Tag: Art 2017

Holly Kai Park: website makeover

Posted on by Inara Pey

Blogging here has been a little slow this past week as I’ve been working on a few projects, some of which will be appearing in these pages real soon™, while one is now available to see.

The Holly Kai Park website has been given a makeover with what we hope is a new, clean design with a splash page, tidier menu system and a lot of updated information following the recent changes to the park itself.

The new Holly Kai Park splash screen - click to visit the site
The new Holly Kai Park splash screen – click to visit the site

There’s still some tweaks to be done with the website, but with all that is going on, we wanted to get the new design rolled out – just don’t be surprised if there are some further small changes.

Because there is so much going on, our regular Art at the Park events had been put on hold for a time. However, these will be resuming in the near future, as will the Stories at the Park series which accompany them.

In the meantime, and as a reminder, the main SLurls for the park are listed below, and Caitinara Bar is open to all for our DJ sessions every Wednesday and Friday from 16:00 SLT through 18:00 SLT.

Holly Kai Park SLurls

Holly Kai Estate is rated Moderate.

The Architect’s Playground in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Architect's Playground
The Architect’s Playground

The Architect’s Playground is a full region installation by Methias Kira under the brand name of Abstract Soul. If you love colour, scripted effects and particles, it is liable to be an installation you’ll want to see.

Against the backdrop of a setting sun, visitors arrive on a platform 260 metres in the air. A golden figure pirouettes slowly. Everywhere are intricate traces of light brightening, fading, pulsing, from single strands to fields of spheres to delicate towers alive with a steady flow of light upwards, and great tubes which similarly ebb and flow with colour.

The Architect's Playground
The Architect’s Playground

Within this kaleidoscope world, a paths of ever forming and fading golden ribbons beckons visitors outward from the  landing point to offer than a choice or routes upwards or downwards, their paths marked by clouds of colours spheres floating and pulsing serenely.

Whichever route you take will lead you past particles displays to platforms with more swirls and lines gently changing light. Some of these platforms feature more of the golden (and silver) figures (by Gwen Ferox and Nacht Fox) in various poses; others simply offer scintillating, almost hypnotic patterns.

The Architect's Playground
The Architect’s Playground

Travel down low enough, and you may come to a platform where a white star pattern forms and fades, forms and fades; step into the centre and you’ll drop even lower, to islands of light formed from concentric circles sitting just above the water.  And even these are not the end of things: dive under water, and there is more to be found.

The Architect’s Playground, can be a little hard on the GPU the longer you spend within it (I’d recommend disabling shadows if you run with them on, to ease some of the load), but it is nevertheless an engaging visit, the intricate design having both an abstract and an organic feel to it. The installation will remain open until the end of June.

SLurl Details

Fossil Fractals in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Fossil Fractals
Fossil Fractals

It’s pretty well established in these pages that I’m attracted to fractal art. So it was with some interest that I read about a new installation by Asmita Duranjaya entitled Fossil Fractals, currently on display at her InterstellART community region.

“This exhibition shows a new art technique meshing of fractal creations and making them relief-like 3D-art,” Asmita says of the exhibition. “The results look like fossils found on an exoplanet in the universe, being displayed for human eyes.”

Fossil Fractals
Fossil Fractals

On display are around (I think) 16 pieces  – the display space is something of a maze, so finding them all requires a certain amount of walking along hallways and up and down steps and ramps! Each mesh piece is presented in a haut-relief format, and as Asmita notes, they are decidedly fossil-like in form – although the finishes on some suggest their origins might have been more mineral than organic.

The latter are quite exotic and alien is looks: crystaline structures rising from a flat base, demanding that one zoom and cam gently around them, the minerals and crystal fragments within them glittering gently. Others are more familiar in looks, displaying the spiral sweep found in ammonites. Some, from certain angles, look perhaps less like fossils and more relief maps of an alien world, as built up from 3D images taken from orbit. All of this makes the display an intriguing exhibit. If any of the pieces catch your eye, they are available to purchase.

Fossil Fractals
Fossil Fractals

As noted above, Fossil Fractals is displayed as a part of the InterstellART community, and when visiting it, you can also visit the surround (and overhead) galleries, some of which house permanent exhibits, others of which are supplied as studio space for artists. A teleport network is provided for getting around (and links to the ground level exhibition spaces), although the easiest way to get to the art studios (floating on islands overhead from Fossil Fractals) is to either fly or use a double-click TP. Those interested in joining the community should contact  Asmita directly.

SLurl Details

Hidden Faces in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Hidden Faces
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Hidden Faces

Hidden Faces, now open at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery curated by Dido Haas, is an exhibition of photography by Monique Beebe. While no stranger to Second Life – she has been involved in the platform for the last decade – Hidden Faces marks the first public exhibition of her photography.

On display are twelve self-studies by Monique (or Moni, as she signs herself), offered in the familiar large format at Nitroglobus, which reveal the reason behind the exhibition’s title: in not one of them does the artist fully reveal her face. The most we see in those where her face may be partially exposed is the curve of cheek, soft line of jaw, sweep of nose and flare of nostrils and most particularly, the fullness of lips.

