic, and it is these which are the subject of Hermes’ photography. Presented entirely in monochrome, Mechanical Whispers offers an entirely unique perspective of these once mighty machines by focusing not just on their bulk and hard-edged engineering, with its heavy iron forms of its boilers and bulky pipes with oversized nuts and bolts joining their various segments, but also on the smaller – but equally important – forms of the stations, gauges, pressure valves, pistons and pressure releases.

That they are in monochrome, the images might be seen by some as missing the richness of colour evident in the actual museum, with is rich wooden floors, widespread use of brass / copper in its smaller piping and the polished steel of pressure caps and the like.  However, I’d actually disagree; the use of monochrome allows many of these pieces to use a chiaroscuro-like used of dark and light. The former, seen within the machinery itself, gives a sense of a brooding sense of presence, whilst the latter – in the form of the brickwork and natural light falling from skylights above – combines with that sense of brooding presence gives the machinery a sense of life, as if giants are asleep within the alcoves and the shadows, requiring only the slightest noise to bring them to heavy wakefulness.

Coupled with this is a marvellous use of near-macro levels of focus coupled with the use of depth of field. This again brings the small elements of the remarkable engineering present within the machinery to life, allowing us to see the beautiful simplicity of a simple spiral screw valve, together with the craftsmanship evident within something as simple as a pointer on a pressure gauge, and the elegant simplicity of making adjustments to a complex machine by simply altering the position of a piston arm.

Occupying both “hanger” buildings of Imago’s Suburbs Galleries, Mechanical Whispers is a genuinely engaging exhibition by a master photographer; one which not only presents a unique view of its subject but also for the way in which encourages the visitor to learn more about that subject and its history.

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• IMAGO Suburbs Galleries (Rising Phoenix, rated Moderate)

A Touch of Magic is the title Lori Bailey has given to her latest art exhibition, opened at the Lost Unicorn Gallery on July 23rd, 2023. Curated by Natalie Starlight and Nessa Nova, who together operate the always enchanting Lost Unicorn estate, the gallery is a fitting venue of Lori’s art, offering as it does a fantasy-style venue within its fairy tale castle walls that is entirely in keeping with Lori’s dream-like images.

Like myself, Lori is one of Second Life’s travellers, spending her time exploring regions and settings across the grid, and recording the things she sees in photographs presented through her Flickr account. Also like myself, she enjoys playing with EEP settings and experimenting with them to produce her core images.

However, and quite unlike, me, she possesses an artist’s eye and a compositional style that combine to produce genuinely enchanting images of the the places she visits, together with thoroughly engaging avatar studies (an ability I have never come close to mastering), in which post-processing plays a minor role compared to the overall original composition and framing of each picture.

All of this is every much in evidence within A Touch of Magic as it occupies the main lower gallery space at Lost Unicorn Gallery, mixing avatar studies and landscape pieces with easy grace whilst fully demonstrating Lori’s self-developed talent as a Second Life photographer-artist.

Noting that she prefers other tools to PhotoShop, she exposes her pieces to minimal re-touching / editing, tending to limit such activities to colour enhancement, some depth of field blurring, and light touches to adjust light. The result of this are images which have an genuine ethereal air about them, which has unique, and very different ways of drawing the observer into them.

Within the landscape pieces, this etherealness manifests as unique interpretations of the the locations captured, allowing us to view the scenes through Lori’s eyes and imagination whilst simultaneously both presenting their beauty while also translating it into a dreamlike, almost empyrean state, where  light become a gossamer, almost tactile presence which seems to drift through each piece as if as much a physical part of the scene despite its impalpable nature, making it as much an embodiment of the scene as anything to be be found within it, be it tree, plant, boat, object or structure.

For the avatar studies, this ethereal quality gives a sense of narrative and emotion that reaches well beyond the limits of the image itself; a narrative mostly clearly, perhaps, suggested through a gaze directed beyond the canvas by the subject of the image, or through the look being exchanged between those featured within the image.

