Category: Art in Second Life

Currently open in the skies above GlastonBelli on the mainland continent of Corsica sits Limitations are Self-Imposed a 3D installation by Regi Yifu.

The essential idea appears simple enough: a rainbow-hued series of walls interspersed with the shadowy forms of trees around and between which shade-like birds fly, forms a maze visitors are invited to walk. However, appearances are deceptive. Finding your way around the maze to its heart isn’t simply a matter of trying to pick the correct route between the high walls.

This becomes apparent as soon as one enters the maze: the walls are actually phantom, allowing people to pass through them. So why the maze? The clue is in the title of the piece: all too often the limitations we place in life are self-imposed, either personally or by the strictures of our environment.

We make ourselves follow lines of thinking / belief / the demands of society when trying to grow or learn or achieve, and as a result, we frustratingly come across walls that seem to block our way, causing us to stop, turn back and try again using a different approach – one that may succeed or may lead to further frustration. But what if we didn’t? Rather than turning aside, what if we just kept pushing forward and pushing through the apparent barriers we face?

Many of the world’s ideas and innovations have been achieved in this manner: by pushing against limits, by turning aside and moving outside of “traditional thinking / approaches.

True, doing so may not always yield the immediate result we hope for – there might be further barriers to work through / around; by pushing through one barrier might lead to initial confusion as much as trying to follow traditional thinking, and so on.  This, too, is reflected by Regi’s maze: pushing through a wall here and another there can lead you to a point where progress has been made, but you’re not at the heart of the maze – and it’s no longer clear where that centre is; you need to pause, reorient – and then push onwards.

A simple but layered installation that is also fun to visit.

SLurl Details

• Limitations are Self-Imposed (Sevenfold, rated General)

Now open at Kultivate Magazine’s The Edge Gallery is a new ensemble exhibition of art to take us through the end of May and into June 2022.

The Edge is the home of black-and-white art displays at Kultivate’s home of Water Haven, making it a particular attraction for me, as I very much appreciate monochrome and black-and-white art, and have been endeavouring to develop my own technique with it, which I may get around to showing at some point.

This exhibition at The Edge opened on May 22nd, and is without a given theme, allowing the artists free rein over the pieces they’ve selected to display. The participating artists are: Dawnbeam Dreamscape, Sophia Galewind, Lena Kiopak, Maaddi, Hannah Starlight, Tacca Exotic, Vita Theas and Myra Wildmist.

As might be expected from such a gathering, the pieces on offer leans very much towards being avatar-focused, with three of the artists – Lena Kiopak, Hannah Starlight and Tacca Exotic opting to display a single piece each, all in a large format.

Lena is one of only two artists in the gathering to completely avoid avatars in her image(s), leaving The Passage as an powerfully eye-catching piece which calls to the observer, beckoning them to walk its length and into the waiting story. Similarly, Hannah’s His Song is highly sensual and artistically given whilst Tacca’s Emergence-1 matches the power of The Passage, but in a wholly different way.

The other artists to avoid avatar is Vita Theas, who once again present six superbly processed and presented landscape pieces rich in life, whilst Sophia and and Maadi offer a mix of avatar studies and landscapes – with Sophia’s b r e a t h e again particularly capturing my eye. Myra, meanwhile offers a set of five images that together form Myra Dances, something of a life and motion study.

SLuel Details

• Kultivate The EdgeGallery (Water Haven, rated Moderate)

Almost Blue(s) is an ensemble exhibition featuring the work of 16 artists brought together in the gallery spaces at Vibes Gallery, curated by Eviana (eviana Robbiani).

The introduction to the exhibition speaks pretty much for itself – and is expanded upon in the halls itself.

Because blue is favoured by so many people, it is often seen as a non-threatening colour that can seem conservative and traditional. Blue brings to mind feelings of calm or serenity. It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure and orderly. Blue is often seen as a sign of stability and reliability.

The artists participating in the exhibition comprise:

• Theatre 7: Kimeu Korg, Meilo Minotaur, Shane Spero, Sonic and Karma Weymann.
• Theatre 8: Peachy Holst, Kiron, Hermes Kondor, Anaya Oneiro and Tutsy Navarathna.
• Theatre 9: Mya Audebarn, Evie Heights, Matt Marcus, Jo Molinaro, Ooxooi and Cate Vogel.

The majority of the artists offer two or three images that encompass the overall blue theme, with the majority of the images taking the form of avatar studies, some of which use blue tinting / lighting to convey a mood / emotion (as with Jo Molinaro. Mya Audebarn or Anaya Oneiro) or offer a narrative frame for a story (e.g. Matt Marcus or Tutsy Navarathna). Some sway toward broader tonal pieces to convey emotion / ideas (e.g. Kiron or Ooxooi), whilst all offer an engaging and richly diverse series on pieces that demonstrate individual talents to the fullest.

Adding a sense of emotion and depth to each of the theatres are additional words – the lyrics from Almost Blue by Elvis Costello, the represents of music through the colour blue – or, if you prefer, the description of the tones musical instruments in terms of the colour blue -, which serve to add a further layer of interpretation to the pieces on display.

