Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

Update, June 27th, 2022: Art Korner has Closed.

Recently opened at the Main Gallery spaces within Frank Atisso’s Art Korner, is a quintet of exhibitions that together make for an engaging visit, offering as they do a cross-section of styles and subject matter, and which form the focus of the first part of this review. They feature the work of Carisa Franizzi, Alexandro Hurricane, Apollo Scribe, Syn Huntress and Blayze Benoir.

Carisa Franizzi is not new to Second Life, having been involved in the platform for more than a decade. However, she is relatively new to the world of SL art, having taken the plunge just a couple of years ago. Nevertheless, she is proving herself an adept landscape photographer. Her presence at Art Korner marks my second exposure to her work, the first being in late 2020, when I had the pleasure of seeing a selection of her black-and-white images at IMAGOLand.

Here she presents 9 colour and a single monochrome image, each with its own little tale to tell. All are going to capture and hold the eye, but I admit it was the lone monochrome Falling on Hard Times that really moved me.

Across the hall from Carisa’s exhibit is that of Alexandro Hurricane, who is the only artist in this group to present his physical world art through Second Life.

So far as I am aware, this is the first time I’ve witnessed Alexandro’s work, and I have found myself completely smitten;  His eye for detail is just incredible, the focus of his painting completely unique, and his willingness to share his sense of humour with his audience so readily apparent through the likes of Photographer, with its nod-and-wink towards the idea of self-portrait, Teddy Airman, and This is Love. Alongside of these, his pieces focused on flowers and household items and nothing short of exquisite.

Apollo Scribe really need no introduction; his avatar studies are some of the most enticing examples of single-frame narrative to be found within Second Life. What is particular engaging about his work is that he is one of a small handful of SL photography exponents who largely eschew PhotoShop and GIMP, preferring to produce their masterpieces purely through the viewer (possibly with some pre-processing thanks to the likes of Reshade).

At Art Korner, Apollo presents a collection of four studies of the female avatar face, each offering a pose and view that demonstrates just how powerfully emotions can be transmitted through the avatar’s face.

Located out in the two buildings that flank the main gallery building are exhibitions by two artists who are again relatively new to the SL art scene, although they are not necessarily new to SL as whole. Their exhibitions offer a sense of balance as they face each other across the lawns, one being entirely avatar-centric and in colour, and the other being largely landscape focused and presented in black-and-white.

The artists are Syn Huntress (avatar studies) and Blayze Benoir(landscape with some avatar pieces). Both offer works that capture the attention with their style and presentation. Syn’s work mostly clearly offers tales in which her avatar is the protagonist or central character, while Blayze presents pieces that perfectly encapsulate the term landscape as art.

Art Korner has been my first exposure to the work of both of these artists, and I look forward to witnessing more in the future.

There is a further exhibition currently underway at Art Korner that I want to draw attention to here. Immersion sits within a skybox overhead the main gallery spaces, and is a tour de force in monochrome photography, with the majority of the images presented in black and white or sepia, while those offered in colour do so in a beautifully light touch.

Produced and presented by BethBridget – an artist whose work I do not recall seeing in Second Life prior to this exhibition (which is not to say she hasn’t exhibited elsewhere) – Immersion is presented as a walk-through in which visitors can literally immerse themselves in Beth’s work thanks to the perfectly minimalist environment comprising a number of rooms arranged around the landing point such that one started and end with it. When visiting, please ensure you utilise the Shared Environment.

Still images these may be, but captured through the medium of Second Life, each and every picture found within the rooms of the exhibition space has a story to tell. What’s more, the use of certain motifs – birds, clouds, skyline, silhouette – serve to offer interconnecting threads that pass through the individual images, offering opportunities to see them as a large tapestry and  tale, a factor further assisted by the presence of props within the various rooms.

In this way, Immersion presents not only some of the most captivating images of Second Life’s many landscapes and settings I’ve had the pleasure to see, it also presents us with a story, a graphic novel, if you will, where the characters are moods and emotions, and the story is the interplay of light and dark, and the relationship bird, sky and setting that is beautiful in its subliminal power.

Six very different artists brought together through two exhibitions both of which will remain open though until late August 2021 and which should not be missed.

SLurl Details

Deju is rated Moderate

• Art Korner Main Gallery
• Immersion