Tag: Art 2017

A new home for Artful Expressions in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Artful Expression: Sorcha Tyles

Artful Expressions, the boutique gallery curated by Sorcha Tyles, is well into its May exhibition, and now has a new, expanded home.

Newly relocated on a sky platform 1000 metres above ground, the gallery now occupies two L-shaped buildings built around a central square which can be used for opening events. The buildings provide a greater amount of space for the monthly exhibitions as well as for Sorcha’s own art, whilst retaining much of the homely feel of the original, ground-level gallery space.

Artful Expressions: Magic Marker

With the move comes an expansion in the number of artists exhibited each month. While Sorcha will continue to invite two artists  / photographers to display a number of their works at the gallery each month, she now additionally runs a contest via Flickr, inviting those interested in exhibiting their work to post an image to her Flickr group.

Each month, a picture will be selected by Sorcha and two of her friends – Hayael Bracula and Ninna Dazy – from those submitted, and the artist / photographer will be invited to display some of their work at an upcoming exhibition at Artful Expressions.

Artful Expressions: Hillany Scofield

For May the invited artists are Hillany Scofield and I’m a Magic Marker (SquarePegRoundHole69) – or Magic Marker for short. Hillany really needs no introduction to the world of SL art, being an accomplished photographer and artist who has exhibited widely in-world, and who also has her own gallery space (see me most recent review here). Magic Marker is more of a – to me at least – new name in the art world, and she offers a disarmingly sweet set of biographical notes:

For me, Second Life is a way to escape into a novel that you write yourself, but with me, the story is generally without a plot. Some images are cathartic, some are just because I like to look at pretty things. 🙂  I hope you like them too. And thank you for visiting. ❤  

Artful Expressions: Magic Marker

Her work is an interesting mix of avatar studies, the quirky and the eye-catching, often featuring bold colours which demand our attention.

The selected entry from the April competition is another well-established and widely known artist in Second Life: Goodcross, whom we had the pleasure of seeing exhibit at Holly Kai Park in 2016. Each artists presents a total of nine images for the exhibition, which for this month are all avatar studies / portraits, with each display area clearly noticed and biographical information on the artists readily available. Sorcha’s own work is offered in the foyer area of one of the buildings where coffee and a guest book are on offer, while a cosy hang-out area can also be found in another wing of the gallery.

Artful Expressions: Goodcross

The current exhibition will run through until the end of May 2017.

SLurl Details

Artwalks and Tinies in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Raglan Shire Artwalk 2017

Raglan Shire, Second Life’s Tiny community once again throws open its doors to people from across the grid as participating artists and visitors to the Annual Raglan Shire Artwalk.

This year marks the 12th Artwalk, and forms part of Raglan Shire’s tenth anniversary celebrations. The event offers an opportunity not just to appreciate a huge range of art from both the physical and digital worlds, but to also tour the Shire regions and enjoy the hospitality of the Raglan Shire community.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2017: Hana Hoobinoo

Running through until Sunday, June 18th the Artwalk present 2D are along the hedgerows of the Shire’s pathways and on the tree platforms overhead, while the central park lands offer walks among pieces of 3D art.

A non-juried exhibition, the Artwalk is open to any artist wishing to enter, and has minimal restrictions on the type of art displayed (one of the most important being all art is in keeping with the Shire’s maturity rating), and spaces for artists are not assigned. All of this means that it offers one of the richest mixes of SL art displayed within a single location in Second Life. Wandering along the paths and between the hedgerows, a visit to the Artwalk becomes a matter of discovery – although it is very easy to lose track of time when exploring; as such, more than one visit may be required to appreciate / see all the art on offer.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2017: Utterly Wizardly

Given the number of artists involved, there isn’t a published list of participants, but anyone interested in the world of SL art is bound to recognise name of the names of the artists here. I personally couldn’t help but notice Hana Hoobinoo’s hauntingly beautiful art along with Sheba Blitz’s marvellous mandala pieces among the tree platforms, while Gioanna Cerise – noted for working in 3D – presents some of her 2D art at ground level, while Johannes1997 Resident – noted for his 2D art and photography – offers a 3D piece.

