Nostalgia is the title of an exhibition by Mareea Farrasco that opened at DiXmiX Gallery curated by Dixmix Source, on January 26th, 2019.
Presenting twelve soft-toned images that perfectly reflect the idea of memory and nostalgia, this is a hauntingly beautiful display of art, each image almost heart-rending in its sense of wistfulness.
Mixing landscapes with what might be regarded as avatar studies, clues to the pieces can be found within their title – Freezing Point, Islands, The RainArmy – which may suggest interpretation or may simply offer a clue to the story within. But what that story might be really comes down to your mood / frame of mind when viewing them.
Indeed, such is the personal nature of the images, to offer any interpretation here would be pointless; the most I can offer is the impact they had on me. Such as with Mer étale (Sea Spreads), a piece that to me captures both the loneliness we can feel in life – and the need we all at times feel of wanting to be alone.
In this respect, were I to suggest a single emotion that seems to pervade several of the images offered, it would perhaps be solitude; this sense of being alone contrasting with a desire to be alone.
Given the depth of meaning present within these images, they each deserve study and time; they are pieces that should be considered, not just glanced at; absorbed, not just seen.
Now open at Artful Expressions Gallery is a small, untitled exhibition of Second Life photographs by Justine Here (Justherforpix). Small though it might be, it is also a marvellous introduction to a photographer who – so I understand from talking to the Gallery’s curator, Sorcha Sanvean (Sorcha Tyles) – is unsure of her work. I’m not sure why; Justine has a remarkable eye for photographic composition and expression within our digital world.
Her skill is perfectly expressed in the six images offered for this exhibition. A mix of avatar studies and landscape images, each and every one of them is utterly exquisite. I’m often prone to discussing pictures in terms of the narrative they offer; I’m naturally drawn to doing so as words and expression drive me. Sometimes that narrative is rich, at others it is subtle. In these pieces it is simply extraordinary. Untitled, each piece naturally draws the eye and the imagination into seeing and telling a story about the moment in time – the moment in life so perfectly captured and framed with each.
And I do mean life; all six pieces breathe its very essence through their composition: the use of light, colour, tones, focus, depth. Similarly, the level of emotion conveyed in each piece is magnificent. These are not pictures simply to be seen; they offer themselves as works to be seen; they are images to be tasted and savoured; the stories within them to be experienced.
As such, I’ll say no more here – but I will urge you to go and see for yourself. This is a small, but truly elegant exhibition.
Oxygen, with the subtitle The Suffocated Planet, is the title of a new installation by Terrygold, which officially opens at 13:30 SLT on Friday, January 25th. As with The Rusted Farm (read here for more) before it, it offers art with an ecological theme.
As with The Rusted Farm, Oxygen focuses on the myriad ways in which humans are systematically poisoning our own planet. But where the former dealt with the ruining of the world’s oceans and lands, Oxygen focuses on the manner in which we are slowly destroying the very air we breathe.
At its core, the installation provides a story, told it words and pictures, of a woman born in 2030, a time when the atmosphere has become so polluted people are unable to live outdoors without the aid of a respirator, which to her feels as suffocating as the deadly mix of gases in the unfiltered air. She longs to witness first had the world she has never known; a place where the sky was as blue as her eyes, and where plants and flower grow in abundance.
Her world appears to be that of underground habitation; a place of concrete walls, floors and ceilings, of passages and vast rows of tanks used to sustain our race. But even here the air is not fresh or clean, and the ever-present respirator imprisons her. There is only one place she can escape the cloying grasp of the mask, and then only briefly – and it brings forth all the longing she feels for the world that has passed, together with a renewed hated for the mask she’ll all-to-soon have to return to wearing.
My weekly hour in the municipal greenhouse is almost over; I’m already wearing my mask and in a little while I’ll be back into that fog. 59:55 … 56 … 57 … 58 … 59 it’s here. The Noise.
That “noise” is the sound of her own confined breathing, the beat of her own heart, reminders of her imprisonment.
