Category: Reviews

Black and White and Travelling Heels in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Club LA and Gallery: WuWai Chun – Travelling Heels

Opening on May 9th are two new exhibitions at Club LA and Gallery, curated by Wintergeist, which between them offer unique studies and unusual views of Second Life.

With Black and White, located in the main gallery, The Friendly Otter offers an intriguing portfolio of some 15 black and white images that stand as a mix of avatar studies and landscapes. What is particularly captivating about them is not that they are monochrome – but the manner in which they are presented.

Club LA and Gallery: The Friendly Otter – Black and White

Each piece takes a specific subject  – avatar, landscape element, birds, etc., – and presents it in an almost ink wash style sans intruding surroundings or wider surroundings, on a pure white backdrop. The result is a series of pieces that are wonderfully minimalistic but with an incredible depth and richness of story.

These are genuinely graceful pieces that have every look of having been painted by hand, rather than originating with in-world photographs. Sadly, none are offered for sale, as all of them are highly collectable.

Club LA and Gallery: The Friendly Otter – Black and White

In introducing Travelling Heels in Second Life, WuWai Chun uses a variation of a famous quote about Ginger Rogers, the original version of which (from a 1982 Frank and Ernest cartoon) read:

Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels.

It’s a more than apt quote for this exhibition – reached via teleport from the main gallery – which offers highly unique views of Second Life around, under and over high-heeled shoes.

On reading this, it might be tempting to simply say, “Oh, you mean this is an exhibition of photographs of shoes!” But that really is not the case; while a pair of shoes is featured in each, they are not in an of themselves “just” focused on the heels. A number present scenes captured from around Second Life in which the background demands the eye’s attention – a villa and pool, a dusty hill from (I would guess) Serene Footman’s Kolmannskuppe, the tide breaking over rocks – as much as the heels.

Club LA and Gallery: WuWai Chun – Travelling Heels

Mixed with there are artful pieces that capture the spirit of popular art from (roughly) the 1960s and 1970s, adding to the depth of this exhibition whilst offering some highly individual pieces that would be welcome in any home.

I mention this latter point because all of WuWai’s pieces in this exhibition are for sale – and she is giving 100% of all sales to Feed A Smile – so in making a purchase, you’re not only gaining a great piece of art, but also helping a very worthy cause.

Two extraordinary exhibitions that should not be missed.

Club LA and Gallery: WuWai Chun – Travelling Heels

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A tropical Lemon Bay in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lemon Bay, May 2020 – click any image for full size

We first visited Lemon Bay in April 2020, although it’s taken a while for me to get around to writing about it. A homestead region and group design by SilentChloe, Unso Choche and Mirias, it is a rugged, tropical setting intended to be a photogenic hangout.

When I say “rugged”, I mean the region is set as tall, rocky table of land forming a roughly L-shaped island, the upright of which runs roughly south-west to north-east. Flat-topped, the island has at some point in the past been sliced into three plateaus by the sea, two narrow channels lying between the three parts, one of which has been around for so long, it has become silted with sand, helping to form one of the island’s two beaches.

Lemon Bay, May 2020

The table of rock that is left between these two gorges forms the island’s landing point. Almost uniformly flat, it is connected to the remaining two arms of the island by wooden bridges, while a single deck extends away from the south side cliffs to offer a grand – if giddying – view out over the sea and the sands below, a waterfall tumbling from a slit in the rocks under the deck.

Cross the bridge to eastern side of the of island, and the way becomes more shaded thanks to palm trees and Samanea saman, as the path leads the way to a rickety house sitting on an outcrop of rock that looks like it might, in time, break away from the rest of the island and into the waters below – which might explain how the small island that sits just off the north-west side of the main island may have come into existence.

Lemon Bay, May 2020

Quite how you reach this small island is a matter of choice  – swim or fly. It offers a beach hangout-out for those wishing to gather around a camp fire, and a little fisherman’s hut.

Prior to reaching the steps leading down to the deserted old house, a separate flight offers access to another wooden deck – one again built over a waterfall. This provides a view cross to the south and west to the second, and largest, arm of the island. Reached via the second bridge from the landing point, if offers several points of exploration. Just across the bridge and to the left of it, a path winds down to the southern beach and a route to a rocky pool which could be an ideal retreat if presented with one or two animations to allow people to sit on the rocks around it or cool themselves in the water. As it is, flagstones extend out over the water whilst a little shaded canoe does offer places for people to enjoy.

Lemon Bay, May 2020

Should the way down to the first beach not be taken, the way is open for visitors to either walk up to the island’s Idyllic bar as it commands the best view and offers a shaded retreat from the sun. Or, if preferred, visitors can follow the path around and below the island’s crown to where a path and steps hewn from the rock offer the way down to the sweeping curve of the island’s largest beach. This offers several places to sit and enjoy the Sun individually or as a couple, while a little sign presents the opportunity to go swimming (another sign for swimming sits on the smaller, south-side beach as well). For those willing to wander further around the headland, there’s a cosy little hideaway awaiting discovery.