Like the music she adores and which forms such an important part of her life (something else we happen to share; I am rarely without music surrounding me), Lori’s art is melodic in form and presentation, each piece combining individual notes and movements – from focus to subject, to lighting to environment – to deliver a finished pieces which, whilst “symphonic” might sound overly descriptive, are undeniably  both lyrical and harmonious – and a delight to the eye and the imagination.

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• Lost Unicorn Gallery (rated: Moderate)

July 15th saw the opening of The Spirits of the Forest, an exhibition of pieces by Hermes Kondor at the New Life Gallery within the campus of St. Elizabeth’s University.

As a photographer / artist, Hermes is constantly extending his range of approaches and techniques, with a number of his recent exhibitions focusing on the use of AI tools – largely Midjourney, I believe I’m correct in saying – and also on his macro compositional work featuring still life on the smallest of scales. It is for its richness, range and compositional quality that I’ve come to deeply admire and appreciate Hermes’ work, and it is always a pleasure to cover one of his exhibitions in these pages.

Comprising 27 images split across the three levels of the gallery – all of which are connected via an elevator rather than stairs – The Spirits of the Forest represents a collection of his more recent explorations with the use of AI generated pieces combined with other digital photographic techniques to offer some marvellously expressive pieces on the theme of “hidden guardians” – spirits, sprites and minor deities once thought to inhabit and protect forests and woodlands.

Such beliefs  – and the worship of trees themselves –  was common among many cultures, east and west, and often linked with ideas of fertility, renewal / rebirth and the cycle of life. The link to fertility tended to lean many such spirits to be personified as female deities in most cultures, although there were male figures among them. Similarly, while most were considered benevolent and giving, some cultures did have more malevolent forest / tree spirits or at least have a number given to a more mischievous nature.

Within The Spirits of the Forest, Hermes appears to draw inspiration from the more western traditions of female woodland spirits, stirring in a touch of  what might be fantasy elven leanings. How much of this is by design and how much is the result of the parameters given to his AI software is unclear, but the majority of spirits within the images appear to have strongly western European looks. Not that this is in any way a critique; the figures are not intended to be representative of specific tree deities, they are rather intended to springboard our imaginations into mental narratives on he nature of the spirits and trees featured within them – and possibly more besides.

For me, these deeply expressive images brought to mind a range of thoughts, from reflections on the nature of matriarchal religion and the argument put forward by Robert Graves that, within western European cultures, the multiple beliefs in female deities in all their forms – including those of the forest – are rooted in an ancient belief in a single “mother goddess” whom he called “The White Goddess”. mixed with this came reflections on how common artistic interpretations of the likes of Tolkien’s elves down the decades since the publication of Lord of the Rings may have played a role in how the AI tools producing the base images on which Hermes has built his finished pieces, all the way through to the sheer artistry of the displayed pieces and how each presents a world of mystical beauty which appears to sit just beyond our reach, but is nevertheless fully visible to the imagination.

Given such a rich mix of reactions, it should come as no surprise that I thoroughly recommend The Spirits of the Forest as a very worthy visit, forming as it does an exhibition of deeply captivating images  all of which can be appreciated in their own right both as digital art and for their ability to offer a single-frame story, and which collectively can take the mind on a journey of expositional enquiry and thought.

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• New Life Gallery (Dark Dreamer, rated Adult)

I was drawn to the boutique-style Kiku Art Gallery, operated and curated by Rafael Nightshade and Suzanne Logan – who also operates the Amatsu Shima estate within which the gallery is located – for an engaging and fun exhibition with combines Second Life photography with another visual medium: Asian Cinema.

Occupying the South room of the gallery, is 18 Images Inspired by Asian Films by Daikota Wind, which also carries this shorter title Asian Cinema. As both titles suggest, the focus of the exhibition is on cinematic productions of the Far East, which film-making is (as if it needs saying) as rich and genre-spanning as cinema in the west (or anywhere else in the world).

When considering Asian cinema, thoughts are likely to focus on the likes of Chinese (/Hong Kong) and Japanese productions which have a long history of western exposure (and inevitable re-makes / re-interpretations), together with – more recently – that of South Korea. Due to the prolific output of these three powerhouses, they do dominate this exhibition, although Indonesia and Thailand also get very honourable mentions. However, rather than focusing on national output, this exhibition seeks to offer insight into the aforementioned genre-spanning nature of Asian film-making.

