Tag: Art 2020

Providing a home for PAC in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Holly Kai Park: the new east side with welcome area / landing point (foreground) and updated re-brick gallery spaces in the tiers rising to the main gallery

At the start of February I blogged about the The Phoenix Artists Collaboration (PAC) and its search for a new home / partners as a change in circumstance meant the group would lose their current in-world home from the the end of March 2020 (see Seeking ownership or sponsorship: the Phoenix Art Collaboration). Since that time, a couple of things have happened that mean the group now has new opportunities beyond April 1st 2020 – and I’m pleased to say I’ve been able to play a part in bring one about.

In short, starting later this month PAC will be relocating core operations to a new location: Holly Kai Park, and there will also be an additional set of studio spaces that will be made available for the group as it expands.

The Gallery Village – 19 single and two-storey studios units for artists

After thinking about my own  – being frank – failure to ensure the arts programme at Holly Kai Park continues to move forward and so leaving the park largely dormant, and the situation PAC faced, it struck me that both PAC and Holly Kai Park could mutually benefit one another, the latter providing a home for the former, and the former providing the much needed visual arts programme for the latter. So, discussions were started, and both Nber and Mark, owners of HRE, the parent estate for Holly Kai Park, and the core leaders of PAC Luke (Marshmal), Anibrm Jung and Will (Willyharris) were equally positive about the idea, so I started putting together a more formal set of ideas and a plan to revise Holly Kai Park’s layout to better suit PAC’s needs.

One concern with this was that at its launch, PAC had no fewer than 42 exhibiting artists (see: The Phoenix Artists Collaboration in Second Life) – and the numbers had since grown. Obviously, given its location and the fact that the region on which it sits is something of a shared environment, there was no way Holly Kai Park could provide a home to such a volume of artist – and fortunately, it doesn’t have to: thanks to the support of Audie Spade, additional exhibition space is being made available on a separate sky platform.

The Park Walks remain, but have been vastly cleaned-up to form more obvious links between the east and west art areas

Instead, the park can become something of a focal point for PAC activities, provide space for artists, room for 3D and Featured Artists exhibitions within the main gallery complex, as well as a primary Welcome & Information centre serving both PAC and the Park, and provide a social venue for PAC members,

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I’ve bee re-working the park to better suit PAC’s needs and serve as a base of operations (hence why my blogging has been a little slower than usual). While there is still a little more work to be carried out / finalised, we’re now just about at the point were artists can start transitioning from the current PAC facilities, which will vanish come April, and the park.

The Park retains some “permanent” 3D exhibits, notably the interactive Ice Castle by Giovanna Cerise (above) and Frankx Lefarve’s Reflections at Midnight

I’m not going to bore you with  litany of changes, instead I’ll just say that the park now comprises three distinct areas for visual arts:

  • East side: retains space for boat moorings and provides 4 individual studios for artists, together with Caitinara Bar and a new landing point / welcome centre (which I freely admit I ripped from the “skytower” home design I put together for Isla Pey).
  • Centre: the Holly Kai Gallery, retained for feature exhibitions and a further with eight east-facing artist studios built-in to the hill on which it stands, while the lawns to its front façade have been re-worked to provide space for up to 2 3D art exhibitions.
  • West side: the Art Village, with nineteen individual studio spaces in two designs, with open spaces and boulevards so as not to feel overcrowded.
Another look at the landing point / welcome centre (r) that will be housing information on the park, PAC and exhibitions as well as teleport options to go directly to any given studio gallery, with Caitinara Bar, (l)

At the same time, much improved links between the east and west sides of the park (including via Holly Kai Gallery) have been put in place whilst retaining the park like feel to the north and south of the gallery hill. Improvements have also been made to the park / Seanchai Library space so that the latter feels and looks to be more included in the park as a whole.

For artists who have exhibited at PAC’s original venue, the spaces at Holly Kai park are admittedly smaller, and the LI allowance per head has been reduced as a result, but the hope is this will encourage more variance / update in and of displays within the studios. Discussions are currently in hand as to how best to handle studio allocations and display periods, and to ensure a good flow of traffic between PAC at Holly Kai Park and the upcoming sky platform space.

