Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

I’m a little behind in my art blogging (and blogging in general), so I’m getting to this article a little later than intended, having originally hoped to get it out over the last weekend in July because it is something of special event in Second Life, featuring as it does the 3D work of Suzanne Graves, with a special exhibition of 2D art by Selen’s father, AL.

Having opened at the ground level on Selen’s Gallery, operated and curated by Selen Love (Selen Minotaur), this untitled installation features the 3D piece by Suzanne Graves, whose work has been featured in exhibitions at such august institutions as the University of Western Australia and Linden Endowments for the Arts and at arts hubs such as Sinful Retreat.

Here, Suzanne presents a series of 3D sculptures with a lean towards the surreal. Some are static, others are animated with either moving parts or shifting colours – and in some cases, both.

Created entirely using prims, sliced, cut, twisted to create almost organic forms, these pieces are a remarkable celebration of natural form and the richness of geometry, bound together in an expressive environment created by Selen. However, to see them at their best, it is strongly recommended that you do so with the viewer’s Advanced Lighting Model enabled (Preferences → Graphics) is enabled, and you utilise the environment settings Selen has created for the gallery space (World → Environment → Use Shared Environment).

Set one side of the Suzanne’s pieces is the glass pavilion where AL’s artwork is displayed.

A physical world artist, AL works in oil acrylics, and the 15 pieces presented here have been selected by Suzanne, who encouraged him to consider Second Life as a further means to show his work – and this exhibition represents the first time he has done so.

AL’s primary inspiration in terms of genres is that of surrealism – and that is certainly to be found within these pieces, as are touches of abstractionism. He is also an experimentalist, sometimes using paint pouring to produce pieces.

As the name suggests, this is a technique – or rather, a series of techniques – primarily used with acrylics, where the paint is “poured” onto the canvas, rather than by using a brush. However, it is not simply a case of taking the paint and just tipping on to suitable medium (e.g. canvas or paper); not only do the paints require different approaches to how they are diluted in order to alter their viscosity and the degree to which the will flow, it also involves a range of techniques to assist in how they are blended and mixed, either as a part of the pouring process, or before they have dried, to develop a finished result.

These mixing techniques are many and varied – pouring a batch of colours into a single container with one or more outlets, and letting them pour through as the container is gently swirled to mix them, or pouring them individually either directly onto a surface or a base colour / tone and then using assorted tools (such as a hairdryer!) to mix them / form patterns within them, and so on.

Several examples of the technique sit among the pieces presented within the exhibition at Selen’s Gallery, some of which are combined with more direct surrealist over-painting to produce the most richly colours and engaging pieces. Other pieces are more “traditionally” produced, folding in both surrealist elements and  / or abstract painting.

All of the pieces by AL are for sale, but rather than being offered at a fixed price, they are offered on the basis of “pay what you will” by means of a tip jar just outside the entrance to the gallery pavilion (the pieces themselves are offered at L$0), and Selen will ensure gratuities are passed to her father.

Visually captivating, demonstrating both the power of prims in artistic expression and also offering a view of physical world painting techniques which may be unfamiliar to many, this is a exhibition not to be missed. And while visiting, don’t miss the teleport point just outside the pavilion to reach Selen’s gallery on a sky platform, home to her own art.

For those curious about paint pouring, check the video below.

SLurl Details

• Selen’s Gallery, (Royale, Moderate)

Drug and alcohol abuse among you people – teenagers from 13 or 14 upwards – has long been a problem. So much so that today within many western countries, it scarcely appears to be on the radar of politicians, who instead prefer to point their fingers and rabble-rouse about imagined “evils” facing their countries from -*horror* – refugees seeking sanctuary or – *gasp* – the terror of equal rights for women, ethnic minorities, the disabled, and LGBTQ+ communities.

In Europe, studies have shown that while not rampant, substance abuse – including the use of tobacco – as a whole has been increasingly found among children below the age of 15 (per the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)).