Teleport boards are provided to help people find their way around the exhibition spaces, and there are also caterpillar tours  and balloons which offer rides around the region and through the art displays. However, given this is an opportunity to visit and appreciate Raglan Shire, I do recommend exercising your pedal extremities and doing at least some of your exploration on foot – just keep in mind people do have their homes in the regions as well.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2017: Me

The Raglan Shire Artwalk is always a delight to visit; this 12th season, being a part of the Shire’s 10th anniversary, is a very special event, and I do recommend a visit.  As noted, it will remain open through until Sunday, June 18th.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2017: Lou Robinson

The SLurls

Note that all regions are rated General.

Crumbs from nightmares in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Crumbs From My Nightmares

How do we express our nightmares? What words would we chose, what lyrics would we consider suitable? What songs or images might we regard as reflecting those dark, frightening thoughts and dreams which pass through our tangled thoughts as we sleep?

Questions like these occupied Slatan Dryke as he developed Crumbs From My Nightmares, a personal look at the dreams which can trouble his sleeping hours.

Crumbs From My Nightmares

“How could I express what a nightmare is with simple words? The breaking into the nights of unknown and disturbing elements, made visible by the Imaginary as a bearer of psychic content, free from the control of the principle of rationality?”

Using extracts from literature – M. R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Lafcadio Hearn and Ambrose Bierce, together with 2D images, 3D art and phenakistoscope, to present a vision from within the realm of nightmares: beasts feeding on flesh, hearts beating, words to chill the heart, bodies reposed apparently in death, ghoulish cartoon images, all held under a haunting audio scape.

Crumbs From My Nightmares

It’s a curious mixture; a rich tumbling of imagery in both form and words,  in places unsettling, in places familiar; sometimes edged in darkness, sometimes edged in the familiar or even the cartoonish. Just as we’d experience, perhaps, within a nightmare.

“The Imaginary is not real but true, messenger of a profound truth, therefore recognizable and unacceptable, Slatan continues, “The monsters represent the dark parts of the soul, in their various erotic, anxious or aggressive components. The Imaginary with its strange and disturbing images causes the turmoil that threatens the familiarity of the daily life.

Crumbs From My Nightmares

How much are our nightmares a part of us?How do they shape is, inform our natures? These questions also run through this piece, with Slatan further adding food for thought. “The perturbation as a feeling of fear and repulsion, arises from the risk of revealing the ‘ghost’ of desire and how much strong is the wish to control it. The irresistible necessity of controlling, natural in mankind, produces that protective mechanism that has enhanced the existence with monsters, vampires and ghosts, not only in dreams and nightmares.”

Crumbs From My Nightmares is an installation wherein the artist’s liner notes play an important role in helping focus thoughts and responses to all that we’re seeing in the installation. But while he may not that these may be his nightmares, many may find the symbolism here familiar, giving them pause to ponder within the framework of thought he offers.

SLurl Details

Revisiting Poetry of the Planets in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Poetry of the Planets: Uranus – The Magician

I returned to Caledonia Skytower’s Poetry of the Planets because when I first previewed it at the start of April 2017,  Jupiter and Mars had yet to open. This has now changed, with Cale recently completing both and opening them to the public, completing her “suite” of seven settings inspired by Gustav Holst’s famous suite, The Planets. Given this, and the fact that Bringer of War and Bringer of Jollity (the names of the planets were only added to the suite’s movements after their 1918 premiere) are perhaps the two most well-known pieces from the suite, a return to visit them seemed entirely appropriate.