Rich with waterfowl and birds, with sudden bursts of rich colour from plants (and parrots!), Lemon Bay is a place offering every suggestion of escape and relaxation. Rounded out with a warm sound scape, the setting is ideal for photography and for catching quiet times away from home.

Lemon Bay, May 2020

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Personal impressions in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Dream of Asia

Discussing myself is something that doesn’t come particularly easy, especially when it comes to anything like self-advertising or my photography – which I regard as passable for blog illustrations, little more.

However, Sorcha Tyles recently asked me to consider an exhibition of my work at her gallery of Artful Expressions, which I admit to finding incredibly flattering  – if more than a little nerve-racking. However, in talking to Sorcha, I decided to take up her generous offer.

So, opening at Artful Expression on Friday, May 8th at 14:00 SLT is a small selection of my work entitled Impressions, which features images (some not previously seen) of my recent SL travels. Music is being provided by DJ Julz, and I hope you’ll join us for the opening – or hop along to the gallery and take a look while the exhibition is open through to the end of the month(ish).

Many, many thanks to Sorcha for the invite and encouragement, and for arranging the exhibition!

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Cica and Bryn’s Social Distancing in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Social Distancing

Currently open at Bryn Oh’s Immersiva is Social Distancing, a join installation by Bryn and Cica Ghost. The title should immediately give away the theme of the installation.

I confess that in its current application around the world, I find the term “social distancing” an odd choice. In an era when social media has all but taken over our lives and allow many to say in contact half-way across the globe whilst often remaining distanced from those immediately around them, the idea of “social distancing” is perhaps something of a non-sequitur; as the SARS-CoV-2 virus relies on close physical proximity one to another, it’s seemed to me a more apt term for the phenomena we’ve seen sine February (in the west – earlier in places like the far east) should perhaps be “physical distancing”.

Social Distancing

Anyway, semantics aside, this cosy – in terms of size – installation offers a broad take on social / physical distancing and its impact it has had on us. Within a watery, overgrown garden environment surrounded on three sides by great concrete walls (the state of the garden and the high walls themselves possible metaphors).

A rough path winds through the overgrown landscape, offering a path to various vignettes signifying the state and anxieties of people and society. A man sits at the window of his house, the room behind him stacked with toilet rolls and he has a pair of binoculars in hand as he looks towards his mailbox. The flag is up and letters lie within, but he appears too worried to make the trip out to collect them. Further along the zig-zagging path, a couple sit on a boat – but at opposite ends, unable to express themselves more intimately to one another by holding hands or simply sitting side-by side.

Social Distancing

Further still long the path is a little village scene where the occupants of the houses all express various reactions to having to remain isolated. Some, more able to adapt, perhaps, use carrier pigeons (an analogy for more modern means of connecting to others?) to pass letters back and forth. Others sit at their windows and worry. One simply hides behind his curtain, peeking in terror at the world from around the edge of it. Should you wish to be a part of this vignette, there are a couple of houses with single poses included.

There’s a certain poignancy to all of these little houses and their occupants that may perhaps touch us in different ways. For many of us, making the transition to the kind of lifestyle social / physical distancing has brought about hasn’t been dramatically hard in the scheme of things. We have our Facebook, our You Tube our WhatsApp – and yes, our Second Life – to maintain contact and engage with family and friends.  But what about those who find being on their own hard – such as the elderly or those psychological issues? Seeing the face crammed into a corner of a house window and peering around the edge of the curtain, I was immediately reminded of an interview with a doctor who has been trying to help those whose psychosis requires physical proximity to others in order to help them avoid giving into their inner demons and voices.

Social Distancing

Another subtle element in the installation alludes to the risk countries and people face in pushing to get back to “business as usual” too soon. There is a real risk – as has been seen with past epidemics and pandemics – that trying to relax rules around social / physical distancing, etc., too soon could lead to a second or even third wave of the SARS-CoV-2 / Covid-19 situation striking the world. Within Social Distancing, this risk is seen by the presence of “Corona Monsters” among the bushing and floating in the water. they appear to lying in wait, ready to strike should those in the little houses all decide to come out and start mingling.

A timely and engaging installation, reached via the teleport board at the Immersiva landing point, and complete with gacha machines for those wishing to obtain some of the models used in the exhibit or to support Cica and Bryn.

Social Distancing

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Hotel Del Salto in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hotel Del Salto, May 2020 – click any image for full size

Recently opened in Second Life is a new Homestead region designed by Jade Koltai. An experienced region designer in her own right, Jade also used to work with Serene Footman in producing some of the most extraordinary builds in Second Life based on physical world locations. With this latest build, she further demonstrates her skill in bringing places from around the globe to life in the virtual.

Hotel De Salto is a region based on the hotel located in San Antonio del Tequendama, Colombia some 30 km south-west of Bogotá. It sits alongside the Salto del Tequendama (Tequendama Falls),a 157m high waterfall that drops into a deep gorge.

Hotel Del Salto, May 2020

According to a legend of the Muisca people of the Andean plateau, the waterfall was created by Bochica, who used his staff to break the rock and release the water that covered the Bogotá Savannah. In their language, Chibcha, the name means “he who precipitated downward”, and stems from a further legend in which the Muisca were said to escape subjugation by the Spanish conquistadors by jumping off the falls to become eagles, flying to their freedom.

