Category: Reviews

Ani (Anibrm Jung) is an award-winning photographer in the physical world who has been active in Second Life since 2006, where she has a gallery, Art By Nature, displaying her own work. And if you enjoy natural photography, then I can say up-front this is a gallery you’re going to want to visit.

Based in the Netherlands, Ani specialises in photographing nature, many of her images captured from her own garden, and all of them recorded using only her Nikon D60 camera and natural light. Everything is framed directly through the viewfinder, and no cropping nor image manipulation is used after the fact. In this way, we are able to see each picture exactly as she did when taking it, allowing us to share her own sense of closeness with her subjects.

The result is a stunning series of images, spread across the gallery’s two floors, offering a fine show case of the photographer’s skill in using macro, soft focus, depth of field, lighting, framing, etc., to produce works of art.

Not that any of the images on offer are in any way clinical or technical in look or feel; quite the reverse Ani’s skilled touch and eye with her camera really do enable us to share in the natural beauty and wonder of her pictures, some of which incorporate a unique approach to framing which can add to their depth whilst also again enhancing that feeling we are witnessing the scene with Ani as she captured it with her camera.

From the delicate touch of a bee collecting pollen through to the majestic power of rolling surf, going by way of the usually unseen intricacy of a single barb within a wire fence or the playful delight of a cat, there is so much here to capture the eye, making a visit more than worthwhile.

All of the images displayed are available to buy, and if you do visit the gallery, please consider a donation towards its upkeep.

SLurl Details

• Art By Nature (Rated: Moderate)

The Path is a new installation by Cherry Manga, currently being hosted at Dividni Shostakovich’s Split Screen installation. It marks her first major Second Life exhibit in around 18 months, Cherry having largely moved to FrancoGrid in 2014. It is also just a foretaste of things to come: Cherry is working on a much larger piece which will feature in FrancoGrid’s annual Fest’Avi avatar-focused art event, which opens in September 2016.

At the arrival point, visitors are invited to take and wear a free, full-permission avatar, Line of Light, as well as a memento of their time in The Path, prior to teleporting to the installation proper. Here, against a cosmic backdrop of stars, sits a circle of meditative pose balls on which visitors are asked to sit and partake of a journey. Hypnotic music ebbs gently around travellers as animated lines radiate outward from the circle and the heavens all around are filled with wireframe figures and patterns, while a  quote from Einstein, Creativity is contagious, pass it on, drifts and tumbles through the space.

There is a double meaning in this quote which is, for me beautifully reflected in this preview. On the one hand, it encompasses the idea that human creativeness is contagious, passing between us and between generations, driving us forward down through the ages as much as has our desire to understand all that lies around us. On the other, there a more cosmic element: everything that has happened since the dawn of time some 14.5 billion years ago, has grown from a single creative instant. Every galaxy, every star, every planetary system – each and every one of us – stem from that single point of creation.

These two concepts are perhaps embodied in the figures to be found in The Path. On the one hand, we have the constant figure holding forth a star-like sphere in which a smaller figure sits; a symbol of human creativeness passed from generation to generation, as well as, perhaps, the echo of creativity in its most natural form: birth and life.

Then there are the seated figures which flare into existence, follow their own path for a time before suddenly dissipating, with new figures appearing elsewhere. They are like the massive stars of the galaxy, which burn brightly, before throwing off their bulk in a vast, gaseous nova, through which the next generation of stars are born.

Travelling through The Path with these thoughts flowing through my head, another quote sprang to mind, which would also appear to fit here. As Carl Sagan once observed, “We are made of star stuff”; we are an inherent part of the creative process which gave birth to the cosmos. A process which continues to this very day, in everything we do, again as Sagan also observed when he famously said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

I will admit to finding the jerky motion of the pose balls a little distracting when following the path through the installation (as was the presence of other avatars sitting with me). However, this is still a fascinating glimpse of what should be an interesting immersive installation at Fest’Avi – and it is certainly one built on ideas which strikes a chord in me.  The Path will remain at Split Screen through until the end of July.

Open now at the Visions of Beauty gallery, curated by dj12 Magic, is an exhibition of almost entirely new works by Maître Pastelliste (Master of Pastels), Silas Merlin, aka artist Jean-François Le Saint.

I make no apologies in being completely smitten by Silas’ work; I was hooked the first time I saw it at Gallery 24 in January 2016, and I’m still deeply pleased Silas came to Holly Kai Garden to exhibit his work there as well. For those unfamiliar with his work, the exhibition at Vision of Beauty could be no finer introduction. It features 18 pastel portraits and studies, and presents a number of Silas’ mesh sculptures – mesh being a medium he has recently moved into as a means of presenting 2D art through the 3D medium.

The pastel images are in a number of different sizes, allowing the visitor to see their rich, layered complexity – and appreciate why pastels are such an ideal medium for portraiture; in my opinion outshining both water and oil for the life-line tone and feel they give to the subject being studied.

Silas’ work very much focuses on children, generally those in period dress and attending traditional or medieval festivals in Brittany, and this exhibition again demonstrates this. Created from the hundreds of photos he takes while attending the events himself, Silas has brought together a select of pieces which very much put us at the heart of such a gathering, surrounded by children in period dress, some sitting earnestly, others at play or participating in a traditional dance, while others simply sit and talk or laugh together.

The floorspace of the room is broken up by a set of Silas’ mesh sculptures, some of which are taken from his own studies, including Mock Fight, which made its debut appearance at Holly Kai Park.

However, of the sculptures on display, there is little doubt that Dancer at the Barre, located at the foot of the spiral staircase leading up to another gallery area, is the most striking.

A stunning 3D interpretation of the painting of the same name by Edgar Degas, Dancer at the Barre has beautifully captured Degas’ own unite style, his appreciation of his subject, the tone and colour of the original. In short the very essence of the original is marvellously raised in 3D.

Producing 3D versions of art is something that has long fascinated Silas; he’s previously voiced a desire to be able to produce such pieces, particularly with his own art, which he might then produce in the physical world via 3D printing. More recently, in discussing the idea, he’s suggested part of the fascination is to be able to see  – or at least imagine – what lies behind / beyond the core subject of a work of art, and present that as a part of a 3D piece.

For my part, I can say it has been a privilege and delight to see Silas realise this move into 3D art, and to witness his ideas for the medium evolve. I certainly look forward to seeing more of both his 2D and 3D work – and do genuinely encourage you to visit his exhibitions in-world, perhaps starting with this one, and to visit his studio space, should you wish to see more

SLurl Details

• Silas at Visions of Beauty (Rated Moderate)
• Silas at New Babbage