Category: Reviews

Art is a powerful means of expression. Among its many abilities, it can enthral, delight, puzzle, confuse, evoke feelings, provoke reactions, entice, suggest, and tell stories. It can also be a vehicle by which life – either as a whole or just that of the artist – can be reflected, examined, quantified, dissected, displayed, and offered for commentary, be it by the audience witnessing it, or (again) by the artist.

Thus, both its production and in its viewing, art can be cathartic for artist and audience alike, and this is certainly true for two small but utterly engaging exhibitions I’ve visited over the last couple of days.

The first is by Traci Ultsch, an artist who has only relatively recently started exhibiting her art in Second Life (her first in-world exhibition being in November 2020), but is who has more than demonstrated that she is an artist who can both evoke and provoke through her work in the most compelling of ways and with a richness of narrative. These traits are fully on display at Mareea Farrasco’s IMAGOLand art spaces, which is currently hosting Overdose by Traci.

A small collection of five large-format pieces that offer a double-dive into matters of addiction which are presented in such a way that both their design and their presentation to have much to say about the subject.

I say double-dive because, as Traci notes in her introduction to Overdose, this is an exhibition that can be viewed in two ways:

The first view is a personal one looking at my past experiences with drugs and drug use. Each image dealing with a drug I’ve been involved with. Heroin, LSD and amphetamines. Which directly led to several overdoses and the problems following that.

Another view deals more with the overdose of general life itself and the pressures that can lead to the need for escape.

Whether one takes the first or second of these interpretations, there is no doubt that the images presented in Overdose exhibit a raw, loud power that is reflective of both the often skewed view of reality and self that drugs can induce, together with the highs (e.g. sense of Godhood / power, moments of starling clarity) and lows (loss of self, blurring of reality and the unreal, paranoia and withdrawal), and the cacophony of life that seems to increasingly haul us towards an all-or-nothing series of extremes, from the constant outpouring of streamed television through to the demands of skewed politics, religion and more that demand everything be measured in terms of being either “for” or “against”, to the ever widening social gaps between classes. and so on.

Placed within a confined space, even the size of the pictures speak to the pressures of being constantly immersed / unable to escape no matter where we turn. They are, in short overwhelming – as can be the allure of drugs and/or the demands of life; whilst the hospital beds floating in the air offer a further statement on both aspects of Overdose and its meaning.

Often when it comes to art, Retrospective is used in terms of presenting a selection of past works that speak to the artist’s life and work to date. However, for her exhibition that is currently taking place in Dido’s space at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, Sina Souza uses the term and the pieces she is exhibiting to present a personal statement in a similar vein as might be seen within Traci’s – stories of personal struggles – as Sina similarly explains in introducing the exhibit:

[This] is an exhibition about struggles in my past, wrong decisions that I have made or experiences that I have gained.

It is a path between depression, strokes of fate and the problem of trusting others. But it’s not just a look back at what’s behind me, it is also a kind of self reflection, a step forward, a way to learn from mistakes and to grow from experiences. Sometimes we need to look back to look ahead.

Thus we have personal, but again compelling pieces, the majority of which are presented in black-and-white, but all of which have a story contained within it – be it a message about the benefits of thinking outside of the box in whatever situation we find ourselves in, through to the weight of time that can often drag at us.

Richly evocative, powerful in narrative and deeply personal, these are two exhibitions in which the artists expose as much of themselves as they do their work. As such they are both deserving of being seen.

SLurl Details

• Overdose, IMAGOLand (Broken Mountain, rated Moderate)
• Retrospective, Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated Moderate)

I recently had occasion to drop into the Inspira Gallery of Art operated and curated by Mark Uladstron. At the time of my visit, the gallery was advertising itself as being in a “new waterside location” – although I have to admit, it is not a gallery I’d previously come across, so my apologies to Mark for not having done so sooner.

Occupying a two-storey building, the gallery also presents itself as a museum of art, combining exhibitions of art from both the physical world and created through the medium of Second Life, the Former coming in presenting reproductions of works by some of the most influential artists  – east and west – of their respective ages, These are all presented on the lower floor of the gallery, and at the time of my visit featured Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and Gu Kaizhi (Changkang).

This is the first gallery museum I’ve visited in quite a while that offers an audio tour of some of the works on display (the very first art museum I visited that did so was the Vordun back in 2016 – see: The Vordun: a new art experience in Second Life). Here, the audio tour is provided for the exhibits of Picasso’s and da Vinci’s works. It is facilitated by a HUD which should be offered as you enter the gallery, but if not, it can be obtained by clicking the blue globe at the reception desk, and while not a necessity for a visit, I would recommend using it.

