Category: Reviews

I dropped into Assis Art Gallery as a result of discovering a lapsed notice of an installation opening there at the start of the month. Curated by Joaopedro Oh, the gallery is currently home to four exhibitions for the month of April (and possibly longer), three of the photographic, and the last a 3D exploration of identity.

The various exhibits are displayed in different levels within the gallery space, and a teleport is required to move between some of them – look for the blue mask in the lobby and temporary building levels.

Located in the gallery’s lobby area is a small exhibition of photo art by Hikaru Enimo. These are quite exquisitely rendered, and occupy a space towards the back of the lobby space. Small though it may be, the works on display are worth casting a very close eye over, as they really are marvellous life studies.

In the Gallery’s “temporary building” area are two exhibitions which can be viewed without the need to teleport between them.

The first is a series of real life studies by Gatekeeper Gustafson. This as another stunning display, with some of the pieces containing two images each which are displayed in turn for around 30 seconds apiece. The themes for the photographs, whether paired like this or individually framed, are diverse, as are the post-processed finishes evident in some, making for a fascinating display of studies and subjects, which again rightly demand time to be appreciated.

Alongside of this, just down the stairs. is a further exhibit called Playing Cards, by Edward Nussbaum. This comprises images set as the face cards from a deck of cards, together with the joker and ace. The face cards and aces are displayed in sets of four, each image in a set representing one of the four suits in a card deck.  There is a high level of  nudity in the images presented in this display, together with sexual themes and a degree of homoeroticism, so be prepared!

Accessible via teleport, Blue Tsuki’s installation is called You Wear That Face, and is a simple but effective exploration of identity. Blue describes the piece thus:

We all wear masks. In SL we present ourselves with a mask every day. In this landscape find a hole in the ocean, armillary spheres of orbiting electrons, shafts of memory and our masks. “You Wear That Face” is a nexus, a vortex, an analogue of neurons and a self-reflexive look at our mask in a sideways dream.

This is a mix of physical elements and particle displays which combine to from a dream-like space with a lavender-coloured ocean flowing into a central vortex (which you’re standing over when you arrive), and over which golden armillary spheres float.

A spiral of prims descends into the vortex beneath you, images flickering across them in rapid succession, perhaps representative of the many masks we wear within SL (and life itself?). Around the spiral sit four rectangular shafts and four masks each within a pattern of particles. These are interactive pieces – click to sit on them – which place you either looking out from behind one of the masks – again, the reference to identity – or floating at the mouths of the shafts and looking down onto old photographs – our shafts of memory.

There is not set order for viewing the exhibits, so you can visit them as your muse takes you. If you do start from either the lobby or temporary building, watch out of the Assis Art Gallery signs – these will furnish you with a notice on the exhibitions and news of the gallery. If you visit you Wear That Face first, the teleport is the small red inverted pyramid in the centre of the vortex (under your feet on arrival).

Related Links

• Assis Art Gallery lobby
• You Wear That Face
• Gallery temporary building (Gatekeeper Gustafson and Edward Nussbaum)

 

 

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

A Petrovsky Flux, a collaborative piece by Cutea Benelli and blotto Epsilon and curated by the University of Kansas at their Spencer Art Museum region in SL, has been a popular destination since it opened in around 2010. It’s also, I’m somewhat ashamed to say, a destination that has been on my list of places to visit for a good while now, but I’ve never actually managed to get there.

However, as it has been in the news of late, both in notices circulated in-world and in blog posts. So I decided to hop on over and take a look – and see if I could find out what was going on.

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

For those unfamiliar with the installation, I’ll borrow some words from Steve Goodard, the Spencer’s associate director/senior curator of Prints & Drawings, who overseas the Museum’s region in SL:

A Petrovsky Flux is a cluster of devices that grow, assembling themselves from modular units, only to blow apart and rebuild themselves. Each time they rebuild differently so the overall flux is, as the name implies, constantly changing. Visitors … can also explore the inside of the organic architecture, and they also receive a free “noggin protector” — a miniature version of the flux that is worn on the head to protect against falling debris. The project takes its name in part from a previous project, the “Bogon flux,” and in part from the “Petrovsky lacuna,” named for Russian mathematician Ivan Petrovsky.

The “noggin protector” is well advised, as this is living art in the most literal sense. As Steve states, it is constantly building and falling apart, building and falling apart, and each rebuild is unique compared to the last. “Organic” is also an appropriate term to use with the installation, many of the elements are spherical in form, and when joined, result in undulating, hollow structures you can travel through and which from the outside resemble segments of a gigantic worm. These are often topped by dodecagon-like pieces which look like they could be maws and  / or multiple compound eyes.

