Tag: Art 2023

Raglan Shire, Second Life’s Tiny community, is once again opening its doors to people from across the grid, as participating artists and visitors are invited to the Raglan Shire Artwalk 2024.

This year, the the event runs from Sunday, May 19th, through until Sunday, June 16th, 2024, inclusive. It  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 – one of the friendliest and fun-seeking groups in Second Life.

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). All of this means that it offers one of the richest mixes of art displayed within a single location in Second Life, with 2D art is displayed along the hedgerows of the Shire’s pathways and tree platforms overhead and 3D art among the community’s parks.

Over 120 artists are participating in 2024, many for the first time. As such, the  depth and range of art on display is guaranteed to keep visitors exploring the paths and walks around and through the hedgerows – and if walking proves a little much, there are always the Shire’s tours to ease the load on the feet, together with the teleport boards to help move visitors swiftly around and through the different display areas. But that said, 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.

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 many of the names of the artists here. The Artwalk is also a marvellous way to see art from both our physical and digital worlds and for catch artists both familiar and new to your eye. Just don’t try to see it all at once; the Artwalk is open for a month, which gives plenty of time for browsing and appreciating the art without feeling overloaded.

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All of the Raglan Shire Artwalk regions are rated General)

• 2D Art Landing Points
  • Raglan Shire Artwalk Area 1
  • Raglan Shire Artwalk Area 2
  • Raglan Shire Artwalk Area 3
  • Raglan Shire Artwalk Area 4
• 3D Art:
  • Morning Shire Shire 3D Area 1
  • Heron Shire 3D Area 2
  • Athen Shire 3D Area 3
  • Raglan Commons Park
• My little corner

Currently open through the end of 2023 within Akiko Kinoshi’s (A Kiko) Akijima events region are three exhibitions of art I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending to readers of this blog. All three are located within the same sky platform, and thus between them make for an excellent joint visit, whilst between them presenting very different selections of art.

Sisi Biederman is someone who really needs no introduction to established patrons of art in Second Life; she is one of the most accomplished and engaging digital mixed-media artists in SL, as well as a skilled artist working in more “traditional” mediums such as photography and acrylics. Her work is utterly unique and completely captivating, offering a richness of imagination, style and colour. Her subject matter tends to be wide-ranging, covering everything from the natural world through in-world settings to the fantastical and even touching on the abstract and the near-surreal.

For this exhibition she presents some of her favourite pieces produced in 2023, bringing together a mix of images visitors can literally trace by month / season, and which although primarily digital in form, wrap themselves around genres such as abstractionism, watercolour and expressionism. With a strong focus on floral scenes, also folded into the collection is at least one memory of a place Sisi appears to have visited (and which is among my personal list of favourite places around the global I’ve been fortunate enough to visit and witness), and perhaps hints of others as well. Vibrant and fairly pulsing with a sense of vitality, this is a superb selection with which to whet one’s appetite for witnessing more of Sisi’s work.

Another physical world artist who has established a deserved reputation of producing some of the most visually expressive art in Second Life is Milly Sharple, who is the second of the three artists at Akijima.

For those unfamiliar with Milly, she is a successful artist and photographer in the physical world whose work has not only sold on a global basis, but has also been used as book and CD cover art, within promotional pieces including posters for theatrical productions and has even be used on bank cards. In 2020 she was invited to do a collaboration representing the COVID pandemic with Salvador Dali’s protégé, Louis Markoya.

Within Second Life, Milly probably initially became recognised for her fractal art – being one of the first artists to introduce this particular art-form to Second Life audiences. For several years she was also responsible for the Timamoon Arts Community, which in its day, hosted over 40 resident artists and was regarded as one of the most successful and popular art communities on the grid.

