Category: Art in Second Life

The idea behind this collaboration was to recreate the magic of nature that resonates with one spiritually and touches one either in the form of falling snow, gentle rain, or floating leaves. We hope you enjoy the creations as much as we did creating them.

– Introduction for Mountains, Mandalas and Magic, Third Eye gallery

Currently open at the Third Eye Gallery, curated by Jaz (Jessamine2108), is a collaborative exhibition by Viktor Savior, Orpheus Paxlapis and Jaz herself, which, as the description above notes, is intended to offer a spiritual reconnection with nature. 

Mountains, Mandalas and Magic sees Vikor produce a series of paintings, the majority of them featuring mountain views (with one perhaps leaning more towards autumn leaves adrift on water, complete with what might be shadowy white Koi below the ripples), Orpheus a series of mandalas, some of which are animated, some of which are static and set within Viktor’s images, and Jaz the particle effects which accompany the paintings in reflection of them: falling leaves, the teardrops of rain, misty clouds and drifting snow…

In addition, in front of the paintings are static poses – two per image – allowing visitors to take their own photograph before any of the paintings as a keepsake of the exhibition. 

The combination of mandalas with mountains is appropriate; while mandalas are common to the Eastern religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto and Janism, they are perhaps most noted in the west through the growing popularity of Tibetan Buddhism (even though they started in India in around the 8th century), and Tibet offer some of the most stunning mountainous landscaped in the world. 

Set around the water garden of Third Eye gallery, this is an engaging, easy to view exhibition with a spiritual content suitable for the time of year, if not entirely in keeping with the general theme of the yuletide time. 

SLurl Details

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

These days, the Twelve Days of Christmas aren’t kept as carefully as they once were, however, in the Middle Ages, it was commonplace for workers to put down tools and relax and celebrate Christ’s birth with masses and revels that stretched over almost two weeks. But why was the period so long when Christ’s birth happened in one day?

– Chuck Clip, Ghosts of Traditions Past, UASL, December 2022

This is the question Chuck Clip asks of his audience as the visit his new installation Ghosts of Traditions Past, which officially opens on Sunday, December 18th, 2022. In asking it, he sets the stage for an exploration of “Christmas traditions” in both images and words which explores how Christianity essentially usurped pre-Christian festivals associated with the end-of-year – notably that of the Roman festival of Saturnalia.

This usurping of already-popular / observed festivals from pre-Christian eras was pretty much de rigueur for the early Church, both to stamp its authority on things, and to bring people into the fold, so to speak. However, With its week-long festivities, Saturnalia was an obvious target for the Holy Roman Church for “conversion” to a “Christian” celebration, and in about the 4th century AD, it settled on December 25th  as the date of Christs birth (although in reality, He had most likely been born in the spring or autumn) – the date which, under the Julian calendar used the the Romans, the winter solstice fell.

In fairness to the nascent Christian church, the Romans had themselves sequestered the period in which Saturnalia was celebrated from earlier belief systems, notably those of the Celts in Western Europe and (particularly) the British Isles, who had in turn absorbed traditional going by even further into history – of which more anon.

It is from Saturnalia (itself, as noted, “borrowing” for other pagan festivals of earlier peoples) that many of what we regard as “Christmas traditions” come: the giving of gifts (such as candles, intended to signify the growing return of the Sun after the solstice and small terracotta figurines known as signillaria); the placing of coins in food for dinner guests to find; the use of wreaths; and so on. And, of course, the celebration of a “king” (Saturnalicius princeps), which generally occurred within Roman households – albeit one far from being a redeemer born as a babe, one far more mischievous and disruptive (and so also referred to as the “lord of mis-rule”), seen as a means by which Romans could thrown off the invisible bonds of orderly society and simply revel in a (brief) period of disorder, pranks and generally having fun at the expense of others.

Within Ghosts of Traditions Past, Chuck takes his audience on a 12-chapter tour of Christmas, a walk through a snowbound landscape to view 12 individual images representative of the traditions we now associate with Christmas and their likely origins, each told through local chat as one approaches each of the images.

Starting with Saturnalia (which itself started as a single day of festivities before expanding to around 7-8 days commencing some 14 days before the end of the 29-day Julian month of December (all of which helped to formulate the notion of the “12 days of Christmas”), these chapters take us through many of the pagan rites and observances which have been either absorbed into the Christian observance of the birth of Christ either directly or through their prior acquisition by Saturnalia.