To achieve this, Daikota presents 18 images of films ranging from action to thriller, passing by way of comedy, drama, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, romance and more, each image inspired either by a scene from the film it represents or from the posters used to advertise it. Each image shares its space with a brief synopsis of the film’s storyline.

The images themselves appear to have been subjected to minimal post-processing, adding to their connection with the film they represent, rather than suggesting how the artists interprets the film. The accompanying text offers a fair description of each film’s plot, together with some insights by Daikota giving each one more of a personal feel.

Some of the films – Infernal Affairs, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ju-On, to name three, but Daikota’s images and synopses give them a freshness and vitality which certainly increases the desire to go and watch them. Light and engaging, 18 Images Inspired by Asian Films offers a worthwhile exploration of Daikota’s photography and the films of the far east.

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• Kiku Art Gallery (Amatsu Shima, rated Moderate) 

Recently opened within the main gallery at NovaOwl Community Centre & Gallery operated by ULi Jansma, Ceakay Ballyhoo & Owl Dragonash,  is what might be called a 3-part exhibition of avatar studies by photographer-artist Ninae Trallis. I say three parts, because there are three elements of equal import within Do You Believe? – the images themselves (together with their supporting 3D elements), the selection of music offered with each picture, and how both resonate individually and jointly with our emotions / imaginations.

Unlike most exhibitions I’ve visited within the main gallery at NovaOwl, Do You Believe occupies both the 3-room gallery space and the adjoining space which had, during part visits, been generally given over to a café / lounge space – and rightly so, as these are genuinely captivating images. Ninae is one of the few artists in SL who focuses on avatar studies whilst largely eschewing the use of post-processing to enhance her images. Instead, she uses framing, composition, environment and the viewer – Black Dragon in this case – for her work, relegating tools such as Photoshop to the role of small-scale touching-up.

This gives her images a crisp richness and depth which is immediately engaging. Her use of lighting ensures most colours are softened to natural pastels, while her use of black and white gives a further sense of authenticity of live and vitality. Each image sits as a single-frame story, expanded upon through the use of the 3D elements placed before and around the images. What that story might be folds another of the three elements into the exhibition: our imagination.

Through the title we are offered a challenge – to believe in … something. Through the images we are offered hints of ideas, some obvious, some more subtle: to believe in love, fantasy, the existence of fae and / or faerie tales, our own ability to create, to trust in another – be it with secrets, or hearts or even our submission to them – and not to fear rejection; to believe in the power of nature and in things unseen.

How we might opt to interpret individual images is given a further little tilt in that each image is accompanied by a piece of music (click the music notes found to the lower left or right of each picture – under under the middle of a couple! – to be offered a You Tube URL to the music in question. As Ninae notes, these pieces, which range from classical pieces through soundtracks through to rock and pop ballads, might be completely unrelated to the image in question – like many of us (myself included), Ninae listens to music whilst the creative juices flow – but then again, they might not (as hinted by her use of “sometimes” in the notes accompanying the exhibition).

Which of these might be the case is left open to personal interpretation – and while some might appear “obvious” in their influence on the production of the image they accompany, the lyrics, when listened to in full, might actually suggest otherwise. But discerning whether or not the choice of music for any given piece is intentional or simply the result of it being a piece Ninae likes independently of the image is actually irrelevant here. Each piece, whether Chopin, Lewis Capaldi, Hans Zimmer, original composition or cover version, echoes that challenge of the exhibit’s title, the music mixing with the images to set our imagination free to reflect, to travel where emotions might lead, to conjure feelings and ideas in which might believe, however transitory their existence in our minds and imaginings.

Rich and eye-catching – and potentially containing a little in the way of personal revelation through the selection of music as much as the images themselves (which adds to its beauty and mystique, Do You Believe? is an engaging, gently layered exhibition.

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• NovaOwl (Novatron, rated General)