Here Milly presents a glimpse of the breadth and depth of her digital work, only touching lightly on her SL fractal art “roots” (if I might use that term). To attempt to describe these pieces would serve no purpose; as the images accompanying this article hopefully show, Milly’s work transcends mere written description and should be seen first-hand

I first witnessed the work of Guille (Antoronta) whilst visiting the Annexe of the Limoncello gallery in 2021, which at the time was hosting his exhibition Unseen Beauty (see here). He is in fact the virtual incarnation of Antonio Guillén, a noted doctor in Biology and professor of Natural Sciences whose research projects have spanned the environment, microbiology and astrobiology.

And when I say “noted”, I mean precisely that; his work has been exhibited in such august centres as the National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid, and has garnered awards such as Spain’s National Prize for Scientific Photography and the Giner de los Ríos Prize, the country’s most prestigious educational award, whilst his project The Hidden Life of Water received the first world award at a Google Science Fair in 2012.

Within Second Life, Guille has sought to bring the incredible beauty and diversity of the microscopic world which inhabits all of us as much as we inhabit the visible world, through such exhibitions as Unseen Beauty and his 2022 exhibition Invisible Beauty (see here) and – whilst it has now apparently closed – through his former in-world education centre El Universo en una Gota de Agua – the universe in a drop of water.

At Akijima, Guille once again allows us to dive into this unseen universe of tiny life forms through a collection of images captured via CCD and microscope, allowing is to witness this unite world of algae, ciliates, amoebae and other micro-organisms in all their glory and (at times almost geometric) forms. Offered as a set of individual slideshow focused on a specific aspect of the microscopic, these are fabulous glimpses into a universe we otherwise rarely get to see; my only small regret being that unlike Guille’s past exhibitions, this one (for whatever reason) is sans any accompanying text for the pieces (which should not be taken as a critique of the exhibition or the artist, but as a purely personal observation).

None of the art presented by the Artists is offered for sale; this is a trio of exhibitions purely for the eye and mind to appreciate. However, if you are looking for art to hang in your Second Life home, the fourth building on the platform may also be worthy of a visit. This is home to the Second Free Museum, where are from numerous artists is available free-of-charge to anyone wishing to obtain copies.

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• Akijima Sky Galleries (Akijima, rated Moderate)

It shames me to think that despite us both having been active in Second Life for over a decade and a half, and given the fact I have visited on a number of occasions, I’ve yet to actually write about The Wastelands.

I have no excuse to offer on this, nor would I insult NeoBokrug Elytis, the community’s founder and curator, in trying to do so; the most I can offer is an apology to him and the community as a whole for not as yet having made the effort to blog about their work, and to offer here views of The Wastelands as seen through the eyes of another traveller (and more particularly – artist), whose meanderings through the 12 regions that make up this post-apocalyptic setting form an end-of-2023 exhibition at Frank Atisso’s Artsville Galleries.

Kitten (Joaannna Resident) is a Second Life artist-photographer whose landscape work I first encountered in 2022, although it wasn’t until later in that year that I blogged about it after catching Noir, a series of avatar-centric studies in celebration of the film noir genre both in terms of her approach to the pieces and the tone in which they were presented, and the fact that they offered an unfolding tale much in keeping with the genre (see A Kitten’s Noir World in Second Life).

Within Tales from the Wastelands (presented in Gallery 3 at Artsville) Kitten once again takes this approach; starting with an introduction in her own words to both the exhibition and the setting (complete with a landmark giver for those wishing to make their own foray through The Wastelands), this is a series of 10 images which carry us through various aspects of the regions in a manner of a non-linear story.

Which is not to say this selection is in any way derivative of Kitten’s earlier work; it is not; within Noir the story was ever-present within each image, if open to interpretation as to what it might be. Tales, by contrast offers moments from a traveller’s story; scenes which are not quite vignettes, but which offer enough within themselves for our imaginations to paint a unique story around each one. As such, they can be shuffled together howsoever we prefer when viewing them, each scene / story standing in its own right as a complete piece – but at the same time, as freely shuffled as they might be, the 10 scenes remain joined through a subtle sense of narrative in that each represents a chapter in a broader story.