Through the story, we follow her attempts to find peace, or rediscover all that humanity has lost. These attempts lead her to a truth: that nature is in fact stronger than we might think. While our own foolishness may bring about our own end, Nature herself will ultimately survive and recover, healing the wounds wrought by humanity in our foolishness.
Throughout the installation, the story is told through words seemingly painted on the walls of the drab halls of living spaces, and through self-portraits of Terrygold wearing the all-encompassing mask, a heavy, ugly affair. Through these images we witness her longing, her desires and ultimately, her discovery.
This tale is in many ways dark and sad; even the outcome is tinged with shadow as well as hope for the future or the natural world. However, the message is clear: should we not work with Nature, to cease our wilful destruction of environments, poisoning of water and polluting of the very air we breathe, in order to ensure the continuance all of this fragile ecosystem in which each and every one of us is born and depends upon? Or are we going to continue along a path in which, while it is true Nature through her hardiness will eventually survive and recover, will nevertheless leave humanity’s mark on the world akin to that of the dinosaurs, our passing marked only by the bones of our towns and cities?
Now open at the G.B.T.H. Project is a an ensemble art exhibition featuring no fewer than 37 artists from across Second Life. Entitled Contaminated, it is both a fun piece and something of a curio.
The curators of the project – Marina Münter, Megan Prumier and Nath Baxton describe it thus:
Each participant was given figurine[s] to act as a blank canvas to be textured and decorated in their own individual styles. With Contaminated onlookers find themselves situated in a built-up urban environment faced with an intervention of an abundance of of characters.
This description is offered at the landing point for the installation, which forms a part of the “urban intervention” (aka “street scene”) in which the figures are presented. Also offered at the landing point is a map to the installation, with a numbered key to where each artist’s piece(s) can be found.
A HUD is also available, which shows a total of 41 figures on its opening page (the additional numbers being the result of Luc Renoir presenting 2 figures in the installation and Mistero Hifeng a total of four), and allows the visitor to page through individuals images of the figures in the alphabetical order of the artists’ names. To be honest, I found the HUD to be of passing value; it was easier to wander through the installation and just right-click / Edit figures, as this not only supplied the artist’s name but also the title for each figure – a basic piece of information missing from the HUD.
The figurines themselves will be immediately familiar to anyone who has seen the classic LEGO® figures in the physical world. They are a fitting means of presentation, given it is possible to (at least to a degree) customise such figures, just as these have been customised by the artists. They present – like life itself – a rich mix of characters, each unique whilst remaining recognisably “LEGOy”.
While the figures may initially appear to be static, this is not entirely the case. Several feature animated textures. In this, I particularly liked I Am A Soul – I have a Body by Hope Something (NovaApache), with its burning soul, and Boy Meets Girl by miu miu miu (miumiumiusecond), which are in turn evocative and charming. Others are interactive, as with tutsy Navarathna’s Russian Dolls with its video media surface and Megan Prumier’s cheekily naughty “>_<“.
Some of the pieces might be seen as reflections on the rich diversity of life found within Second Life itself. Ash (Ashratum) offers 7 Faces of Dr Alt, for example, appears to be a comment on the manner in which Alt accounts can be used to deceive; Megan Prumier and Toods (Toodles Telling) appear to give a nod towards adult themes and nudity that are a part of Second Life (although obviously also found in the physical world). Yet others appear is reflections on life, love, memories, and more as we each encounter them on a daily basis.
To be honest, I have no idea why the title Contaminated was selected for the piece; is it perhaps a reflection of the figures being used as canvases? Might it be some form of comment on how we “contaminate” Second Life with out own thoughts, feelings, outlook and so on? Does it necessarily have to be contextualised with the figures rather than simply being a randomly selected title? I’ll leave that up to you to decide; I was happy simply wandering and viewing the figures as I came upon them.
The Edge: JudiLynn (JudiLynn India) and Anouk Lefavre
The Edge, Kultivate’s black-and-white gallery, re-opened on January 20th, 2019, with a new ensemble exhibition.