With pieces that both contract and compliment whilst reflecting and interpreting the central theme through multiple ideas, forms and narratives, Almost Blue(s) is an engaging exhibition set out within a gallery space that doesn’t leave you feeling overwhelmed by the pieces on display.

SLurl Details

• Vibes Gallery (Isola Del Giglio, rated: Adult)

Masks. Whether physical or otherwise, have always been a part of humankind’s multi-faceted cultures, and also a part of life itself.

Every day we use masks of one form or another, whether we recognise this fact or not, as a means of projection and / or as a means to try to shape how others perceive us (for example: the manner in which we project ourselves at work, is not the same as how we present ourselves among family; who we are in courtship is not necessarily reflective of who we are going to be in marriage, and so on).

We use these masks so subconsciously, that the majority of times we’re not really aware of them. Even when we are alone, we will often adopt and outlook or frame of mind to mask the anxieties and fears that might otherwise plague us. However, there is another way we use masks: to hide that which we do not wish to see. Whether it is the homeless man asleep on a park bench or the images of war and strife on the television or those fears the come upon us in the night,  we mask them out out by focusing our attention elsewhere in the park or in the room or in our thoughts, so we are no longed plagued by what we are seeing / thinking.

It is these latter uses of masks – the tuning out, the looking elsewhere, and on on – that Milena Carbone uses as the central theme to her latest exhibition, called simply Masks, and which is currently open within her personal gallery space at the Carbone Gallery.

I wanted to explore our relationship to the mask, an object that dates back to the beginnings of time mankind … to ask the question of the masks that we do not see as masks; what hides our sight, our anxieties, our fears, ours disgusts; what hides the real that we do not wish to see. 

Milena Carbone

Offering a series of nine images (together with support texts and quote) in the minimalist style that Milena executes so well, Masks explores our subconscious use of masks and projection in a manner that is both stark and richly nuanced, each with layers of narrative to be peeled away.

For my part, I found myself drawn to The Tyranny of Truth, with its triple layering of ideas of courtship, the manner in which “truth” can be used as means to enforce authoritarianism (look at the stance of the figure in white), or an inconvenience to be denied, shied away from (the attitude of the masked figure), together with We’re Fictions and Burned Out.

These latter two in particular framed – and to me – the ideas that whether we are aware of it or not, we frame ourselves in so many masks we risk losing ourselves within fictional projections and that when all has been peeled away of the masks in which we shroud ourselves, nought by a shell of whom we might have been remains. In this, We’re Fictions and Burned Out brought to mind two further quotes which might also frame this exhibition along with the Banksy quote (itself a variation on Wilde’s more famous comment on masks) Milena uses with the exhibition, and those quotes are:

You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.

– Alan Moore

And:

We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.

– André Berthiaume

Masks is a carefully understated exhibition that actually has a lot to say.

SLurl Details

• Masks – The Carbone Studio (Woiler, rated Moderate)

Update, June 27th, 2022: Art Korner has Closed.

Currently open within Frank Atisso’s Art Korner hub is Forgotten Ghosts by Nara Marcus (Nara Ghost), a quite captivating series of black and white studies that are wrapped within a personal theme whilst each piece carries its own narrative mood – although I very much doubt what is offered in terms of theme and narratives will be lost on any of us, as Forgotten Ghosts very much holds up a mirror into which we can all gaze.

Life can be a complicated thing. We can have periods when everything seems to be ganging up on us: tasks take longer to complete than expected, or become overly onerous; moods plummet; people around us all appear to be operating in their own gloom; worries about just about everything – life, work, health, kinds, parents, finance, etc., – seem to build themselves into insurmountable peaks all around us, and so on. But then circumstances change, and we find ourselves bursting through them, with life becoming brighter, lighter and something to be enjoyed – yet even when this happens, those darker times haunting us and perhaps informing us.

These latter times – when feeling good, but the shadows are lurking – are the moments Nara explores within Forgotten Ghosts, part of the exhibition title reflects her avatar’s name, thus emphasising the personal perspective contained within the 16 images on display, something further emphasised in her use of urban environments for the images in reflection of the fact she is from a city background.

These are all images that have been carefully posed and constructed – and quite beautifully so – to capture the personal moods Nara wishes to convey. However, their brilliance lies in the fact that while personal to her, they each carry a richness of mood, emotion and / or narrative with which anyone viewing these pieces can identify. This is likely because, as Nara notes herself when introducing the exhibition, we tend to be more driven by the things that haunt us than those that don’t.

Every day, I try to live a healthy and happy SL, but the darker and moody vibes seem to be easier to connect with and drive me to create. I hope you appreciate it as much as I did, like the entire process and the end outcome.

– Nara Marcus (Nara Ghost)

All of which make for an evocative and engaging display of art.

SLurl Details

• Forgotten Ghosts, Art Korner (Deju, rated Moderate)