Now open at Black Label Exhibition Corner is an exhibition by Calypso Applewhyte entitled Feelings, a selection of her distinctive self-portraits offering a mix of monochrome and colour images.
Self-taught with Photoshop, Calypso entered Second Life in 2010 with – as she describes it herself – “no specific goal”, but while exploring the grid, she found an outlet in Second Life photography. As her interest grew, so did a parallel interest in both her own avatar and the ability to use this virtual domain as a means to explore emotions and feelings.
Black Label Exhibition Centre: Calypso Applewhyte
This is powerfully reflected the selection of pictures displayed within this exhibition, as indicated by the title. Reached via teleport from the Black Label Exhibition Corner (please read the notes there about viewer settings), Feelings presents Twenty-one images by Caly (some of which are intentionally duplicated to offer a different means of presentation). Some of the pictures have appeared in selections of Caly’s work seen in other exhibitions, but which in their inclusion here certainly fit the theme.
Each piece captures Caly’s avatar in a variety of looks and poses, some with a science fiction edge to them, others leaning towards steampunk or fantasy and others more classical in nature. All of them are drawn together by the depth of emotion each conveys. In this, we often use the phrase “the eyes are the windows of the soul”, but Caly proves feelings and emotions can be conveyed through pose and / or look even when the eyes themselves are unseen: just take Romeo and Juliet, CA-418 and CA-395 as examples of this.
Black Label Exhibition Centre: Calypso Applewhyte
Although that said, there is no denying those images that do show Caly’s eyes have a particular emotional attraction, as shown with the likes of Green Girl and a piece I’ve seen previously seen exhibited and have admired: La Tristesse.
When visiting – and as per the instructions at the landing point – it is essential you have Advanced Light Model active in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics), or what I’ll refer to as “The Mirror” mini-collection of four projected images within the main exhibition will not be visible.
Black Label Exhibition Centre: Calypso Applewhyte
Another engaging exhibition by Calypso, perfectly presented by the Black Label Exhibition Corner, managed by AnnaFrancesca Kira.
Somewhat unusually for this blog, I’m covering three exhibitions of art split across two galleries – Club L.A. and Kiku Gallery – that between them presents three very individual displays of art by Second Life artists, and which are each small enough to make a joint interesting and contrasting visit for those who enjoy art in Second Life.
Opening at L.A. Club and Gallery, curated by Wintergeist, on September 28th, 2019 and running for approximately two months are exhibitions by Maloe Vansant Sue Kass, two very different artists.
Maloe is always a provocative in her work, and with A Glitch in Time, she again shows this to be the case, with a very mixed set of predominantly physical word photographs – and I have to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to make of them. This is something I say without any intention to be dismissive towards the exhibition, but simply because the mix of images offered is so diverse, it really needs individual viewing and contemplation, rather than any attempt to understand them through the eyes of another.
Sue Kass, meanwhile, is an artist I’ve not previously encountered. She presents a selection of 16 avatar studies offered as a mix of photographs, paintings and drawings. I have to admit, they make an engaging collection; each one captivates the eye, offering a perfectly framed image complete with the strong suggestion of a surrounding story; so much so that again, they deserve an direct visit to view, rather than a second-hand interpretation here. However, I will say I found myself drawn to those pieces that suggest a drawing or watercolour – notably Fall, Hug and Flowers, seen below, and Ink.
Running through until November 8th, 2019 at the Kiku Gallery curated by Suzanne Logan is an exhibition of photography by Ktahdn Vesuvino entitled A Closer Look, a series of marvellous close-up images from the physical world captured using a digital single-lens reflex camera with (for the most part) a 100mm macro lens. These are combined with a small series of photographs of the most astonishing series of sand sculptures.
When I go for walks, I see most people with heads down, looking at their telephones. The world presents beauty in great detail, everywhere one chooses to look. I know there is also ugliness. It’s part of our reality. I choose to focus on things I see as being beautiful, and attempt to make a photograph that will show some of the beauty to others… and be worth looking at again.
This is another captivating collection of images, Ktahdn’s macro pictures offering a fabulous series of portraits, while those taken on the beach marvellously underline his comment about people being so focused on their smartphones they can literally miss life passing them by.
Taken together, and as I said at the top of this review, all three exhibitions make for individually absorbing visits.
If you’re into fine and classical art, then you are going to want to drop in to the Museum of Fine Arts in Second Life. I confess, I knew little of the museum prior to recently receiving an invitation from Tonem, the museum’s curator to pay them a visit, so I was delighted to be able to accept the offer and learn about the gallery.
Originally founded in Twinity in 2013, the museum moved to Second Life in 2015, where it is located on the Mainland continent of Jeogeot, occupying a palatial and very fitting château (the work of Kaya Angel) that provides 20 rooms of exhibition space, with a further annex to the rear.