Predominantly presented in Kitten’s trademark panoramic style, the 10 images are a tour de force not only in her ability to capture a story-in-a-frame, but also in her skill as a compositional artist; the framing of each piece is both natural and cropped to perfection; the use of both colour and black and white images demonstrating a measured and skilled ability to evoke feelings and emotions. The use of angle, depth of field and focus both masterfully drawing us into the scenes and stories as if we are in fact part of them whilst we remain separated by the fourth wall of the camera lens; thus a further sensation is invoked within us: the desire to follow in her footsteps and see this world of anarchy and danger, beauty and hope, for ourselves.

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Artsville Galleries (Caribbean Ocean, rated Moderate)

Winter 2023 see the Best of Second Life (BOSL), operated by Regin Congrejo and Jamee Thomson (Jamee Sandalwood), host two art exhibitions within its home region, both of which I was able to visit a little earlier in the month.

The first is an ensemble exhibition, which is being held within BOSL’s main gallery. Entitled Hello Winter, it opened on December 2nd and runs through until January 13th, 2024. It features art and photography from 11 Second Life residents, some of whom are more than likely familiar names to SL arts patrons, and others may not be so familiar. They comprise: Sheba (Sheba Blitz), Dante Helios (Dantelios), Kylie (KylieQuinn), Elan (Ineffable Mote), Brion Ravens (Brian Ravenhurst), Evie Ravens (Evelyn Irelund), Hannah Starlight, Jennifer Steele (JenniferSteele Wilder), Lizzy (Lizzy Swordthain), Matt Thomson (MTH63), and Jamee Thomson (Jamee Sandalwood).

The majority have selected Second Life as their subject for their winter-themed images, although Jennifer Steele and Elan both present paintings from the physical world, and Matt Thomson straddles digital worlds with pieces that appear to have been produced world and pieces of digital abstract art which has been something of a hallmark of his.

It’s a very easy-going selection of art and images, each with its own appeal and sense of the season, be it traditional in for or more expressionist in content (if not necessarily in genre).

Down at the Waterfront Café, which can be seen if you stand on tippy-toe and look over the wall on the far side of the main gallery’s car park (and also reached vey a downhill walk commencing at the left-hand end of the wall as you look at it), is a further exhibition of Jamee Thomson’s work.

Running through until January 20th, 2024, this is actually Jamee’s first solo exhibition in something like a year, offering 11 pictures, 10 of which have been captured from within Second Life and the 11th appears to be a digital creation. Jamee’s Second Life landscapes are  instantly recognisable wherever they are seen, thanks to a combination of her use of colour and her ability to breath both depth and life into her work – and the landscapes offered within the Waterfront Café are ample proof of this.

Both exhibitions make for pleasing visits, and their proximity to one another make them an enjoyable joint visit – if you don’t fancy the walk between the two galleries (which is in itself a pleasant meander), the region’s teleport boards make hopping between the two locations easy.

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BOSL Innovation Pavilion is rated Moderate

• BOSL Main Gallery
• Waterfront Café

Fragments, the latest collection of digital art by Traci Ultsch now on display (into the early New Year, I believe) at Inspire Space Park / Art Planet, is a slightly unusual exhibition. Not because it is out-of-the-ordinary when placed alongside Traci’s overall portfolio – far from it; Fragments is as visually layered and abstracted as much of Traci’s other work. No, what makes it unusual – or perhaps curious might be a better term – is that it has not one, but three introductions, allowing visitors to take their pick as to which they find resonates the most.

Two of the three might be taken as reflections on life – or more particularly, how life is not something we can plan or necessarily control; at least, not beyond the most basic needs and routines. Rather, when all is said and done, it is really a fragmentary passage of time and events; actions and reactions within the greater planning which can so often become confused and oddly juxtaposed one to the next as we look back and try to recall  cause and effect.