Much of this has been put down to “experimentation”, although peer pressure has also been noted as a factor, as has the fact that in terms of illegal drugs, some dealers have taken a leaf out of the tobacco advertising playbook from several years ago, but “promoting” their wares to younger consumers.

Further, while many reports note that such experimentation / engagement with alcohol and drugs in particular has tended to be among younger male teenagers, the EUCDDA studies from 2007 onwards have shown that more and more young girls are increasingly following suit, and the gap between boys and girls in terms of drug use is closing.

Drug use among young girls is something artist Terrygold has had to face in the physical world and within her own neighbourhood; and what she has witnessed, almost daily, has resulted in her latest installation Crack, which opened at her art gallery in late July 2022.

As with her recent pieces, it comes as a set of vignettes, each narrated by a static, NPC called “Terry”.

These vignettes – a pair this time – are literally framed as pictures; in the first, linked to the installations landing point (reached via teleport disc from the gallery’s main landing point), we she a happy time at home; a wife and husband in a comfortable lounge, their little daughter apparently tucked behind an armchair with her teddy as she plays hide-and-seek with her father. It’s a setting of domestic bliss, which can be seen – literally – through two frames set to either side of scene so as to present frozen images of a happy, safe home life.

A further frame – be it a window or a picture frame, it matters not – presents a view of a world outside this cosy home; a place where alcohol is freely available, the siren glow of neon drawing all too it regardless of age, with those standing in the doorways also caring little about identity or age. Close by, under a streetlight two young girls draw lustful gazes from an older male, whilst another girl, provocatively dressed, staggers down the middle of the road, the worse for – something.

Through the words of “Terry” as we stand next to her looking out onto the scene, we learn this vignette is a reflection of a tragic situation she has witnessed: a girl high of drugs or alcohol, wanting – needing – more – and desperate, spiralling ever deeper into an addiction that can only lead to worse.

Within the house, “Terry” also vents the artist’s frustration in the way that stories of abuse and suffering have become so commonplace that not even the age at which youngsters find themselves trapped by addiction causes anything more than a raised eyebrow. And we, like her, should feel that shame frustration and anger; but how many of us turn the page of the newspaper, shutting out the story just as we can shut the terrors of the world outside by closing the drapes on the windows of our homes?

But just how safe are we, really? Herein lies a deeper layering to Terrygold’s piece.

The entire installation is offered under a dark environment setting. While this clearly adds atmosphere to the street setting, where faces are shadowed, and the sense of danger and intrigued raised, so to does it alter the “indoor” scene of familial bliss, casting pools of darkness that reduce the home to a small island of light, a visual metaphor of the fact that no matter where we go, the darkness in the world is never far away,

But more than this, the shadows within the house serve another purpose. If you view the family through one of the frames, that little girl playing hide-and-seek vanishes, and the faces of the mother and father can no longer be clearly seen. Suddenly the position of the mother as she sits on the edge of the coffee table apparently making a casual call whilst her husband and daughter play, becomes something more urgent, her look more worried.

Similarly, the smiling face of the father is now wreathed in darkness, his tall figure a shadow within a shadow, looming close to his wife. Thus, the entire scene becomes tense and foreboding. The stances of father and mother, together with the apparent absence of their child reminds us that little girls who play hide-and-seek grow into young girls who for whom teddy bears, armchairs and hunting daddies are not enough, but the world, for all its threats, is a wondrous place – and even the threats can tempt and attract, opening young lives to those who would hunt them and/or their money for reasons far less innocent than a game of hide-and-seek, and parents are left fraught and anxious; desperate for the reassurance of a voice on a telephone, for an ear to hear their pleas to come home.

Expressive, offering much to consider, Crack is best seen under the local environment settings (World → Environment → make sure Use Shared Environment is checked), and with ALM (Preferences → Graphics → Advanced Lighting Model) enabled (Shadows are not required, despite the instructions and the landing point, should enabling them impact your computer’s performance unduly).

SLuel Details

Use the teleport disk to reach the installation

• Terrygold Art Gallery (Peaceful Land, rated: Adult)