A view of some of the gallery spaces tiered under Holly Kai Gallery. The bridge to the lest links directly with Seanchai Library, as does the path under it, which also connects to the west side Gallery Village

With the potential to offer space to up to 35 artists at a time, together with representation by Seanchai Library – with whom it is hoped joint events such as Stories at the Park can be (re)initiated, and with Caitinara Bar as a possible social centre for PAC, we  – the PAC Board of Trustees (of which I’m also now a member) and the HRE management team – Holly Kai Park will hopefully become a worthwhile home PAC artists and activities.

I’ll have more about any formal re-opening / exhibition launch in the near future. In the meantime, anyone wishing to visit the Park is welcome to do so via the SLurl below – but please keep in mind it’ll likely be another week or so before art starts to be displayed there.

The lawns to the front of Holly Kai Gallery now offer better space for 3D art installations

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Senna’s Unions at the Itakos Project in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Itakos Project: Union – Sennaspirit Coronet

Currently open at Akim Alonzo’s Itakos Project is an exhibition of avatar studies by Sennaspirit Coronet that is far from what might be called the “usual” for such exhibitions, given it both presents its subjects and offers a glimpse into their lives through their own words.

Entitled Union, and carrying the strap line Portraits of friends, collaborators, and lovers, it features 18 portraits of couples within Second Life who are friends with Senna, together with notes by one or both of the featured avatars on the nature of their relationship that bring each of the studies to even greater life. In developing and defining the exhibit, Senna notes:

We all know those people who, while individuals, have close ties to another in world person, whether they be friends, collaborators, or lovers. This show celebrates the “Unions” we have in this virtual world. When you think of one, very often you naturally envision the other. The great people who gave their time to participate in this show are wonderful examples of these bonds we form and proves that SL is RL.

Itakos Project: Union – Sennaspirit Coronet

Unsurprisingly, given Senna’s involvement in the SL art scene, the majority of the dual portraits feature other artists and those closest to them, be it their SL partners, long-term collaborators, or closest friends. The portraits themselves are elegant in their simplicity of presentation, each one framing the featured couple such that it that offers a living, breathing look into their virtual selves.

These are studies that would form an engaging series in their own right. Beautifully posed, lit, edited and and finished, each offers a statement on its subjects as both a pairing and as individuals. However, it is through the added words – which are as noted, by one of both of the subjects in each study – that we are carried beyond the images and into the thoughts and lives of those who inhabit the avatars.

Itakos Project: Union – Sennaspirit Coronet

Some of these pieces are short, we both have a passion for creating and I am faster than Cica so she can’t get away. Others more lengthy; all reveal the nature of the relationship between the two subjects, and whether the relationship has tended to remain within the digital boundaries of Second Life, or directly moved to encompass the physical world as well.   All of which makes for an engaging exhibition.

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Cica’s new Fairy Tale in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cica Ghost – Another Fairy Tale

Cica Ghost opened her latest installation on Saturday, March 7th 2020 for a month-long run. Entitled Another Fairy Tale, it offers a continuation of ideas first presented in Fairy Tale in 2017 (see: Cica’s Fairy Tale in Second Life), introducing a new family of fantastical creatures scattered across a twilight landscape.

Like Fairy Tale, this installation is introduced with a quote by a writer of tales, with Cica using words from Hans Christian Andersen: Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch, and such is the evocative nature of the scene that for anyone who visited Fairy Tale, the intervening years between it and this installation simply vanish, and it is as if we’ve turned a page in Cica’s magical story and arrived at the start of a new chapter.

Cica Ghost: Another Fairy Tale

But while the original featured a somewhat bleak and barren landscape with columns of rock and branches bereft of leaves vied to reach the sky, here we are in a garden setting, where tall flowers point their colourful petals towards the darkening sky, and leafy vines droop their way around rocks even as flowerless shoots also rise towards the clouds scudding overheas, the ground beneath them mottled and covered by verdant, moss-like grass,

Within this setting reside creatures fantastical, some seemingly born of the land, some of the sea and some of the air; some with legs and / or wings, others limbless or with forelegs ans sinuous tails. Many are quadrupeds, some with cloven, hoof-like feet, with or without claws, others with foreleg appendages that appear to be capable of manipulating other objects.

All of them are united in the facial features, which range from the almost bovine (at first glance) of some through to the very anthropomorphic looks, the latter most noticeable in the winged creatures, graced with very a human-esque placement of forward looking eyes above a nose-like snout that in turn sits above a lipped mouth. All are faces suggestive of intelligence and awareness, eyes occasionally focusing on visitors, expressions set in frowns at being disturbed or what might be smiles of greeting.

