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.
Kondor Art Centre: LikaCameo – Endless
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.
Kondor Art Centre: LikaCameo – Endless
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.
Kondor Art Centre: LikaCameo – Endless
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).
Hashima, February 2023 – click any image for full size
Occupying a Full private region leverage the Land Capacity bonus, Hashima Island (or more simply, Hashima, given the -shima suffix can mean “island” alongside the more familiar (to western ears) rendaku form of Jima) is the latest regions design by Titus Palmira, Sofie Janic and Megan Prumier, appearing in-world under the “Skrunda” banner.
Like Skrunda-2, which I wrote about in February 2021 and again in November 2021, and which was modelled after the Soviet-era township / base of Skrunda in Latvia, Hashima is modelled after a physical world location which might not be otherwise well known to many: a tiny abandoned island situated some 15 km from the centre of Nagasaki, and one of over 500 uninhabited islands lying within the greater Nagasaki Prefecture.
Hashima, February 2023
Known to locals as Gunkanjima – “Warship Island”, more usually referenced as “Battleship Island” – it is a place indelibly linked to Japan’s industrialisation in the late 19th / early 20th centuries, and which has more recently been a focus of some international controversy. It is said that the nickname arose in the 1920’s and was due to the resemblance the silhouette of the island had, when seen from the city, with the the hulk of the inter-war battleship Tosa.
The latter had been been launched just months before Japan signed the Washington Naval Treaty of 2022, which effectively outlawed warships of her intended size and armament. As a result, her hull, sans its big guns and much of its superstructure, lay in Nagasaki harbour for much of 1922 prior to her being towed to the Seto Sea, to be used as a target for the Imperial Japanese Navy whilst testing new gun and torpedo systems.
Hashima photographed in 1930, when it had gained the local nickname “Gunship Island”. Credit: Shinkosha publications
By the time of the Tosa’s construction, however, Hashima had already been continuously occupied for more than 30 years. It had come to prominence as the Meiji Restoration sought to establish Japan as an economic and military powerhouse under the slogan Enrich the country, strengthen the military from the 1890s onwards, spurring massively accelerated industrial growth within the country. Coal was known to lie beneath the island, so as part of this drive, Mitsubishi purchased the island to exploit the coal reserves beneath and under the surrounding seabed.
Four deep shafts were cut through the island’s rock to reach the undersea coal seams, and by 1916 work was underway to both expand the island through land reclamation and offer better protection for its growing workforce. In particular, this lead to the construction of large sea wall defences and the first large-scale use of concrete in the construction of extensive housing in Japan through the development of the island’s 7-storey tall apartment blocks, designed to give workers and their families better protection from typhoons.
Hashima, February 2023
The island’s coal production reached its zenith in the late 1950s, when it was home to over 5,000 inhabitants – which is a lot for an island roughly 16 acres in size. It boasted a school, a playground, swimming pool, cinema, welfare centre, shops, a shrine and a hospital – all packed into a space just 480 metres long and 160 metres across. However, the rapid rise of oil and gas in Japan during the 1960s saw an equally rapid decline in the country’s use of coal. By January 1974 Mitsubishi decided continued mining, even at a reduced scale, was no longer viable on the island, and so closed down the pits and within three months had completed removed all inhabitants and all salvageable equipment, leaving the buildings and streets to nature.
For their interpretation of the island, Sofie and Megan offer a setting post the April 1974 island clearance, with nature in a state of rapid take-over – although there are still signs of some activity: steam rises from one area of plant, smoke periodically belches from the finger of a chimney stack, and a small fresh fish market is open on the pier where tourists would normally make their landing. How much of the build is based on the actual Hashima and how much has been pulled from the creator’s imaginations is unclear.
Hashima, February 2023
The apartment blockhouses clustered to one end of the island offer a reasonable facsimile, but some liberties appear to have been taken in the placement of features such as the mine shafts (one of which rather imaginatively leads to a hidden cafeteria). Similarly, while the island’s shrine is represented, the “stairway to hell” which climbed up to it has been replaced by a more roundabout route to reach it.