Thus, following them in what amounts to a clockwise direction from the entry point (a tunnel leading into the landscape at its 6 o’clock position), the images run in an arc from the left, each one offering the story of a given Christmas tradition – the symbolism of the Christmas wreath, the pagan meaning of holly berries, the meaning of the yule log – even the significance of mistletoe in both pagan and Roman times.

The first 10 of the pieces are located to the snowy plain, backed by ghostly trees, with the final two on the rocky slope leading up to a Christmas tree sitting within Stonehenge, where visitors can obtain a special gift for the season from Chuck. And if you think that Stonehenge is somewhat out-of-place within this Christmas setting, being today more associated with summer solstice celebrations, you’d not be entirely correct.

Recent research (2017-2021) by a consortium led by the University of Bradford and the  Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, and involving the universities of Birmingham, St Andrews, Warwick, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, has revealed that Stonehenge sits within one of the largest prehistoric sites in the UK, a ring of 10m wide, 5m deep “shafts” encircling it, the Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. Dating back over 2,500, this ring of shafts  2km across, lends considerable weight to the idea that in Neolithic times, Stonehenge was the centre of extended winter solstice celebrations.

In much the same way, I’d hazard a guess that the use of ghostly trees surrounding the installation sit as a reflection of the tree and The Green Man as a symbol of rebirth and renewal – themes also closely associated with Christ, but which hold their origins to multiple pre-Christian religions. The Green Man (is that him or the face of God looking down on the setting from above?) also sits as a reminder that, even in the midst of its attempts to stamp its authority on the “old ways”, Christianity fell subject to pagan motifs; many are the churches and cathedrals to be found with the face of the Gren Man carved over their entrances or within their halls.

In viewing Ghosts of Tradition Past, I’m reminded of an observation by W. Somerset Maugham: Tradition is a guide and not a jailer. With this exhibition, Chuck cleverly uses the strictures of Christian seasonal tradition to guide visitors to an understanding of the festivals, beliefs and symbols which are both enfolded within that tradition and yet pre-dates it.

SLurl Details

• Ghosts of Tradition Past (UASL, Karpov, rated Moderate)

December brings with it two evocative and personal exhibitions on the subjects of Christmas, the human condition and the world at large. They are presented by artists I greatly admire for their ability to give us pause for thought through their narrative whilst also offering us the opportunity to appreciate them for their pure artistic quality. Given this, and the fact that these exhibitions are being shown in the halls of the main gallery space at the Kondor Art Centre, I’ve opted to write about them in a joint article.

Within Christmas in Ukraine, Hermes Kondor once more offers a series of photo-like images generated via the Midjourney AI programme and the post-processed to provide a collection of digital prints that are rich in emotional content. The best way to describe it is through Hermes’ own words:

Christmas in Ukraine is a personal project created to pay a deep heartfelt tribute to the people of Ukraine who do not have the same right, as we do, to celebrate Christmas. 

– Hermes Kondor

Presented as a collection of 15 pieces in the manner of a photo-journalistic study, there are pieces not celebrating the resistance of the Ukrainian people against their invaders, but offered rather as stories of reunion, love and rejoining, as the men and women, wives and husbands, fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters, lovers and friends, may experience reunions of hope and peace across the their homeland, so rudely torn asunder throughout most of 2022.

Digital productions these may be, there is no denying the humanity they contain. They also stand as a reminder that, no matter what your political stripe, the use of organised military force through acts of war in suppression of others is not something to be celebrated but – in a so-called civilised age – preferably avoided. For while it may well by measured in terms of political (or religious) “success”, it is inevitably a story of human suffering.

Across the square, Scyllia Rhiadra presents God with Us: Essays on Christmas within the lower-floor setting of the 2-storey Main Gallery hall 1.

Utilising avatar-centric photographs posed and captured within Second Life, this is a richly layered collection that juxtaposes her images with quotes primarily from the Gospels concerning the birth of Christ (although some are taken more broadly from the Bible and other religious writers), to produce pieces that both reflect the Biblical presentation of Christ’s birth and offer modern commentary.

Within this structure, Scyllia also seeks to express a measure of her own attitude towards Christmas, encompassing childhood memories – presents under the tree, etc., – with her outlook on matters of faith and the Christmas message and the messages of hope, sacrifice and love it contains. These are aspects that Scyllia beautifully outlines within the artist’s notes available from the board just inside the gallery entrance. As such, and at the risk of putting words into Scyllia’s mouth, I’ll focus here on the broader message these images convey to me.

To me this broader message appears to be a commentary on the realities of the so-called “Christian spirit” as all too often espoused by the organised churches and branches of the Christian faith today and which – I would gamble – Christ himself would oppose were He here. This commentary appears throughout many of the pieces within this exhibition; perhaps most visibly The Innocents; however, I’ll focus my thinking on the neighbouring piece, No Room.