Bringer of War, as one might expect takes us to the remnants of a campaign somewhere in the out reaches of Roman’s empire. From the landing point of the army’s camp, complete with banners and tents, visitors can follow the path down to the battlefield itself, where fires burn and the heaviness of death hangs in the air.

Poetry of the Planets: Mars, Bringer of War

It’s a setting entirely in keeping with Mars and its role as home to the Roman god of war, dark and foreboding. However, my own view of Mars is biased, being shaped by the images of Mars returned to us by the probes we’ve sent there: the winding depths of Vallis Marineris, the fractured chasms of Noctis labyrunthus, the towering peaks of the Tharsis volcanoes and the great cone of Olympus Mons. There is a grandeur to Mars as we know it today which I feel brings a new meaning to Holst’s piece; one less threatening, but more majestic than might have previously been the case. Which is not in any way to negate Cale’s vision, but rather demonstrates how our perceptions of the suite can be as much influenced by the planets as the music can influence our thinking about the planets.

Bringer of Jollity takes visitors to a marvellous crystalline maze, filled with columns reflecting and refracting light, through which a path runs, leading visitors between the columns to a set of golden steps. These in turn provide the means to climb up to a ballroom. One again, the theme of Holst’s piece is marvellously interpreted. It is not heard to image the passageways of the maze filled with the laughter of children as they chase one another up and down them, seeking whatever secrets the hallways might hide. Meanwhile, the ballroom offers a place of adult happiness among the dances – and dance itself might be said to reflect the beat and tone of the movement, with the almost eternal dance of Jupiter’s cloud system forming a backdrop.

Poetry of the Planets: Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity

Poetry of the Planets has a supporting website, and visitors to the installation are invited to submit poems, haikus and even short stories (up to a maximum of 2,000 words) inspired by one of more  of the settings, for publication on the website (authors retain the copyright on their work). Submissions can be made in-world via note card at any of the mail boxes within the installation, or directly to Cale herself.

Also, Poetry of the Panets will feature in the May 22nd instalment of Designing Worlds, and the show will be embedded in the Poetry website. The installation itself will remain open until the end of May for those wishing to visit or re-visit. As I noted in my preview, it is an inspired idea, bringing together fable, mysticism, music and words – and a wonderful means by which we can immerse ourselves in Holst’s suite.

Poetry of the Planets: Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity

SLurl Details

Summer’s colours and sensual moods in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
DiXmiX Gallery: Lam Erin – Colours of the Summer

Now open at DixMix Gallery are two new exhibitions which, although not in any way intentionally paired, offer studies in the two most popular forms of Second Life photography: landscapes and avatar studies. Between them, they feature the work of Lam Erin and Tintin Tuxing.

For Colours of the Summer, Lam Erin presents ten images of landscapes within Second Life, the majority of which have been tinted / enhanced with colours associated with summer – notably gold, yellow and green – but which should not be taken to be simple photographs of summer scenes. Rather, these are studied pieces, carefully processed to present a range of responses and perhaps suggest certain ideas for narratives behind them.

DiXmiX Gallery: Lam Erin – Colours of the Summer

In particular, each of the pieces is marked by a broiling, active cloudscape; a dramatic, even foreboding, cast to the skies which even in the more restful images among the ten (such as Autumn Trace and Italian Countryside) adds an edge to the picture. They serve to make us reconsider each image after we’ve first cast our eyes over them, drawing us into the narrative behind the scene presented. Sometimes this can be direct – such as the brooding sense of a rising storm in Neverfar, through to a more subtle reminder that the ship lying calmly at anchor in Bal Harbour can have a capricious mistress with the seas on which she sails.

All told, a marvellously evocative set.

DiXmiX Gallery: Tintin Tuxing – Sensual Moods

In the nine images she presents for Senusual Moods, Tintin Tuxing (Alexandrea Barbosa) takes visitors in another direction entirely: towards that of the sensuous and sensual.  Beautifully presented in monochrome (for the most part), these pictures draw us into a personal world of sensuality edged with a touch of the erotic in places.