Thus, within this exhibition – which must be viewed with Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled via Preferences → Graphics for those using a non-PBR enabled viewer, Traci offers a series of panoramic (in terms of their image ratio) pictures, each one carrying within it the sense of a theme – buildings, nature, walls, plants. However, each image is fragmented into a series of elements, often presenting a different view of the same central object, each element within the complete picture carrying a beat of not-quite repetition which is almost musical in form.

Words flow through each image collage, words which Traci declares them as extracted lines from songs; however, they have about them a similar beat, one suggestive of thoughts of the past and half-reminded reflections, so matching the manner in which the images suggest juxtaposed remembrances a a half-forgotten memory. Also present within each canvas are what might been seen as reflections of other images, small and distant – or might they be reflections of the same image?  – further enhancing the idea of fragmented memories (or desires, perhaps?), confused and overlaying one another.

So it is that -perhaps –  within these images we might see personified the idea that far from being a cohesive set of steps, life really is a string of interconnected events of happenstance; some of which might well appear to be repeated (and thus give rise to our desire to understand there is a purpose to it all), when in truth there is nothing of the kind; no preordination; just random collisions of planned and unplanned events which push us onwards whilst leaving us to look back and reflect and try to make sense of it all.Or, perhaps as Traci disarmingly suggests in her third introduction to Fragments, these are images reflective of a random desire to create, trapped between hangovers and called into being by a lucid turn behind the camera lens and when hand and eye work in unison to tweak pixels on a screen. But even if the latter is true (which I somehow doubt); does this actually negate the underpinning theme offered through the first two introductions?

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• Fragments at Inspire Space Park / Art Planet (Shinda, rated General)

My idea of art is not the refraction of light, but the expression of what lies behind it. I want to create something that is inside a person, something that has a fragrance like fermented love. Therefore you rarely find anything cheerful or uplifting in most of my work, nor do I want to express such things.

Thus states Bamboo Barnes in discussing her latest exhibition – and her third at Dido Haas’ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery over the years – which opens on December 11th, 2023.

As I’ve frequently noted in these pages, Bamboo is one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists in Second Life. Her work is far removed from that of other artists who mix digital techniques with images from the physical world and those from SL, in that it it is both introspective and yet often – through the use of colour and tone – strongly assertive such that individual pieces can both reflect her inner thoughts, personal perceptions and feelings whilst at the same time speaking directly to the person viewing them in an equally personal and also entirely unique way.

Such is the case with Broken Chair, an exhibition of 19 studies by Bamboo, supported by a series of 3D elements by the artist, some of which reflect the title of the exhibition, others of which might appear more abstract at first glance.

The images are predominantly monochrome in nature, colours – outside of red – sparingly used. Each offers its subject in Bamboo’s trademark style: a face, sometime in full, sometimes in profile, often in sharp focus, just as often not; each one looking outwards at or beyond the observer, expression and pose – even when the eyes are unseen – giving voice to the tumult of thought and feelings tumbling through the mind within the head. What these thoughts and feeling might be is up to observers to interpret for themselves, but there is more than enough within each one to resonate with each of us, and cause a sense of understanding and familiarity.

Where colour is used, it is done so in emphasis of a mood, emotion or feeling, whilst the title of the exhibition speaks to what so often lies within us all: the introspections that are so personal we cannot give voice to them; thoughts that can – whatever their origin or cause – leave us spiralling in silence, trapped without ourselves – but which also demand expression, be it through physical or mental reflection. These are thoughts which can leave us feeling less-than-whole – or broken, if you will. Yet even whilst bringing forth this sense of brokenness, such thoughts and feelings can so often also impart an inner strength or drive to overcome, to mend; a determination to learn, to overcome, to become more whole and move forward in life.

So yes, we might so often feel broken inside, but as with a broken chair, we have the ability within ourselves to mend and heal. Perhaps not fully – even a repaired chair can so signs of the work applied to make it so – but enough to carry us forward in life. And within Broken Chair, Bamboo perhaps reminds us of that such feelings – and the drive they encourage – are both common to us all.

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• Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated Moderate)