The hotel actually started life in 1923 as a mansion built by architect Carlos Arturo Tapias along French lines and intended to celebrate the wealth and elegance of the country’s elite. It continued in the role for several years, undergoing expansion which also saw it converted into its luxury hotel, which opened to customers in 1928.

Hotel Del Salto, May 2020

The hotel operated for 50 years, drawing tourists from across the world to it. Some were attracted by its unique views, others by a darker desire. Drawn by the tale of the Muisca legend of people leaping from the falls to become eagles, the broken-hearted came to the hotel to leap to their deaths from the cliffs beside it.

However, by the 1970s, the hotel was facing issues. Bogotá had grown exponentially in the intervening years, and without all the necessary supporting infrastructure; the result was much of the city’s raw sewage entered local river to make its way down to the Tequendama Falls and the gorge below the hotel, contaminating it. At the same it, an upstream hydroelectric dam was built on the main Bogotá River, which often starved the impressive falls of water, reducing them to trickling dribbles dropping into the gorge from above.

Hotel Del Salto, May 2020

These factors saw trade at the hotel decline from the late 1970s through until its closure in the early 1990s. For a brief time during the hotel’s decline there was talk of renovating it, but for come 15 or so years it was left to moulder in the high Andean forests and weather – a forbidden place, rich in legend.

Then in 2011 the National University of Colombia’s Institute of Natural Sciences joined with the Ecological Farm Foundation of Porvenir to launch extensive renovations of the hotel, turning it into a cultural museum. The first exhibition at the new museum, Caverns, ecosystems of the subterranean world, opened in 2013.

Two views of the Hotel Del Salto as it was while empty. Via moco-choco.com

For her build, Jade offers both a homage to, and interpretation of, the hotel during those years when it lay abandoned. As with the original, it sits atop a deep gorge, facing the Tequendama Falls on the region’s north side.

The shelf on which it sits is perhaps broader that that occupied by the actual Hotel Del Salto, which means some of the on-the-edge grandeur of the original is lost, but there is no mistaking the architectural style that has been captured by this interpretation.

Hotel Del Salto, May 2020

The building is overgrown, vines hanging within mouldy rooms like drapes, furnishings braking and rotting as a result of the humidity no doubt brought about by the heat and damp, the terrace around it broken and given over to weeds and 50’s style cars. Like the original, stairs descend the cliffs below the hotel, although these don’t pass any basement levels. Instead they provide access to a bridge spanning the gorge, and further stairs down to the floor of the gorge, where ancient ruins lay, offering the suggestion of a place perhaps once belonging to the Muisca.

Throughout the build can be found numerous platforms and seating points intended to provide places from which the hotel and the gorge with its falls – presented in full spate – can be appreciated. Adding to the setting are wheeling birds, a rich sense of forest, parrots and toucans,  while the sound scape gives incredible depth to the region’s visual splendour.

Hotel Del Salto, May 2020

Completed by a region surround that strongly evokes the Andean uplands of Colombia to provide the perfect backdrop, this is a build fully deserving of a visit and in spending time exploring.

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Images of Entropy in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus: Entropy, May 2020

Officially open from Tuesday, May 5th at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery curated by Dido Haas, is Entropy, by EmberPolaris.

In terms of thermodynamics, entropy is defined as:

A measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system that is also usually considered to be a measure of the system’s disorder, that is a property of the system’s state, and that varies directly with any reversible change in heat in the system and inversely with the temperature of the system.

More informally, entropy is referred to as a general running down of the universe into a state of disorder. For her exhibition, Ember presents an almost Shakespearian view of modern life; one in which we might as a well be mannequins, we have so little little say in the fate of the universe as a whole; that all we say and do, all that we build, is merely a stage for the greater passage of life – ours and the universe’s.

Nitroglobus: Entropy, May 2020

It is a stark, but captivating view of things; one that might be referred to as emphasising the futility of life. But there is more here; through the use of mannequins in place of humans, Entropy folds within it question of identity – not only who we are or might be, but also a challenge as to what our role in life might be when framed against the bigger backdrop of the universe’s slow passing.

More then this, through the framing of each picture is a reminder that creation – and creativity – can offer a richness of beauty that far surpasses any darkness that might otherwise be inherent in these pictures: sunlight falling through the scaffolding of an advertising hoarding, Shadows falling across an alleyway or a sudden bright splash of colour amidst the grey; sunlight falling through clouds. 

There is a stark beauty within these pieces that is astonishing; life is present in every image, the use of mannequins as models notwithstanding; a vitality that stands in contrast to the basic meaning of entropy. There is also, conversely, the suggestion of disorder that is entirely in keeping with the precepts of entropy; it surrounds and enfolds the sense of order also suggested elements present in these pictures and their sense of structure and order of life as can be witnessed in the settings for many of these images.

Nitroglobus: Entropy, May 2020

Those Entropy is a richly layered exhibit, offering multiple commentaries on life, the universe, and our place within it, as well as presenting rich images in and of themselves.An excellent first-time exhibition from an artist I hope we’ll see more of in the future.

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