On the one hand, this is a modern-day representation of the plight faced by Joseph and his heavily pregnant wife: forced to make a long, uncomfortable trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem to fulfil political requirements, only to find themselves denied reasonable comfort and rest on their arrival. On the other, with its modern backdrop, it is a reminder that, in an age of mass human displacement, when Charity – the so-called greatest of the three Christian graces (the other being faith and hope – see 1 Corinthians 13:13) – is greatly needed the world over, it is all too often the loudest voices raised in opposition to the idea of any form of charity, large or small, being given, are those all too equally loudly raised in proclamations of their “Christian values”.

This layering of context and meaning can be found throughout God with Us: Essays on Christmas, encompassing elements such as the commercialisation of Christmas and the sheer selfishness that Christmas tends to bring out, and more. All of which marks this as an exhibition fully deserving of considered viewing.

Two superb exhibitions by two gifted artists, both Christmas in Ukraine, and God with Us: Essays on Christmas are appropriate and engaging exhibitions for the time of year, and I have no hesitation in recommending both.

SLurl Details

• Kondor Main Galley complex, Kondor Arts Centre (Waka, rated Moderate)

Update: December 15th: Aneli has announced the exhibitions below will be the last for La Maison d’Aneli

Here I am at the end of my adventure as a gallery owner, of course I will stay on Second Life as a simple artist … I thank all the people who accompanied me …. what a beautiful adventure we have shared, more than twelve years with an exhibition per month, and you always there. Long live creation!

– From a note sent out by Aneli Abeyante

The exhibition below will remain open through to January 14th, 2023. Aneli also notes that the La Maison d’Aneli group will remain open for people to share information on their artistic events and exhibitions.  

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December 14th, 2022 sees the official opening of five new exhibitions to see out the year at La Maison d’Aneli, curated by Aneli Abeyante. Produced and presented by five artists with highly individual skills and outlook, they present an intriguing mix that can engaging, amuse, possibly confuse, and provoke – and all of which are now available for viewing ahead of the formal opening.

Before going into specifics, when visiting all of these exhibitions, do make sure you have Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced Lighting Model is checked); although shadows do not have to also be enabled, so you can set the drop-down to No Shadows to reduce the rendering load. Also note also that this piece includes SLurls for teleporting directly to each exhibition.

Yann Gyro (sempiternel) is an artist whose work I do not recall having come across before, so his 3D installation at La Masion d’Aneli came as a new experience for me, being a piece I had difficultly in interpreting. Predominantly greyscale / black-and-white in nature, it appears to comprise multiple elements which at first seem to have no connection: a bridge wit water running over it and a broken egg below; black snow falling from a white sky, a series of heads in various stages of being drawn, a female head gazing upwards through a hail of falling musical notes and with a starscape and astronaut floating within, a map of the world formed by irregular blocks mounted on an irregular grid, and so on. Footsteps on the ground provide a guide to exploring the installation – and should be followed. But how might it be interpreted?

I eventually concluded this is a piece about finding balance. That on the one hand we have been given the gifts of evolution, creativity and the power to shape our own future (symbolised by the evolving heads, the musical notes falling from the sky; the dream of space travel an our quest to understand the cosmos contained within the female head; and the figure rising within the double helix); whilst on the other, those same gifts can result in environmental and physical destruction (the falling black snow; the shattering bridge and broken egg; the flower in the bell jar). Thus comes the suggestion that should we fail to balance these two sides in the manner of a gyroscope, they we will inevitably wobble, falter, and fail to keep to the true path of our potential.

ZackHerrMann, meanwhile, presents a further chapter in the life of his alter-ego Linda Cluster in celebration of art and music, using the virtual immersion of Second Life to recreate his physical world works representing Linda Cluster to give them greater depth and visual appeal.

Vibrant in their use of colour, animations and sue of geometry and symmetry, be aware that some of the surfaces within this installation are media-enabled, so be sure to click the “movie camera” icon in the top right of the viewer window to make sure media is enabled (you do not need to have the audio stream enabled, as this applies to the gallery as a whole (unless to want to).

Drawing is above all my favourite discipline, because everything starts from drawing. It’s the idea, it’s the mood, it’s the choice, and all artistic work begins with a drawing. For me, drawing expresses the gift of self, communicating the sensitivity, character, and sentiment of the individual. 

– Thanos Runner

Using his own words is perhaps the best way to introduce Livlic Ateliers by Thanos Runner. A multi-talented artist who prefers to focus on the human body and produce portraits of those he encounters through the medium of drawing rather than painting or digital composition.