Not that these differences from the actual island diminish the build in any way; there are plenty of references about Hashima to be found on the web – I would certainly suggest this interactive tour – so those with an interest can research the original with ease; and the build itself is atmospheric enough to give more than a good flavour of the original and encourage one to learn more about its history.
Hashima, February 2023
In 2002, Mitsubishi relinquished their ownership of the island, with Nagasaki city now holding jurisdiction over it. It has been the subject of limited tours 2009 onwards, which is also the year in which the current controversy concerning the island first arose. It was in 2009 that Japan first applied to UNESCO for Hashima and 22 other sites within the country to be awarded World Heritage Site status for their roles in the nation’s development. This led to objections from both South Korea and China on the grounds that from the 1930s through to the end of the Asia–Pacific War, Korean and Chinese nationals were forcibly moved to the island and made to work the mines.
South Korea maintained its objections through until 2015, when Japan agreed to admit the use of forced labour at Hashima and other locations during the war, and to establish a full record of this at visitor centres related to the UNSECO sites. However, immediately following UNESCO granting World Heritage status to the sites, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida effectively walked back the agreement, and UNESCO has remained critical of Japan for failing to acknowledge the full history of the island, with the Japanese government refusing to adhere to the agreement as recently at December 2022.
Hashima, February 2023
In the meantime, and while it might not be widely known in terms of its role in the industrialisation of Japan, Hashima is likely known to film goers around the world as the fictitious “deserted island off the coast of Macau” which served as one of the setting for the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, in 2015. It was also indirectly referenced in a 2017 South Korean war film, The Battleship Island, which told the fictional story of an attempt by Korean labourers imprisoned on the island to make their escape.
Rich in historical context, and a springboard for explorations both in-world and across the web to capture the story of its namesake, Hashima Island is an engaging place to visit.
Lost Unicorn Gallery:Dusty (DustinPedroia) – Feb 2023
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.
Lost Unicorn Gallery:Dusty (DustinPedroia) – Feb 2023
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.
Lost Unicorn Gallery:Dusty (DustinPedroia) – Feb 2023
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.
Grand Garden, February 2023 – click any image for full size
Elyjia Baxton has a long association with regions designs in Second Life, be it those of her own, or created in collaboration with others or on behalf of others, many of which I’ve covered in these pages. So when she invited me to hop along and visit her latest work, it quickly went up towards the top of my list of places to visit.
Grand Garden, February 2023
Ely’s Grand Garden is a public space Elyjia has designed on behalf of R&G Estates. Located within Nautilus, it presents an opportunity to wander along gravel paths, view the houses offered for rent on either side and make your way through parts of the broader R&G Estate within the region – and even find your way to Ely’s own studio.
At the Grand Garden in Salerio you will find twelve intimate waterfront locations surrounded by gardens, three grand gardens to admire and walk in peaceful nature alone or with friends, one playground, and a rezzer station for boats. It is an enchanting place near the Blake Sea. Take a walk in the gardens, relax, and have fun.
– Grand Garden Destination Guide entry
Grand Garden, February 2023
The landing point sits towards the middle of the region in which the park sits, alongside one of the public pavilions within the gardens. From here the paths run in several directions, with the main one running north to hop back and forth over the stream to reach a broader waterway cutting into the region, crossed by a broad wooden bridge.
North of this, the path continues between a further stream on one side and a large natural pool on the other, fed by falls dropping from the curtain walls of rock which border the gardens here on two sides. A second path switchbacks away from the pavilion sitting alongside the pool and the channel bridge, paralleling the channel as it cuts deeper into the region.
Grand Garden, February 2023
To avoid trespass, the rental houses are set back from the public footpaths, their parcels generally marked by fences if they connect directly to the gardens, with a gate to provide renters with access to the gardens if they want.
With places to sit: benches, chairs and tables, a rowing boat rocking on the pond – while waterfowl fly overhead and rest on rocks, foxes wander the paths whilst a gentle soundscape of flow water from the streams and bird song filling the air. All of which makes for an engaging and relaxing visit.
