Category: Reviews

Milly Sharple’s Meanderings in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Meanderings: Milly Sharple at The Janus Gallery

Milly Sharple is a remarkable artist, creator and patron of the arts in Second Life. An artist and photographer in the physical world, she has always enjoyed art and artistic expression, particularly that of fractal art, a technique she started using in 2005.  It’s a medium in which she has gained deserved recognition: she has sold pieces around the globe, had them used as book and CD cover art and as promotional material, and has had her work used on the face of the bank cards issued by an Indonesian bank. Her work has even brought her to the attention of Salvador Dali’s protégé, Louis Markoya, who asked her to collaborate with him.

Milly was perhaps one of the first artists to bring fractal art to Second Life after she joined in 2008. Gaining familiarity with the platform, it became a place where she understandably wanted to exhibit her work, and following her initial exhibitions, she started receiving multiple invitations to display her work. She thus became immersed in the Second Life arts community, establishing her own gallery and also the Timamoon Arts Community, a place where artists could find a gallery home and like minds, and over the course of four years, she grew Timamoon into one of the most successful arts communities in Second Life.

Meanderings: Milly Sharple at The Janus Gallery

For her incredible and expressive fractal art, Milly uses the Apophysis software package, which allows her to create soft, flowing, liquid effects that sets her work apart from other, more rigidly geometric fractal art with which we might be familiar as it is displayed in Second Life. This approach gives her work a stunningly organic look and feel, rich in life and often encompassing the intricate beauty of the Mandelbrot set.

However, Milly is not constrained to only producing fractal art; as a mixed media artist her expressive range is broad and deep – and I have long been an admirer of this aspect of her work as much as I am her fractal art. Indeed, I’m honoured to be able to have a copy of what I regard as one of the most engaging pieces of art in my modest personal collection -her  Woman with Cat – hanging on the wall at our SL home. As  with her fractal work, Milly’s mixed media art couples a rich use of colour with an etching-like finish to bring individual pieces to life in the most incredible manner.

Meanderings: Milly Sharple at The Janus Gallery

I mention all of this because Milly has a new exhibition of work currently being hosted at Chuck Clip’s Janus Gallery, which opened on September 27th.

Meanderings brings together all of the above elements of Milly’s art and adds to it with a selection of her black-and-white portrait studies in a captivating microcosm of her talent. On display are seven large-format fractal pieces (with the patterns of two repeated on benches in the gallery’s two halls, and a third mirrored and inverted in the foyer that so blends with the décor, it might easily be overlooked), eight monochrome portraits and eight mixed-media pieces that are – without being in any way superlative – utterly stunning.

These latter pieces bring together all aspects of Milly’s art: her fractal work, her skills as a portrait artist and her  expressiveness as a mixed media creator; there is a richness of life about them that is utterly absorbing, Similarly, the depth of life in the black-and-white portraits cannot fail to hold the eye; these are pieces that, whether inspired by real people or their images, or have been drawn entirely from Milly’s imagination, not only capture the likeness of the subject, but offer a very real sense of their life essence. Further, these monochrome pieces share a strong sense of narrative flow that can also be found within each of the mixed media pieces, thus presenting a thematic thread to connect them, whilst their arrangement around two of the much larger (and richly organic) fractal pieces offers a natural visual connection to them.

Meanderings: The Mystic and The Flirt (with its hint of Kate Bush) two of the entrancing mixed media pieces presented by Milly at The Janus Gallery
Taken together the three styles of art present within Meanderings offer a rewarding introduction to Milly’s art for those unfamiliar with it whilst also offering a unique thematic and narrative flow through the differing mediums, making this both an engaging and outstanding exhibition.

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Talia’s Still Waters in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Still Waters, September 2020 – click any image for full size

I’ve long appreciated the region design work of Talia (Natalia Corvale),  having written about her designs for Broken several times. So it was with a sense of anticipation that I hopped over to Still Waters, a further homestead region she recently opened to the public at large. And as someone who appreciates open spaces and rural settings that can have some subtle quirks, I  found myself instantly at home and appreciative.

Still Waters is a prime example of sensible region design, one in which consideration of layout, theme, and thoughtful selection of items give rise to a setting that is self-consistent and rich in detail but doesn’t unnecessarily tax the computer running the viewer. Multiple use of landscape elements helps reduce the use of unique high-res textures, whilst considered placement ensures the viewer is not burdened at any point by a mass assault of mesh demanding to be rendered.