These glimpses are tantalising, sensual, and in at least one case – Thinking (seen at the top of this article) – edged with pensiveness. They draw us into the pictures in a physical way, the desire to reach out and caress a cheek, cup and gently lift a chin, to see the eyes that remain hidden, is powerful to the point of mesmerizing.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Hidden Faces
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Hidden Faces

Each of the poses offered is equally as sensual, with a couple probably NSFW. In many Moni is dressed in little more than her underwear or in sheer slips and tops; her poses nuanced, the dark backdrop to each piece further heightening its sensual feel. In two of those where her face isn’t visible at all, their sensual nature is carried in other ways: the lace ribbons tied around wrists, the drape of pearls down a naked back…

But there is more here has well. While Moni may be shy about revealing herself fully in the spotlight of an art exhibition, but because the images are so personal – both to her and in our reaction to them, they imbue a feeling of closeness with her without in any way casting us into the role of voyeur. Rather, the suggestion is that these are intimate moments being willingly shared with us, because we are trusted.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Hidden Faces
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Hidden Faces

Hidden Faces is a beautiful portfolio of work specifically created for this exhibition by an artist who may well be new to the SL exhibition circuit, but whose work is fully deserving of being seen by a wider audience. As such, I hope we’ll be able to see more of her work displayed at galleries in-world in the future. In the meantime, Hidden Faces will remain open through until late March.

SLurl Details

Call for entries: UWA’s Transformations in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Image courtesy of UWA
Image courtesy of UWA

The University of Western Australia looks likely to cease most of its presence in Second Life at the end of July 2017. However, before then the long-time patron of arts and artistic expression in Second Life is running one more major art exhibition, and recently put out a call for entries.

“Our final show is to be titled “Transformations” and is about beginnings, endings, transitions, change,” UWA’s art curator FreeWee Ling stated in the announcement. “The theme is deliberately vague in order to allow for the broadest possible interpretation. It is intended to highlight the technologies of SL as a medium for creative expression. We especially want work that reflects on the past in SL and/or imagines the future of virtual art.”

Those wishing to apply to be a part of the exhibition are invited to subject one piece in any or all of the following categories: 2D art, 3D art and / or machinima (so entrants can subject up to 3 pieces, one in each category). The closing data for entries is 23:59 SLT, on Sunday April 30th, 2017.

It is important to note that this event is an exhibition and not a UWA challenge / competition. There is no judging panel and there will be no prizes offered. However, official exhibition catalogue will be published on-line as part of the UWA Studies in Virtual Arts (UWA SiVA) journal series.

General guidelines for entries are:

  • As noted above, artists may submit up to one entry each in 3D, 2D, and/or machinima (up to 3 entries in total). Collaborations are encouraged, so if you participate as a named collaborator on any entry, you may also submit a separate entry as an individual.
  • Land Impact limit for 3D work is 300. Sound and light emitting objects should be carefully crafted in consideration of other nearby entries. Objects that might impact other nearby entries may have to be placed on a platform to isolate it. In such cases a poster and TP device will be placed in the gallery. Any entry with excessive script lag may be refused or returned for revision.
  • 2D entries should reflect the theme and must be images substantially created in SL. Post-processing (e.g., Photoshop effects) should be kept to a minimum.
  • Machinima entries can be of any length or subject matter as long a they are substantially produced using SL as the primary medium and conform to other criteria listed here. A poster and/or screen shot will be placed in the gallery and in the exhibition catalogue along with a link to the machinima.

For the full entry guidelines, including how to submit your entry, please refer to the call for entries blog post. All enquiries, concerns, etc., about entering the exhibition should be addressed directly to FreeWee Ling, who has final say on any issue.

Good luck to all who enter!

Additional links

Molly Mirassou’s Studio M in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Studio M
Studio M

Hi, I’m Molly.  I’d like to invite you to my very first gallery exhibition. I am new to the world of SL photography and through a strange and unexpected series of events, I find myself with a warehouse gallery space for a month, and the need to fill it with (hopefully) beautiful things. I hope you can come for a visit!

So reads the invitation I received from Molly Mirassou concerning her first exhibition in Second Life. As I’m always keen to see work by artists who may not have (yet) had the exposure others have gained through their time in SL, I was only too happy to hop across and take a look.

As the invitation notes, Molly’s exhibition, simply entitled Studio M, can be found inside a large warehouse building rather than the more usual gallery space. Seven large format pieces are displayed against the walls, with the floorspace and a raised wooden area occupied by easel-mounted pieces.

Studio M
Studio M

The pieces on display is a broad mix, from avatar studies (self portraits, I believe), through architectural and art studies (notably Mistero Hifeng’s sculptures, which Molly has photographed to great effect) to landscapes. Most of the pieces appear to have minimal or no post-processing and simply utilise windlight settings. As such, they are refreshingly clean in style, crisply capturing their subjects.

She may be new to SL photography, but Molly clearly has an eye for subject and angle – something which can clearly be seen in the likes of Burning Cathedral (which I believe is a capture of the cathedral at Chouchou), the untitled Studio m alongside it, and, facing them, the powerfully evocative Enough, which can be seen at the top of this article.

Studio M
Studio M

Exhibiting your SL photography can be a daunting proposition – we all harbour doubts and uncertainties about our abilities. Molly, however, shows a definite ability to capture mood and emotion. As such, I’m certain that while this may be her first exhibition, it will not be her last; I’m certainly looking forward to seeing more of her work, and witnessing how her technique develops and the directions in which it might take her. The current exhibition will remain open through until Thursday, March 16th.

SLurl Details