Museum of Fine Arts
The goal of the museum is to provide a non-profit educational facility displaying art from the physical world. Each piece presented in the exhibition spaces is a faithful photographic representation of the originating art, with care taken to ensure only pieces that reside in the public domain in their country of origin are reproduced, and that they free from known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights.
When the group was founded [2013] there was a debate on the kind of art to include. And the conclusion to not exhibit user created art was for three reasons: the difficulty of establishing provenance; the lack of expertise [at the time] regarding modern art in our group; and the fact that there are many, many art galleries in Second life presents in-world artists and photographers with the ability to display their work, but only a handful available for exhibiting fine and classical art from the physical world.
– Tonem, describing the background to the Museum
As an advocate for the presentation of suitable physical-world art through Second Life, the museum’s focus is something I approve. SL provides the means to create exhibitions that can bring together a wealth of established art from around the globe and present it to an audience in a manner impossible win the physical world without the need for what could amount to a lot of globe-trotting; while for the modern artist in the physical world, it offers the means to reach a global audience in a more immersive and personal manner than images on a web page.
This first point above is particularly true of the current exhibitions at the museum; there is no way on Earth the rich diversity of pieces offered could have been brought together by a single gallery in the physical world. Nor does it end there. Great lengths have been taken to ensure a visit to the Museum of Fine Art is as “real” as possible.
The two exhibitions currently in progress are German Art in the 19th Century, which represents the gallery’s main autumn / winter 2019 exhibit, and Marie Bracquemond One of the Grand Dames of Impressionism, running through until October 22nd, 2019. Each demonstrate the care taken in presenting the art in the museum: the images are correctly scaled one to the next, whilst each has its own information card, a-la a physical world museum. For those who prefer, images can also be left-clicked to have the information text displayed in local chat.
Museum of Fine Arts: German Art in the 19th Century – Adolph Menzel
German Art in the 19th Century includes a wealth of introductory information in the museum’s foyer, and I recommend viewing it before progressing through the gallery’s halls. In all, some 34 German painters are represented, with over 200 individual pieces of art faithfully reproduced. The exhibit follows the evolution of German art from the romantic period (late 18th and early 19th centuries) through to the period of German Expressionism in the early 20th century. There is no set path through the exhibit, But given the volume of art, I would recommend setting aside time to genuinely appreciate it, as it has taken a lot of time and effort to pull things together, as Tonem notes:
Of course, because we can use almost anything in the public domain also makes it more of a challenge! The museum did a lot of small exhibits focusing on particular parts of movements or periods, but the didactic value seemed minimal. Something sweeping like this should be much more valuable to people learning about art – but it was a tremendous amount of work to bring it all together!
Museum of Fine Arts: Marie Bracquemond
The exhibit celebrating the art of Marie Bracquemond can be found in the annex to the rear of the museum, on the Lindal Kidd terrace (Lindal is someone who over the years has leant support and assistance to the gallery).
Alongside Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, Madame Bracquemond is regarded as one of les trois grandes dames of the French impressionist movement. This is a much smaller exhibit, as one might expect given the focus on a single artist, but the works offered within it are again presented with the same care to detail and scale. At the time of my visit, some finishing touches had yet to be made (including the introduction to the exhibition), but this shouldn’t put people off – should you want to find out about Marie Bracquemond, Google is your friend.
Museum of Fine Arts: Marie Bracquemond
The Museum of Fine Arts is a gem of a gallery museum in Second Life, and I thoroughly recommend it to all who have an interest in physical world fine and classical art. I’d also like to thank Tonem for her time with me during my visit, and I look forward to returning in the future and writing about further exhibitions at the gallery.
DiXmiX Gallery, September 2019 – part of the revamped The Atom section of the gallery
DiXmiX Gallery, curated by Dixmix Source, is celebrating its third anniversary in September 2019, with a triple exhibition by Maloe Vansant, Del May and Key Monk, and with something of a revamp of the gallery’s spaces.
Since its inception, DiXmiX has been a consistent venue for art from the avant-garde to the traditional landscape, although the emphasis has perhaps leant towards avatar studies and portraiture. I’ve covered the gallery in these pages since its inception – (admittedly missing a few exhibitions over the last 36 months), and it has been a fascinating journey from then until now, witnessing the richness of art on display, both 2D and 3D, and also the gallery’s evolution with the guiding support of Megan Prumier.
DiXmiX Gallery, September 2019 – Del May
For its first exhibition in September 2016, DiXmiX offered colour and monochrome images by Grazia Horwitz, Ariel Brearly (via Dixmix Source’s personal collection of her work), Ziki Questi, and also from the portfolios of Megan and Dixmix. This mix of monochrome and colour art is again on offer in the three exhibitions marking this third anniversary – although the content of the art is very different from that first exhibition, and the three sets offer rich contrast between one another.