Still Waters, September 2020

The region sits as an island sitting within an almost entirely land-locked lake occupying a bowl formed by three-covered hills. I say lake rather than coastal inlet, as the ducks and swans swimming the waters would indicate they are freshwater, rather than of the salted variety. This water sweeps into the island to form a broad bay, the land reduced to a curved ribbon of green and autumnal hues, backed to the west by a ridge of uplands that broaden to the north to become a broad terrace of rock overlooking the bay, whilst dropping down to the south to become a low-ling headland.

The landing point sits at the mid-point in the curve of the bay’s shore, a wide deck built out over the water, a wooden lodge standing behind it waiting to greet visitors. The deck offers numerous places to sit, including in the rowing boat tied-up alongside, together with a small summer house sitting to one side between deck and lodge. The lodge is cosily furnished – as are all the buildings presented in the region – and visitors can wander through it to the back door, or around it from the deck, according to their preference.

Still Waters, September 2020

South from the lodge, a wooden bridge passes over a narrow channel of water. This flows under an arched canopy formed by two lines of four plane trees apiece, standing on either bank of the channel. They serve to shade the channel and hide a small, comfortably furnished gazebo sitting over the water, warmed by its own fireplace.

The bridge leads to way to a meadow of long grass, the home of a wagon, horses and a tractor. Check the horses carefully, and you’ll find one is a Water Horse that’s available for a visitor to ride (if you have a wearable Water Horse or Teagle, you can also wear and ride that for exploration). Beyond the meadow, the grass shortens and two quirky tree houses await discovery and exploration, a winding path linking them.

Still Waters, September 2020

West and north of the landing point, the land remains open and grassy before climbing up to the northern headland and its table of rock. Gabled gates mark the patch up to the top of these uplands, watched over by another open-sided pavilion offering seating before a stone fireplace, and a little garden chair sitting on the lip of the promontory above the path.

At the top of the path sits another wooden house, this one raised about the grass on stout legs, reached by steep steps.  The interior of the house offers another warm welcome with places to sit and bric-a-brac to admire. Young pygmy goats frolic in the field next to the house, their presence an interesting contrast to the general autumnal feel to the region, suggesting as it does a time earlier in the year and the lambing season; something that adds an interesting twist to the setting.

Still Waters, September 2020

Still Waters is a genuinely peaceful, gentle setting, rich in outdoor spaces (something sorely needed as many of us are once again feeling the pinch of 2020’s lock downs), and with multiple places to sit and appreciate the view and share it with others.

Completely photogenic and rounded-out by a perfect sound scape, this is not a destination to miss.

Still Waters, September 2020

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Milena’s Plead Guilty: a treatise in art in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Plead Guilty: Plead Guilty

Milena Carbone (Mylena1992) opened her latest art installation on September 23rd, 2020. Entitled Plead Guilty, its an installation of for distinct, but locationally and thematically connected exhibition in which the setting – the Adult-rated Noir’Wen City. As with all of Milena’s work, Plead Guilty is intended to get the grey matter sitting between the ears chugging on a four cylinders; it’s also an installation in which the location plays something of an integral role, given the way it struck a chord with Milena as she explored it ahead of her exhibition.

When visiting Noir’Wen City, I was struck by the density: density of urban planning, density of shops and the almost suffocating presence of the pleasure of the flesh…
Noir’Wen City illustrates for me the dead end of our civilisation of pleasure, the headlong rush into hedonism, the need for more and more dopamine for less and less desire …
Within the exhibition Plead Guilty, I wished to denounce this massive massive drift towards addiction, this infernal cycle of the hedonic system of our brain…

– Milena Carbone

Given this description, it might be said that Plead Guilty stands as something of a treatise through art, and as such, its four parts are best visited in the order suggested by Milena through her introductory note cards and the wearable book she has produced on the installation, which can be obtained at the landing points for each of the four installation exhibitions.

Plead Guilty: Nude Is Art

The first of the four parts, Nude Is Art, is located within the Noir’Wen Castle above the Adult club, Les Boudoir des Libertines (the front entrance of which forms the landing point – take the stairs to the right as you look at the club). As the exhibition’s name suggests, it is an extensive collection of nude studies located in the castle’s enclosed courtyard and surrounding rooms on the same level. Ten of the images within the courtyard’s cloisters represent the relationship between a couple, and the natural role nudity plays within it. Thus, it could be said to be a commentary on “nudity as innocence” – an act entirely free from the vice-driven lust, but which,  in the privacy of their home, is a simple expression of love and comfort a couple can feel for one another.