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

There is also something a little Gilliam-ish about the installation. Sheep and pigs are prone to flying past suspended beneath clover-like rotors (you are offered a tiny version of one of these “Henrycopters” to wear as a gift, along with your noggin protector). There are also spring-loaded armchairs that will carry you around the region, boucning randomly here and there.

Amidst all the chaos are islands of relative calm which survive the construction / destruction cycles, offering places to sit, including outdoor cafés where the unfolding spectacle can be observed; and places of reflection, such as a little Buddhist shrine. Do be warned, however, given the industrial nature of the design, there’s as least one dump which may be toxic in nature…

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

The installation has been in the news a fair bit of late, as mentioned towards the top of this piece, with notices circulating over its impending closure, together with blog posts on the matter. Quite why it should be closing has been a little confusing, as information has been prone to shifting and changing over the last few days. Initially, it appeared to be due to an issue of billing; however, I’ve been in contact with the Spencer Art Museum, and assured this is not the case.

Right now, and without delving into specifics, it is reasonably fair to say that any decision over the future of the Flux still lies with the Museum and with Cutea and blotto. It may yet be than in order to survive, the Flux will need to find a new home; it may equally be that it is safe where it is. I’ve been promised I’ll have word as soon as decisions have been made by the Museum.

Whichever way it goes, this does open-up a wider issue regarding the preservation of long-standing builds and installations which have come to be regarded as a genuine part of SL’s history. As Saffia Widdershins correctly points out – Keeping great sims on the grid is not Linden Lab’s responsibility. It is ours. But how this can be achieved is a complex subject in its own right; even if some form of resident-led funding mechanism can be established to fund regions, there are many thorny issues remaining, as Saffia points out in responding to comments following her post.

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

For example, how it is determined what should be saved and what should be allowed to naturally die? Who should be the arbiters of fate? Why should they have more say than others? How are vested interested best avoided? Should the LEA perhaps have a broader remit where art is concerned? If so, what of all the other region types considered worthy of preservation – role play environments, public parks, and so on, which over time may have significantly contributed to the betterment of Second Life?

This is a subject worthy of debate and discussion. and while matters relating to Petrovsky Flux may not be as Ziki first thought – and through no fault of her own – she has also started putting some thoughts together, discussing ideas in person with others.  But in the meantime, and if you have yet to see A Petrovsky Flux – even if it does prove to have an assured future at the Spencer Art Museum’s region, I strongly urge you to visit sooner rather than later. You will not be disappointed.

To encourage you, I’ll leave you with Toxic Menges’ brilliant video of the installation.

Related Links

• A Petrovsky Flux, Spencer Art Museum (Rated: Moderate)

That fractals as art fascinate me is no secret. I’ve covered Gem Preiz’s work several times in this blog, and more recently enjoyed Mac Kanashimi’s marvellous Dragon Curves at the LEA. So when I heard by way of Caitlin Tobias that Mac had another fractal-based art exhibit opening in SL, I had to add it to my places to hop over to.

3D Fractals opened at SperiMenta on Monday March 31st, although I missed the actual opening. Co-hosted by SperimentArt & Tanalois Art, it is like Dragon Curves, located high in the air. However, it is also on a much smaller scale, not that this makes it any less interesting. It features two pattern generators which, over a period of time, individually generate a range of deterministic fractals defined by their Hausdorff dimension, and which – once rendered  – stand both individually or as a pair.

The fractal forms created by the generators include the greek cross, Hilbert curve, Htree pattern, Menger sponge, octahedron, Sierpinski triangle (tetrahedron / pyramid), solenoid fractal,  and Vicsek snowflake. Several of the shapes have additional complemented or inverted forms as well, and all are cycled by the generators in turn, each appearing for several minutes at a time prior to the next being rendered.

If all this sounds terribly dry, it isn’t; the shapes can be quite fascinating to watch and compare / contrast as they rez and are coloured, their structure a mix of prims and mesh. If you decide to visit, and assuming your viewer supports de-rendering, I suggest you temporarily de-render the black platform prims over which the shapes appear. This give a much better impression of them, as they seem to hang in the air, and allows for a spot of photography as well!

Related Links

• 3D Fractals, SperiMenta SLurl (Rated: Moderate)