His work is utterly captivating in the manner in which he captures his subjects and brings to the fore the beauty which can be called forth through the use of graphite lines on what paper by the skilled hand. At the same time his offers a richness of dialogue on the human form through his coloured images as they celebrate the human body.

Located in northern Tuscany, the Apuan Alps are renown for their  Carrara marble, the most quarried marble it the world and used since Roman times for monumental sculpture and in architecture, but which today sees much of the 9 million tonnes quarried annually devoted to the production of toothpaste – and in the process is devastating the mountains at an accelerated rate.

As a native of the region, Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) presents Cave Hominem, a series of photographs of the quarrying operations as a pictorial diary of the destruction being wrought for Second Life users to absorb. Offered in monochrome shading which enhances the rude damage being wrought on a daily basis – damage which she notes has led to visible changes in the look of mountains from her home – and set within an environment reflective of that encountered within the quarries themselves, this is an exhibition encompassing environmental damage we all too willingly inflict on the world around us which rings out as loudly as the roar, clang and bang of the instruments and tools of destruction used to wreck the Apuans and lay claim to their rock.

With As Above, So Below, Traci Ultsch complete the circle of exhibitions by presenting an installation that is left open to interpretation in a manner similar to that of Yann Gyro’s at the top of this article. It is also a piece where, again, having ALM enabled is absolutely essential (otherwise all you’ll see is the inside of a white cube!). Presented in monochrome, eye-pipingly visual (perhaps literally so in the case of the main image?) I am at a loss to describe this work – so I’ll instead urge you to go see it for yourself, together with the other four exhibits herein reviewed.

The official opening for all five exhibitions will take place at 12:30 SLT on Wednesday, December 14th, 2022, with music provided by Traci Ultsch.

SLurl Details

• La Maison d’Aneli (Virtual Holland, rated Moderate)

Enchanted Garden is the title Mareea Farrasco has given to a small exhibition of her own work available at her IMAGOLand gallery. Comprising just 10 paintings reproduced within Second Life, it is nevertheless an engaging exhibition, taking visitors literally and figuratively on a walk through a garden whilst asking a question.

The paintings are of a classical nature, encompassing themes and styles familiar to any lover of art: nature, women in flowing gowns, hints of faery and fantasy, ideals of love and marriage, summer days with fields of flowers and lavender, and so on. They are presented with a dream-like finish, the haze and soft form suggesting horizons and ideals which extend far beyond the edge of the canvas.

Looking at these images, it is hard not to see within them the echoes of great painters mixed with the imagination of a modern-day dreamer with the rich range of image manipulation tools at her disposal and an imagination capable of carrying us on the wings of story to wherever our own imaginations and dreams choose to alight.

At least three of the pieces paint a story of their own: one of a wedding, the bride and her maids – possible post-ceremony – caught in moments of contemplation (or lightness) within a garden. Posed they might be, as all such wedding photographs are, they encompass both s sense of the romantic painters of a bygone age and the artificial construct of a posed photograph in a manner that might be seen through a certain lens as, well, kitsch.

It’s a sense evident within the other paintings to different degrees, and in using the term I am not in any way denigrating Mareea’s work; for in presenting these pieces, she asks us to define what is kitsch.

Often used in a pejorative manner to express the feeling that a piece of art – visual, written or musical – is naïve, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste. “Kitsch” is a term that at its height became – ironically – somewhat passé, the means by which not so much to pass a critique but to demonstrate our own hipness. However, the term has other connotations; some kitsch art can, for example, be appreciated for the irony or humour or quirky nature without it being visually offensive.

More particularly, Kitsch as a statement has been around for long enough that it might itself be considered an aesthetic category and style of its own; and it is this idea Mareea explores through these ten images. For while they may well encompass themes and elements we might – in different ways – require as “kitsch”: the flowers in the hair, the “soft focus”, the posed nature, the themes of gardens and faeries, there can be no denying that each piece within this collection is beautifully executed as a work of art, and the pieces collective are an expression of art and talent that is richly evocative. As an adjunct to this, Mareea also asks us to consider kitsch more widely, pointing our thinking – if we are so inclined – towards how it might be considered as broadly as within the topic of politics…

However, I’ll leave that for you to discover and close this piece by saying this is a engaging, easy-to-view selection of art, whether you opt to see it in its own light, or through the lens Mareea casts upon it in her introduction.

SLurl Details

•  IMAGOLand Gallery (Stairways to Heaven rated Moderate)