The remaining images within the various rooms are more general in nature, drawn from Milena’s admitted enjoyment of imaging the nude avatar form, and which continues the theme of the more innocent presentation of nudity as a statement of art. However, they are faced by images from real life that show homophobia, violence towards the LBGTQ community, people of colour and women; images that remind us that while society may see itself as “enlightened” and free to accept the needs of desire without love and guilt-free gratification, in actual fact it is still often driven by the intolerance bigotry and petty hatreds that long marred  humanity’s development, and which remain all too present in the world today.

Plead Guilty: Sermon of Madhi

The Sermon of Madhi, located in the city’s church, offers further commentary on the intolerance our society can express. building on a situation Milena first explored in Locked. It tells the story of a homosexual relationship in the style of renaissance religious paintings, with the central triptych expressing the tragic core of the story.

Nine Levels of Love, located within the City’s art centre, takes as its core, Diotima’s Ladder of Love (also referred to as Plato’s Ladder of Love), together with five virtues – knowledge,  empathy, concord, spirituality and justice. These are arranged so that visitors can sit on a ring of five seats, each with an image representing one of the virtues on its upright back, facing the nine paintings inspired by Diotima’s Ladder. The aim is to encourage discussion (amongst multiple visitors) or consideration (if on your own) on the place of virtue in modern life, and the nature of love itself in today’s physical, self-centric world. A mosaic again depicting the crueller, baser aspects of modern life hangs on the wall at the entrance to the exhibit, challenging us to further consider the virtues and idealisms of love espoused within the gallery in the context of the world at large.

Plead Guilty: Nine Levels of Love

The final part of the exhibition, Plead Guilty, is a collection of images found hanging over the main streets of the city. These feature those responsible for Noir’Wen together with friends and volunteers, each study framed against a Police arrest backdrop, and collectively presented by a poem inspired in part by Dante’s Divine Comedy, which can be viewed on-line by touching any of the little cube vendors that sit with a extract of the poem, below each of the portraits as they are strung across the city’s main streets.

This is a complex exhibition to untangle, containing what might at first appear condemnatory statements  given the artist’s opening statement. Take the Plead Guilty portraits hanging over the city streets for example.

The use of the Police mugshot backdrop might initially be seen as accusatory – those pictured being seen as guilty of aiding and promoting through the development and operation of Noir’Wen, the selfish hedonism the installation is attempting to denounce. But look again: the poses within  the images belie this; they offer a genuine take on the individuals feature as they are seen through Milena’s eyes – they are genuine portraits. It is perhaps with a third or at least longer look that the the underlying message might be revealed – the mugshot backdrop hinting that in fact we are all guilty of leading lives driven by a pursuit of happiness that has perhaps turned increasingly selfish over time, and which allows us to use it as veil to ignore the increases in intolerance and bigotry that once again become increasingly apparent in society.

Plead Guilty: Sermon of Madhi

Given all of this, Plead Guilty perhaps isn’t the easiest or most comfortable of installation to face. Each exhibition element requires time to absorb and interpret – so it is as well that (I believe I’m correct in saying) the installation forms a central part on Noir’Wen City’s Autumn Festival that runs through until December 20th, as this offers time to visit and revisit the installation and absorb it. However, for those who appreciate art that carries a theme or social statement, I would encourage taking the time to visit; and for art lovers in general, I would also note that these are all pieces worth viewing even if you prefer to separate them from statements or thematic interpretation, as they are exquisitely  produced and presented.

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Where a journey can begin in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Where Our Journey Begins, September 2020 – click any image for full-size

Open for the Autumn period (or spring, for those living in southern latitudes) is Where Our Journey Begins (I’m assuming the “begings” apparent in the name at the time of our visit is a typo), a Homestead region  designed by Vivian Ewing and Dream Shadowcry.

Offered as a place to relax and take photographs (which can be shared through the region’s Flickr group), it’s a setting that appears to be caught in a forever sunset, quite the romantic time of day (although admittedly, I opted to run my own daylight settings while visiting), and which is visually impressive both in its layout and for one or two ideas it might give to those who like to fiddle with their own homes.

Where Our Journey Begins, September 2020

Where Our Journey Begins sits with a north-south orientation as a horseshoe shaped island, the open end of which looks westward towards the lowering Sun. Cupped within the arms of this horseshoe is a deep inlet, no doubt cut by the waters falling from the high curtain of rock that forms a major part of the island’s eastern aspect, the falls within it sitting as a series of high steps down which the waters tumble to reach the curved bay.