Occupying the Grey Gallery, adjacent to the main entrance, Del May presents a set of thirteen avatar studies that are startling in their content, encompassing a form of surrealism that is exceptionally captivating. These are pieces that demand the attention of the heart and emotions rather than the intellect, each piece singularly unique and with its own sense of potential and narrative.
DiXmiX Gallery, September 2019 – Maloe Vansant
One the upper level’s White Gallery, Maloe Vansant presents a dozen studies in her familiar evocative and provocative style. One of the aspects of Maloe’s work I find appealing is her ability to offer pieces that might be regarded as voyeuristic or NSFW or edging on the taboo/ fetishistic, but which are ultimately introspective / reflective, or which convey an ideal, a provocation to thought, rather than seeking a more basic (hormonal?) reaction. This is very much the case here, with each piece presented intoxicating in its composition, tone and message.
For me, Key Monk’s work, displayed in the lower level Black Gallery, offers a new volume in the school of photography brought to my attention by Melusina Parkin. Rather than provide a broad canvas for his pieces, Key focuses on a single element in scene, using it, something with soft focus or considered depth of field, to present a window into what might be a much more extensive story that only requires our own imaginations to bring to life. And even when the image itself is more expansive – as with #3, there is still the feeling that we are witnessing one small part of a bigger story, and thus we are drawn into each piece to weave our own narrative around it.
DiXmiX Gallery, September 2019 – Key Monk
Congrats to Dixmix and Megan on the occasion of the gallery’s third anniversary – looking forward to the next three years!
The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Impossibleisnotfrench
Opening on Saturday, September 21st at THE EDGE Art Gallery, curated by Ladmilla, is a new ensemble exhibition entitle Afflatus (“inspiration”). Running through until Monday, October 21st, 2019, the exhibit features the work of Impossibleisnotfrench, Jessamine2108, Davenwolf Dagger, Loegan Magic, together with gallery “regulars” (residents?) Kapaan, Larisalyn, PartrickofIreland and Trisharose, all rounded-out by a display of art and words by Ladmilla and her SL partner, Eli Medier.
For this exhibition, part of the lawn between the gallery’s indoor exhibition spaces has been turned into a garden display, with paths meandering around work by the quite delightfully name Impossibleisnotfrench (using the Display Name Harry Cover – the name I’m going to go with here, simply for brevity of typing!), and Trisharose. I’m starting here in part because it is the most obvious element in the exhibition, sittig as it does in the midst of the gallery space, but also because Harry’s 3D work is utterly captivating, and it’s the first time I can recall witnessing it in Second Life.
The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Impossibleisnotfrench
For My Third Life Harry present 25 eggs, the majority of which are each slightly larger than an avatar’s neck and head, all of them mindful of Fabergé eggs, but eschewing the gold and bejewelled exteriors in favour of external painting and design in keeping with their contents. Within each (just click the lid on those that might be closed and hiding their interiors) is the most remarkable diorama or model, all of them spanning a broad range of subjects from little World War I Sopwith Camels patrolling the air over their base, to miniature paintings to tiny goldfish swimming in their bowl, with landscapes, figurines and even a couple of cheeky and humorous pieces (think the girl is taking a shower? look more closely!). All are actually drawn from elements of Harry’s life and family, thus offering a “3rd life”, so to speak, reflection of his first life. They are, individually and collectively, an absolutely must-see display that is mesmerizing in its beauty, inspiration and skill of execution.
Alongside Harry’s installation, Trisharose presents Be Kind, Laugh and Smile Today, a selection of ten avatar studies and two – for me – quite eye-catching studies of that staple of Second Life landscape, the lighthouse.
The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 -Trisharose
Within the gallery buildings can be found the installations by the remaining participants in the exhibition, each of whom presents pictures on a theme of their choosing.
Following the order of buildings anti-clockwise from behind the outdoor display, these are Jessamine2108, who offers us a series of Musings, images ranging from studies of avatars in motion (Passion) through to composite pieces (Transcendence) by way of landscape studies to present a set of pieces that do indeed encourage the mind to muse on them. With All Creatures Great and Small, a wonderful selection of landscape and animal images captured around SL, Larisalyn channels the spirit of James Herriot (actually veterinary surgeon Alf Wright), and I challenge anyone not to find a smile at the title piece alongside the entrance to her gallery space.
For Vintage Virtual and The Promise Loegan Magic and Kapaan respectively focus on black and white images, albeit it in very different ways. With his images, Loegan presents scenes from Second Life that suggest we are looking back over many decades, to a time before the advent of colour photography; only the appearance of the shells of road vehicles in a couple breaks this illusion. More than that, however, is that in their monochrome rendering, these are images suggestive of a mind in sleep recalling the places it has seen through the medium of dreaming.