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.
Imago Art Galleries: Carelyna – Vague Disclosures
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?
Imago Art Galleries: Carelyna – Vague Disclosures
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.
The Ocean Care World Alliance (OCWA) is a group of environmentalists concerned about the negative impact we are having on the world’s oceans and marine life the pollution, dumping and more. Utilising the opportunities presented by virtual tools, they aim to provide a better understanding of our marine environments and the need to protect the vitual role they play as part of the world’s ecosystem, working in partnership with the SEE Turtles Organisation.
Within Second Life OCWA – founded by JT Castanea and SL partner Megs (megscandles) – hosts the Experience The Ocean, which occupies and Full private region adjoining a Homestead region and an Openspace region, each of which play a role in OCWA’s facilities.
OCWA Experience The Ocean, February 2023 – click any image for full size
Our mission is to educate and create awareness of current human impact on marine environments. Using science, technology and the virtual world platform, we can promote more public involvement through support of ocean conservation organisations.
– OCWA Experience the Ocean mission statement
Visits begin on the deck of the main structure in the region – a facility which might be imagined as a re-purposed oil or gas rig, now serving in the role of a Marine Science Centre – a conservation, rescue and research facility and home to OCWA events and educational activities. It forms the main landing point for the facilities, and for those visiting as a part of an educational tour, offering plenty of space for gathering the group together on arrival.
The main level of the centre provides the OCWA’s mission statement (above) and the Sea Turtle information hall in one wing and the ocean virtual learning centre in the other.
OCWA Experience The Ocean, February 2023
The latter takes the form of nine numbered media stations, providing information on a range of ocean-related subjects. These can be activated by hovering the mouse over any one of them (or clicking on it) to display the related web page. The screens do not necessarily have to be followed in numerical order, as each provides self-contained information. The former, by contrast offers a set of information displays on sea turtles that, which clicked, will offer a link to an external web page.
Above these halls can be found the Ocean Art Gallery and the centre’s auditorium for educational and related events / activities, while the upper level is home to office space and access to the centre’s helipad and – more particularly – open-air event space for musical performances.
OCWA Experience The Ocean, February 2023
Also within the centre are information kiosks and display boards, the former providing further links to ocean-related conservation and educational groups, such as The 5 Gyres¹ Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation focusing on reducing plastics pollution in rivers, lakes and the oceans through research and education.
On the deck of the centre is the Lunasea Memorial Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Hospital, representing the work put into rehabilitating and releasing turtles affected by pollution and ingesting plastic particulates that result from the saltwater breakdown of certain plastics dumped in the sea. It is here that visitors can obtain a note card to join a unique role-play experience: the Rescue a Virtual Turtle Experience. This takes place in the regions to the south – Whale Fall and Vida de Tortuga. Click the information board for details when visiting the Hospital.
OCWA Experience The Ocean, February 2023
Beneath the centre are the docks servicing the centre’s submersibles and research boats and, below that on the seabed, an undersea laboratory. These can be reached via the teleport stations found around the centre, stations which also provide access to the remaining outdoor locations in the main region. The latter take the form of the Alaska Fossil Beach to the east, and to an area modelled on the south the Cape St. Francis lighthouse and Seal Point, South Africa. Both offer opportunities for surfing, whilst the docks offer the chance to go kayaking using single or 2-seater boats, with little motor boats also available.
With opportunities to donate to SEE Turtles throughout the centre and the regions, the notes opportunities for activities and plenty of ways to learn about the oceanic ecosystems, Experience The Ocean makes for an engaging and potentially educational visit.
A gyre is a large circular r spiral motion or form. It is particularly used in reference to giant circular oceanic surface currents. In all there are five major subtropical gyres in the worlds oceans (hence “5 Gyres”) – North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, South Pacific and and the Great Pacific (itself split into to east and west), all of are home to an estimated 270,000 tonnes of plastic dumped in ocean (which is less than 1% of the new plastic made in a single year).