The open end of this bay is spanned by a broad stone bridge that connects the north and south aspects of the island and provides visitors with a landing point. Whatever traffic this bridge once witnessed has now largely passed: its stone surface is now the home of long grass and even young trees have gained a foothold at either end of it’s span. As well as being the landing point, this bridge offers a place to sit and the first opportunities to take photographs within the region as it is subject to the periodic sweeping gaze of the off-shore (but still within the boundary of the region) lighthouse.

Where Our Journey Begins, September 2020

The northern and southern arms of the island offer places to visit and appreciate. To the north, the bridge leads visitors to where a flat-topped table of rock thrusts out from the much higher curtain of waterfalls. A path curls up the side of this table, the easiest way to reach the top. As it does so, it passes the flat toes of the cliffs, a place of long grass shaded by autumn-shaded willows and green fir trees and is the home of a old carousel and its ticket booth and pipe organ.

The top of the table presents a summer house set within its own grounds (but open to the public) and with plenty of detail within and without – I admit to particularly liking the manner in which a glass-walled pavilion has been converted into a cosy outdoor bathroom warmed by its own wood-burning stove.

Where Our Journey Begins, September 2020

Stone steps guarded by old concrete gate posts point the way down from the terrace behind the summer house to a broad lip of rock that offers a secluded hideaway and place to sit. A second path just to the right of the one that rises up the the plateau, slopes gently down to where a small meadow sits under the arms of two huge oak trees and sheltered by a rich growth of the bushes, the home to a wooden gazebo warmed by a stone-built fireplace.

The southern end of the island presents a further table of grass-topped rock, this one lower than the one to the north. It is home to what may have once been farm outbuildings – a windmill and a couple of barns. However, while one of the barns still provides shelter for sheep, this area now looks to be more of a garden space; the second barn has been converted into another little summer house / music room, three of its walls now fitted with windows, the space between it and the other barn fenced as a little wild garden.

Where Our Journey Begins, September 2020

From this southern spur, it is possible to walk down to the island’s shoreline and the shingle beaches that border three sides of it. Two of these beaches offer further places to sit – an open deck to the south, and a little beach house with canvas sides and roof and extended deck to the west. Looking towards the lighthouse, this beach house is fronted by an old pier, matched by one at the foot of the lighthouse, both of them suggest a route between island and lighthouse, although sadly, there is no rowing bone to traverse it. However, you can cam-sit yourself onto the boat tied-up at the lighthouse pier – a method that also lets you avoid the disapproval of the seagulls who have laid claim to both of the old piers!

I’m not sure how long Where Our Journey Begins will remain open to the public. As noted, it’s About Land details indicate it is available for public visits for the “Fall season”, so I presume that as it has apparently only opened recently, it’ll remain available to the public until at least mid-to-late October – but don’t quote me on that!

Where Our Journey Begins, September 2020

Overall, the region makes for a photogenic and engaging visit, although some adjustment to viewer settings might be required to get the best FPS when wandering (I had to switch to a lower draw distance to keep my FPS at least in the teens). It’s a setting that is well put together and offers a lot to discover and appreciate.

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Bamboo Barnes at Ribong Gallery in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bamboo Barnes at Ribong Artspace Gallery, September 2020

Bamboo Barnes is one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists displaying her work in Second Life. Hailing from Japan, Bamboo works with digital tools to produce pieces that are strongly assertive, both in terms their narrative depth and their ability to dominate the space they occupy, rich pieces that speak to the eye and mind.

All of this can be witnessed first-hand at her current exhibition, Receding Reality, which opened at Ribong Gallery’s Artspace 2243, and which opened on September 12th, 2020.

Bamboo Barnes at Ribong Artspace Gallery, September 2020

What is born out of me transforms like water: here is an uncertain ego and an inexhaustible feeling for those who have left.

– Bamboo Barnes

This is an extensive exhibition of work that presents pieces in a range of styles that have, per Bamboo’s description, something of a introspective nature about them. The styles themselves offer hints of Dali, Picasso, Warhol, encompassing abstract, pop-art, neo-impressionism, expressionism and neo-expressionism.

Bamboo Barnes at Ribong Artspace Gallery, September 2020

The elements of introspection comes from the faces apparent within many of the painting on offer; faces that oft carry thoughtful expressions or distant looks, suggestive of caught in memory, or are incomplete  or distorted, as if being pulled from half-remembered memories. Those that feature figures rather than facial features equally suggest distant thoughts.