Cica Ghost: Another Fairy Tale

How and where these creatures evolved is perhaps part of the region’s story. There is a suggestion that while some are now quadrupeds, they mostly share a heritage born of the surrounding waters, and that even now  evolution is being witnessed as those with sinuous tails or bodies are adopting to life ashore, growing forelimbs – or they are at least given to being equally at home on land or in the sea. This idea is aided by another creature that rises slowly from the waters just offshore,  as if gradually worming its way ashore, while nearby, a second, massive creature (a wonderful combining of mesh elements and the region’s terrain on Cica’s part to give it form and life) raises its bulk and head above the waves to look down on the landscape like a mother watching over her brood at play.

Whether this is a land of our own planet but hidden far, far, away from everyday human affairs (as can be the way of fairy tales) or is perhaps part of another world entirely is something also left to the imaginations of visitors. For those who like the interactive elements of Cica’s builds, be sure to mouse around; sit and dance points are waiting to be found within flowers and close to some of the land creatures, while grabbing a leg of one of the flying chaps will take you on a journey across the region, revealing many of its delights and curiosities – such as the Jaws-like rocks pushing up from the grass their open “mouths” partially lined with “teeth” revealing they are nests and home to as yet flightless version of the airborne creatures.

Cica Ghost: Another Fairy Tale

Imaginative, whimsical, and delightful, Another Fairy Tale is a delightful continuation of a trips through Cica’s worlds of the imagination. Do be sure to at least enable ALM when visiting to appreciate her always considered use of lighting projectors and materials.

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FionaFei’s Impostor: reflections on art and heritage in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Sim Quarterly: Impostor by FionaFei

Now open at The Sim Quarterly is Impostor, an installation by FionaFei that explores both her art and her heritage – and makes for a thoroughly engaging exploration of self and creativity.

A relative newcomer to Second Life and its art world, Fiona is nevertheless one of the most engaging and visually impressive artists active within the platform, her work being truly unique. I’ve personally had the delight in discovering it and in writing about it on two occasions thus far (see: Captivated by FionaFei’s art in Second Life (May 2019) and FionaFei’s shuǐmò Reflection in Second Life from November 2019), and she was recently featured in one of the Lab’s Made in SL videos, being the first film in a series that will be examining art in Second Life as a part of the Lab’s ongoing work to market and promote Second Life.

The Sim Quarterly: Impostor by FionaFei

Fiona specialises in reproducing shuǐmò ink wash paintings as 3D sculptures. Also called shuǐmòhuà (suiboku-ga in Japanese) shuǐmò, uses different concentrations of black ink to create an image. Found throughout East Asia, it first emerged in Tang dynasty China (618–907), before spreading to Japan (14th century), Korea and to India. Beside the use of black ink in place of colours, it is also marked by the emphasis of the brushwork being on the perceived spirit or essence of the subject, rather than directly imitating its appearance.

Through her installations, Fiona marvellously brings the entire essence of shuǐmò to virtual life. However, as she notes in writing about Impostor, something that causes her a certain amount of introspection about her own heritage, her art and expressionism, and her feelings of  – for want of a better word – displacement.

The inspiration behind this exhibit comes from my cultural background as a Chinese American immigrant and my technical background as an oil painter. While I am Chinese by descent, I have spent the majority of my life in the West. I have a fascination with Chinese history and culture, but I often feel like I’m viewing my ancestry through a filter of Americanized information and experiences. Furthermore, my artistic background has been in charcoal and oil painting mediums, and I’ve had very little experience in actual ink-brush painting. For these reasons, “Impostor” is meant to be a self critique and reflection of my inexperience with the actual ink-brush medium, where I feel like I’m never “good enough,” but I’m embracing it.

The Sim Quarterly: Impostor by FionaFei

Given this, Impostor is a deeply personal piece, offering us insight into Fiona’s world, her feelings and the push-pull she experiences with regards to western upbringing and her Chinese heritage. It is also an installation that again brings forth her innate skill and artistry in presenting a modern-era form of shuǐmò, one that is both evocative and rich in symbolism throughout.

From the landing point, visitors embark on a journey along a set of wooden piers set out as a walkway amidst ink washed mountains, their charcoal outline an echo of Fiona’s artistic background. They lead the way on to a large paint brush – another reminder of her background – that in turn leads naturally into an ascent up through the ink wash mountains to where a pagoda-like temple.