The majority of the pieces focus on a single subject, and are both evocatively titled and posed. Six of the nine powerfully convey mood through the model’s expression alone, with one using a simple splash of colour to give draw us closer to it. These are marvellous studies which captivate the eye. Of the remaining three, I confess to finding one seemingly slightly out-of-place in that it features a couple and is posed such that a bicycle in the foreground draws and hold the attention more than the scene being played out. Perhaps intentional, it did for me break the mood evoked by the rest of the pieces. In difference to it, The Lonely Cello drew me the other way; the only one of the pieces fully  – if mutedly – in colour, it is a captivating study.

DiXmiX Gallery: Tintin Tuxing – Sensual Moods

Both Colours of The Summer and Sensual Moods are Small exhibitions in turns of the number of images displayed, but each is an engrossing display. My only grumble, which is towards the gallery, not the artists, is once again, no liner notes / biographical information is provided on the artists – or a means for them to offer their own information / thoughts on the works they are presenting.  Such notes may not be vital to an appreciation of the art on display, but can help present a clearer picture of the artists, and – as I’ve mentioned before – are hardly difficult to produce / have produced for presentation to interested visitors to the gallery.

SLurl Details

Dathúil: Me_You – Moon Edenbaum

Posted on by Inara Pey
Moon Edenbaum, Me_You – Dathúil Gallery

Open now at Dathúil Gallery, curated and operated by Max Butoh and Lυcy (LucyDiam0nd), is Me_You, the first in a two-part exhibition by Moon Edenbaum and Hillany Scofield.

The focus of the two exhibitions is the relationship between a man and woman, whose story arc runs from initial meeting through getting to know one another and intimacy, to separation. In this part of the exhibition, Moon Edenbaum presents his / the man’s perspective on the relationship through 13 large format pieces.

Moon Edenbaum, Me_You – Dathúil Gallery

These broadly encapsulate the core elements of the story, some with obvious clarity, others are more subtle in their approach, suggesting, rather than informing. Take the two images against the ground floor wall to the left of the gallery entrance, for example. These clearly portray an early meeting between the couple towards the start of their affair. However, the image placed in front of them offers a beautifully subtle view of their eventual separation, the cropping that cuts through her face and the complete obscuring of his speaking to them being a couple unknown to one another.

To me, what is interesting in this entire tableau is the use of language within the narrative and how the is reflected in the images. Nowhere is it stated the couple actually fall in love, rather “they become lovers”. The distinction here is important, suggesting as it does their relationship is born of little more than a physical attraction. Hence, perhaps, why the more intimate moments between them are shown purely in sexual terms.

Moon Edenbaum, Me_You – Dathúil Gallery

On the one hand, this lifts the images to an almost tragic level: the unfolding story of a relationship doomed from the outset, the players within it unable to avoid their eventual fate of separation. But on the other, it brings forth questions of perception within the relationship.  This is, after all, the relationship seen through the male eyes; so could they indicate an unwillingness on his part to engage beyond the physical? But what of the image of her with another woman? Might this indicate that it is she  – regardless of who suggested / initiated the encounter –  who is less engaged as he, and this scene has served to open his eyes to this fact?

Depending on how one views things, this particular image lifts the lid on a plethora of questions which range well beyond the simple narrative given as the exposition of the exhibit. It feeds directly into how we might interpret some of the other images in the set. For example: those of her in a white jumper, apparently trying to once again attract his attention. Are they because she earnestly wants to recover whatever intimacy they once had in the hope of taking it deeper? Or is it an attempt to overcome the growing gulf between them for what he sees as her “betrayal”?

Moon Edenbaum, Me_You – Dathúil Gallery

It will be interesting to see how the lines of thinking play out when Hillany presents her take on the relationship. This will be in June, with Moon’s interpretation of the story remaining on show through until the end of May.

SLurl Details