Once added to your screen, and unlike other tours of this nature, the HUD isn’t tied to a local experience, but is triggered by simply entering a hall where the tour in enabled. When you have done so, the palyback buttons are activated, and you just need to tap ESC on your keyboard a couple of ties to ensure your camera is free, then press the central Play / Stop toggle button in on the HUD. Doing so will trigger the HUD’s scripts and focus your camera on the first image within the exhibit  and trigger the associated audio track, together with a text display in local chat. In addition:

• Clicking the “fast forward” or “rewind” buttons on the HUD will position your camera at the next painting in the sequence (or the previous, if moving back through an exhibit), again, triggering an audio / text exposition.
• Clicking the Stop / Play button will re-centre the camera on your avatar, halting the audio / text. Providing you do not leave the hall, clicking the PLAY / STOP button again will centre the camera back on the last painting examined by the HUD and resume the audio / text expositions from there.
• If you prefer, you can disable the text display or the audio by clicking either the Closed Caption or Audio toggle buttons directly under the main playback buttons.
• Two further buttons will invite you to join the Inspire art group or receive a landmark to the gallery respectively.

The audio files appear to be drawn from a variety of sources, with some sounding slightly artificial / electronic in nature. The alternate between various male and female speakers, and the provided information strikes a good balance between being informative whilst avoiding going on too long.

As the audio doesn’t extend to the hall featuring Gu Kaizhi’s work, traditional museum-style information displays are provided for in-world reading. It would perhaps be nice to see these information plinths also offering a note card when clicked to help thought who might find reading such in-world text difficult, but again the information that is provided in informative and adds to the experience of a visit.

A noted politician, painter, poet, calligrapher and author – he wrote three influential books on the theory of painting – Gu is most noted today for his silk scroll paintings, which form the focus on the exhibit at Inspira.

Stairs hidden behind the reception desk offer the way to the upper floor of the gallery, where two halls are devoted to Second Life artists. At the time of my visit, these were showing landscape images by the always captivating Rachel Magic (larisalyn) and pieces by Thomaz (Thomaz Blackburn). Between the halls is a cosy café / venue area, where images by Mark’s SL partner, Lisa Cruise (lisacruise), might be appreciated / purchased.

I will admit to being surprised that the reproductions of the images by da Vinci, Picasso and Gu are offered for sale. While I appreciate galleries, etc., in-world need to cover the cost of tier, seeing the images available via right-click buy did raise concerns (e.g. the potential for transgressing copyright on owned works or contravening any established Creative Commons (or other) licence that might be applicable, etc).

However, this discomfiture duly noted, I will say that the Inspira Gallery of Art does makes for an engaging visit, and I particularly enjoyed becoming acquainted with Thomaz’s SL art, and the opportunity to see more of Rachel’s work on display.

SLurl Details

• Inspira Gallery of Art (Scheveningen, rated Moderate)

Currently open at her gallery  space in Second Life is a new exhibition by Selen Minotaur. On the Move is a celebration of movement and life centred on Selen’s photography whilst combining setting, images, 3D art and the written word to present an environment which Selen describes thus:

The installation is meant to be a place out of time, where sculptures by Mistero Hifeng and Cherry Manga  blend into a décor between surreal and fantasy with a majestic dome (designed and built by Luxor Ragnarok AK moebius9), [displaying] unpublished photographs of mine, suspended like stars, and poetry by Andrée Chedid are projected on the floor.

– Selen Minotaur on On the Move

This is an environment in which visitors must have Advanced Lighting Model active (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced Lighting Model is checked), and if your system can handle them, also enable shadows. Viewer should also be set to Use Shared Environment (World menu → Environment → Use Shared Environment).

With the viewer correctly set, On the Move can be reached either directly – as per the SLurls in this post -, or by clicking on the Map teleport globe outside of Selen’s main gallery (a similar sphere at On the Move will teleport visitors back to the gallery).

On arrival, I strongly recommend just moving slightly clear of the landing point and then allowing everything to rez / render fully so that the complete setting can be properly appreciated: the outer, water-borne space with the sculptures referenced by Selen, the inner garden and the dome with its display of art.All three are wrapped within the installation’s core themes, from the rippling of life-giving and sustaining water, through the symbolism of the violin and bow and music created by the movement of one upon the other, the timelessness of the cosmos as seen the the motion of the star-like motes that float through the garden, and more.

Within the dome, Selen displays her work in two ways: as a series of animated canvases circling slowing under the dome’s roof, and as panels placed around the dome between its columns which display the images in turn. These are pieces in which life and art are joyously celebrated, each conveying a perfect sense of motion which in turn offers a story, whilst mood is additionally set by projections of Andrée Chedid’s poems on the floor.

There is a timelessness through the installation that is captivating, a fusing of environment, lighting, framing through the use of water and the dome, and even the manner in which the art is presented through the slowly circling (and rotating) canvases.

Whilst double-sided, the twelve pieces carry something of a mystical edge to to them: they float in what might be regarded as a starlit sky that suggests they float like the signs of the zodiac, their slow circling marking the passage of time and the seasons, their rotation a metaphor for the more frequent passage of time as we experience it through the passage of days.

The opening of the exhibition featured a dance recital featuring Mist (Procrati Mistwallow) dancing to new compositions by Dandy Pianoman (pianoman1968) and supported by bass player Kali Beeswing that also encapsulated the core themes of life and motion within the exhibit. For those who were unable to attend, two video screens within the dome offer the opportunity to watch a machinima of the installation which includes aspects of the performance.

Captivating, evocative and vibrant, On the Move is well worth immersing oneself in, both for the art and for the environment itself.

SLurl Details

• On the Move (Selen’s Gallery, Royale, rated Moderate)