The paint brush forms a physical and symbolic link between Fiona’s background in art and her desire / love of classical Chinese ink-ash art that forms her bridge to her Chinese heritage. More symbols are to be found throughout the installation, several of which Fiona notes herself – the red hands (her own, desperate to reach through her art and physically touch Chinese history and its ancient cultures), the black splashes of paint that splatter the landscape (again bridges between her training in oil and charcoal and the tradition of ink wash she wishes to embrace, red flowers and black trees (the contrasting colours that she uses to emphasise her work), and more.

The Sim Quarterly: Impostor by FionaFei

Most poignantly of all, the red forest of lines and swirls that actually form the Chinese Characters 你是谁 (Ni Shi Shei? – asks “Who are you?”), a question that clearly occupies Fiona’s thoughts – and it is fair to say she is not alone in this; thus the words also touch us as we witness them. They stand as a tangled briar patch, a reflection of how thoughts of who we are can ensnare us. They also stands as a physical reminder of how easy it is to become captive to such thoughts, willingly or otherwise, depending on how our thoughts flow: touch them, and you can be set floating within their midst.  In this, they are one of several sit points that are to be found within the installation, so be sure to mouse around carefully.

Fiona views herself as an inexperienced “impostor” when it comes to ink wash painting. I beg to differ; her work both richly embraces this most ancient form of art and also lifts in to a new and evocative form of expression and storytelling, with Imposter itself a captivating installation that will remain at The Sim Quarterly until the end of May.

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An Emergent centre of art in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Emergent Gallery, with Ilrya Chardin’s Art of War, foreground

Emergent is the name Ilrya Chardin has given to her latest gallery space in Second Life. Occupying a 1/4 full region minimally landscaped to present an setting pleasing to the eye and without overwhelming the viewer, the gallery presents a mix of indoor and outdoor spaces for the display of 2D and 3D art, and through until March 7th, 2020 (so I am getting to it on the late side), Ilyra is joined by four of Second Life’s more established and recognised artists: Sisi Beidermann, Eli Medier and Ladmilla, and PatrickofIreland.

When I first  encountered Ilyra Chardin’s art a good few years ago now, she was very much focused Second Life landscape images, capturing the places she has visited and offering considered reflections on their looks. Since then, she has considerably broadened her scope, up to and including a move to 3D art.

Emergent Gallery, Ilrya Chardin

The latter, in the form of Mesh sculptures, is very much displayed in the grounds and courtyards of the gallery, It ranges from quirky characters, each with a story to tell, through more brain-poking pieces, by way of abstract elements. I admit to being particularly drawn to The Art of War, which as well as cleverly drawing on Sun Tzu’s most famous (and oft-quoted) work, also reminds us that chess isn’t the only game of strategy that uses an 8×8 chequered board as its field of combat (although draughts doesn’t have quite such an astronomical number of potential game variations).

Sharing some of the walls of the outdoor spaces and present in the first of the gallery’s indoor spaces as a number of Ilrya’s 2D digital art pieces that are both worthy of examination and – in the case of those in the hall – point the way to her the larger hall, where her guests art displaying their art, commencing with Sisi Biedermann.

Emergent Gallery: Sisi Biedermann

I confess to being and admirer of Sisi’s digital art – as I’ve mentioned numerous times in these pages. She has become a master in the art of digital composition, presenting original pieces beautiful and most subtly layered, to present art that is instantly captures the eye, carrying us to marvellous worlds born of her imagination. This is instantly discovered in the first three images, sitting to the left as you enter the main hall. The Maid, The Boy on the Scooter and Ancient Beauty all offer black-and-white portraits from a bygone era, each carefully composited with soft-toned digital overlays to present three wonderfully evocative pieces. With her drawings, paintings and layered fantasy pieces also on offer, Sisi offers visitors a tempting look into her work.

Eli Medlier and Ladmilla are also no strangers to these pages. Describing himself as an “occasional poet in Second Life”, Eli has a gift with words he tends to share with images produced by his SL partner, Ladmilla, although looking at his website, it is clear he is no slouch when it comes to visual art, his photographs and images there as captivating as his poetry.

Emergent Gallery: Eli and Ladmilla

For this exhibition, he once again shares he words with photographs by the equally talented Ladmilla, an artist who has a unique and captivating way with visual artistry, and so makes an ideal partner to illustrate Eli’s words. In fact, so entwined are their imaginations that when viewing their work, it is possible to imagine each being inspired by the other, such that both words may have given rise to image, and equally, image may have given rise to image.