The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Loegan Magic
Kapaan’s work, meanwhile is of a darker tone and presents itself as a narrative, each image potential a scene from an unfolding story – a journey undertaken by a lone hero. But to what end? That, perhaps, is for us as the witnesses to decide. Or perhaps the clue lies in the small annex to the main display space.
Davenwolf Dagger is a photographer in the physical world whose work first came to my attention earlier in 2019, and towards which I admits to having something of a fascination. With Industrial Fusion he offers more of his images from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania, and which make up his Blacksmith series. Here they are combined with industrial pieces from SL to provide a unique blending of ideas.
The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Ladmilla and Eli
Puppets presents more of Ladmilla’s always superb and evocative images – here with a slightly surreal slant – coupled with Eli’s masterful use of prose and poem to present a series of pieces encompassing reflections on life, identity, relationships and human nature, all of which meld the physical and the virtual to stir the mind and the eye.
Surrealism is also very much a part of PatrickofIreland’s Four Elements – Essentials of Life. This is something of an immersive installation, commencing within the courtyard of the gallery space. As the name suggests, it offers a celebration of the four essential elements of life – water, air, earth and fire, with each represented through fabulously surreal pieces.
The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – PatrickofIreland
Inspired and inspirational, Afflatus and its ensemble exhibitions of at officially opens at 11:00 SLT on Saturday, September 21st, with music by DJ Avalon Boa between 12:00 noon and 14:00 SLT.
La Maison d’Aneli, curated by Aneli Abeyante, relocated mid-year to a new home in the skies of VeGeTal PLaNeT. In making the move, the gallery space has also been redesigned, the former two-level build giving way to a more labyrinthine space that retains the open plan nature of the former venue whilst also making one’s passage through it more interesting by splitting individual display spaces across multiple levels, both “up” and “down” relative to one another, linked by stairways and walkways, together with a number of individual display spaces – all of which work together to encourage exploration and discovery.
At the time of my visit, a new set of exhibitions was due to open on Wednesday, September 18th, featuring work by: Eylinea, Akim Alonzo, Desy Magic, Jolielle Parfort, Megan Prumier, Olympes Rhode, and Moki Yuitza, all of whom present a rich mixing of 2D and 3D art. While all are opening at the same event at 12:30 pm SLT, I have to admit that I was drawn to dropping in ahead of time after receiving personal invitations to see the exhibits by Akim and Moki.
La Maison d’Aneli: Akim Alonzo
Located in one of the individual galley halls, Akim presents The Matrix, a series of images he’s created based around his love of The Matrix movies. While some of them have previously been displayed at Akim’s own gallery (see: Water and a Matrix: reflections on life by Akim Alonzo), I was drawn back to them because of both their captivating nature and because they are so nuanced and layered. Not only do they offer an interpretation of the manifold memes on the shaping of reality as found within the films and as we can create for ourselves within SL; they also present a commentary on identification – that perennial theme common to Second Life -, as I noted back in April when writing about these images:
Within these pictures is a subtle reminder that, no matter how hard we might try to distance self from character within SL, no matter what the roles we play in-world, the backstories we build; the fact remains that facets of our own natures, our own identities, will be impinged on those characters. They are inevitably a projection of self into the virtual. What’s more, their daily encounters and experiences within the virtual realm equally reflect and inform upon our physical selves. Thus, we have a genuinely visceral intertwining between the “real” and the “virtual”.
La Maison d’Aneli: Moki Yuitza
Moki also has one of the individual gallery spaces to present a 3D installation entitled Ascension. This is a mobile piece offering an interpretation of the subject matter title – the ability for us to ascend our current state mentally, spiritually or potentially physically. Beautiful to witness, this is also an interactive piece, with poseballs available for those wishing to participate in the installation.
Within the more open areas of the gallery space, I found myself drawn to Eylinea’s 2D and 3D animated art; this being the first time – at least that I can remember – I’ve seen her work on public display. There are intricate and fascinating, drawing a number of approaches – geometric, fractal, and abstract to produce some fascinating pieces.
La Maison d’Aneli: Jolielle Parfort
When visiting the gallery, I do recommend following a certain order to progress through the exhibits. From the landing point provided, take the stairs (on the left as you look out over the gallery) down to the main hall space to visit the individual exhibition space housing Moki’s Ascension. After this, explore the open spaces on their various levels and the hall containing Akim’s The Matrix, before moving to the final individual hall, home to Jolielle Parfort’s always engaging art drawn from Second Life.
This route doesn’t give any deeper context for the exhibits – each stands on its own merits -, but it will offer a logical path through the gallery and the exit point tucked into the hall featuring Jolielle’s work. From there is is then possible to visit the other exhibition areas around la Maison d’Aneli, including region holder vroum Short’s visually captivating Mirror (which I’ve also previously written about). All of these spaces are equally worthy of a visit, but which will be subject for other articles in this blog.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 