As I’ve noted in the past when writing about Bamboo’s art, the emotions she experiences whilst producing a piece are a central aspect in how it eventually emerges. These emotions may be the result of her own feelings or perhaps those evoked by the music she is listening to, and her own response to the emerging piece. This tends to give her art an added depth, those emotions remaining with it and transferring to the observer the longer one regards it. There is also something almost visceral in her work through her use of colour; this in turn gives her work an attraction that pulls at the attention.

Bamboo Barnes at Ribong Artspace Gallery, September 2020

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A Thousand Windows in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Thousand Windows, September 2020 – click any image for full size

Lotus Mastroianni and Fred Hamilton (frecoi) are back with another region design that will likely be around for a month(ish) for people to enjoy. Their most recent builds have tended to have an urban design rooted in the physical world, starting with their take on a Brazilian favela back in May of 2020 (see:  Visiting A Favela in Second Life), and this latest design continues this theme, appearing to be inspired by a part of a place that lies very close to my heart.

With A Thousand Windows, Fred and Lotus seems to take as their inspiration the tight-knit tenement blocks located in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula. Mong Kok is a place I’ve visited on numerous occasions in my life (notably as a result of once living in Hong Kong many, many, years ago). I say this because, while there is no outright pointer to Mong Kok within the build, parts of it appear to pay clear homage to the district.

A Thousand Windows, September 2020

Take the 737 airliner passing overhead, for example; to me, it sits as a reminder that the district once lay beneath one of the approaches airliners had to make in order to touch-down at Hong Kong’s former airport at Kai Tak, a short distance away.  An approach that had aircraft practically scraping the roofs of the tenements, as made famous in many a photograph.

Elsewhere, in fairness, the region could have been inspired by any number of densely-packed housing units in the orient, but for me, Mong Kok is the place it brings to mind, even if Kai Tak did cease operations more than 20 years ago, having been replaced by a much larger, purpose-built facility built (much like Kai Tak) on reclaimed land, but out at Chek Lap Kok island, sitting off the north coast of Lantau. However, the focus of the build isn’t airlines or airports, but rather the densely-packed nature of the old tenements and the lives that go on within them.

A Thousand Windows, September 2020
There is a huge world out there, but what happens behind all those windows? what lives and worlds are hiding there? How many eyes peer into the fleeting reflections of so many lights?

– About Land, A Thousand Windows

This is actually a question I can remember asking myself, both as a youngster living in Kong Kong, and as an adult tourist who has made many return visits. With their shoebox sized (by western standards) living spaces, stacked one atop the next in grey, slab-like concrete towers cut through with narrow roads and alleys set back from the broader through routes of places like Yua Ma Tei occupying the main thrust of the Kowloon peninsula, parts of Mong Kok always struck me with a sense of mystery as to what was going on behind the blinds-shouded windows and narrow verandahs strung with laundry that so often formed the face of the squat tor blocks as they looks at the world.

All this is marvellously captured with Lotus and Fred’s design, which has been ideally set within a twilight environment to emphasise the volume of windows representative of people packed into so tight a space.

A Thousand Windows, September 2020

Set within four façades representative of five floors of apartment blocks, the region presents a number of tower blocks of similar height with narrow streets and alleys running between them. Neon signs hang from the sides of buildings and laundry hangs from verandahs – again a common sight I remember from Mong Kok. Most of the buildings within the setting are shells, although one or two contain interiors, making exploration worthwhile.

As well as the narrow streets sitting within their concrete canyons, the region offers elevated walkways from which the view can be appreciated, as well as offering the way to some outdoor spaces. And if you look hard enough, you might find an elevator leading up to the rooftops of one gathering of blocks, a couple of seats located just a across the roof from the elevator top from which to admire the view of the 737 passing overhead – and the visitors passing below.

A Thousand Windows, September 2020

Opportunities for photography, either by day or night, can be found throughout – as can be seen in the Flickr stream Lotus and Fred use for their builds. I admit to finding the sound scape accompanying the build a little odd – particularly the loud buzzing of flies (although that could perhaps be hornets of wasps, both of which could be a summertime nuisance in Hong Kong when I was little) but this can easily be ignored, leaving one to remain fully immersed in the setting.

All told, another enticing, attractive build. And just in case you haven’t seen photos of airliners over the actual Mong Kok district, I’ll leave you with the following.

A 747 passing over the broader streets of Mong Kok as it descends into the former Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong – catch the 737 sitting above A Thousand Windows

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