Similarly, PatrickofIreland’s art never fails to capture attention. Often thematic in presentation, his work is broad in style and frequently enmeshes narrative and social commentary.

Here, both indoors and out on the upper terrace, he offers a truly engaging mix of art that illustrates all of this, with images bordering on the abstract (Dawn of a New Era) and social commentary (Socially Connected) to fabulous fantasy pieces that stand entirely on their own to others that hint at possible hidden layering – looking at Empty Nest, for example, I found my imagination poking me with several narratives up to and including a play on the fall of Lucifer from grace – the fingers exhibiting claw like extensions as he is transformed into the devil, his angelic wings similarly transformed into what appears to be the fragments of a broken nest, symbolising all he has lost, sliding from his shoulders and down his plummeting back, more shards caught in the air through which he is falling…

Emergent: PatrickofIreland

An engaging, rich exhibition which, as noted, will remain open through until Saturday, March 7th, 2020.

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F L Y’s “Stories” in music: supporting Australia’s wildlife

Posted on by Inara Pey
White Mask: F L Y in concert, February 29th, 2020

On Saturday, February 29th, 2020 the Phoenix Arts Collaboration, in association with The White Mask Project, will be hosting a special concert event in support of WIRES – Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service, located in New South Wales, Australia, and which is currently particularly focused on rescuing and caring for animals displaced or injured by the wildfires in Australia.

This very special event will comprise a concert by violinist F L Y and her guests. The event will open at 08:45 SLT, with a short opening ceremony, with the concert proper running for two hours from 09:00 through until 11:00 SLT.

F L Y (FlyQueen)

F L Y (FlyQueen) is a professional violinist who has been performing in the physical world since 2007. Based in Istanbul, Turkey, start has performed with rocks bands and jazz groups at concerts and events, and has appeared at events in Washington State, USA, performing American rock, jazz and blues music on stage at events in Redmond, Kirkland, West Seattle and Portland.

She joined Second Life in July of 2015, and has been streaming her music into Second Life as a performer since June 2019. The White Mask project was started in January 2020 as a means for  F L Y to use her talent as a professional musician to provide a realistic concert type atmosphere to listeners in Second Life, in support of causes close to her heart. Her repertoire is broad, covering jazz, rock and pop from different periods, as well as more classical music and film themes. You can find out more about her – and hear a sample of her playing the violin – on her website.

Joining F L Y for this special event will be her guests Mimi Carpenter, Zachh Cale and Maximillion Kleenem who will be playing with her in dual-stream, after her solo presentation.

Please note that this is a formal concert with seating, not a dance event. However, having heard F L Y play, I can vouch that it is an event that is not to be missed, and donations to WIRES can be made via the Koala bears located in front of the stage.

White Mask: F L Y in concert, February 29th, 2020

About WIRES

WIRES was formed in 1985 with the mission to actively rehabilitate and preserve Australian wildlife and to inspire others to do the same. The organisation’s main activities are to respond to individual public reports of sick, injured or orphaned native wildlife. If necessary, trained WIRES volunteers will rescue, foster, provide and treatment and care for an animal and release it back into the wild once it is healthy. WIRES operates under an authority from the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service (NSW), allowing it to rescue and rehabilitate native animals, a practice which is generally forbidden by law in Australia.

In addition to the rehabilitation of individual animals, WIRES aims to improve native animal welfare generally through:

  • Raising awareness in the community and government of threats to native wildlife.
  • Educating the public about habitat requirements, and encouraging preservation of the natural environment.
  • Encouraging and undertaking research relevant to the conservation of wildlife and habitat.

A statement from WIRES on the impact of the Australian wildfires:

In WIRES history we have never seen a concurrent series of emergencies events like those that began in November. Hundreds of fires over weeks have burnt over 5 million hectares of land in NSW alone. Many animals were already struggling with a lack of water and food due to the drought. With the fires destroying unprecedented amounts of habitat, food shortages have increased and lack of suitable habitat will be a significant long-term challenge for surviving wildlife.

It is impossible to know how many animals have perished and it will be many months before the impact on wild populations can be better understood but ecologists at Sydney University have estimated over 800 million animals have been affected in NSW and over 1 billion animals in Australia since September.

Summer is a frantically busy time for wildlife rescue and there are still burning in NSW. In January alone there were over 28,000 calls to WIRES … and volunteers accepted over 3,800 rescues. 

Event SLurl