Also now housed in a new building – the rest of the Fanatik unit utilised by the Windlight Gallery which re-opened earlier in January – the exhibition is unthemed for the re-opening and presents the work of Roxaane Daniels (Roxaane Fyanucci), Vee Tammas Shocker (Veruca Tammas), Kody Meyers (KodyMeyers), Sabine Mortenwold, Maaddi Benazzi (maaddi), JudiLynn (JudiLynn India), Anouk Lefavre, Reycharles Resident, and John Brianna (johannes1977).
The range of images is broad: avatar self-studies, drawings, original paintings rendered as monochrome images, Second Life landscapes and photographs from the physical world. As such, this makes for an engaging exhibition.
Of the artists and images on display, I admit to being drawn to the work of Reycharles Resident on the upper level of the building. These are richly evocative studies, vital in their execution; there is a depth of life about them that is intense and captivating.
Similarly, Kody Meyers – as usual – offers a series of studies that are rich in narrative and beautifully posed and created. Kody’s colour work is always extraordinary, but here in black and white, there is something very special about them that kept drawing my attention back to his work.
Alongside of Kody’s pieces are five pen / pencil drawings by Sabine Mortenwold. Like Reycharles’ pictures, there is a strength of raw beauty about them that capture one’s attention – particularly the two landscapes.
The Edge: Roxaane Daniels (Roxaane Fyanucci), Vee Tammas Shocker (Veruca Tammas)
But the truth is, the entire mix of art in this exhibition makes for worthwhile viewing, and it will be available for at least the next month.
My Anonymous Shadow is the intriguing name of an exhibition of work by Dixmix Source, owner and curator of DiXmiX Gallery, that opened on Saturday, January 19th, 2019. On display are 12 images focusing on – as the name implies – the photographer’s shadow, or in some cases the artist’s avatar presented as a shadow; hence the intriguing nature of the exhibition.
It’s an innovative approach to presenting what might be thought of as avatar studies; within each image we see an anonymous figure; a silhouette, sometimes cast by light across a floor or wall, and others, the shadowy outline of a figure expressing emotion or framed within a setting, or abstractly caught in what otherwise be the pages of a graphic novel. But in each and every one of them, the black figure is both the centre of the image, yet (literally) a dark unknown.
With a considered use of colour in some of the images (more blatant in the likes of Shadow 5 and Shadow 7; softer and more refined in the likes of Shadow 9 and Shadow 11), the use of abstract presentation (again, Shadow 9 together with Shadow 3 and its mirror twin, Shadow 12), and carefully composed character studies (such as Shadow 8 and Shadow 10), this is a fascinating series. There is a narrative within each piece, waiting to be told – and that narrative very much depends on how you approach this exhibition.
For example, they might be considered individually, and as they were formed: pieces depicting an actual shadow cast on a surface, or a figure shown in deliberate silhouette. Viewed in this way, the story each image tells tends to be one of composition, balance, tone, capture and presentation; the play of light and dark, the contrast of shadow and object, in which the shadow / silhouette is divorced from association with a person, but is simply a component part of the artist’s use of contrasting elements to complete the whole, even when as expressive as Shadow 8.
But if they are considered as a whole, and within the context of the title, the narrative becomes more involved and branched. On the one hand, they could be taken as imaginings on what our shadows might be doing whilst we are otherwise occupied: out in their own world, exploring, experiencing, searching. On the other, these pieces might be seen as reflections of thoughts and emotions; considerations on identity, place, relationships that are personal to the photographer; yet at the same time, the very anonymity of the figure within each renders them as reflections of moods, events, feels, that we, the observers have experienced and can instantly recall in viewing them.
Thus, My Anonymous Shadow becomes a fascinatingly layered exhibition, one which can be enjoyed purely from the artistic expression each piece presents, and / or for the more narratives and ideas that lie just below the surface – or should I say, within their shadows?
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 