Tag: Art 2023

I was drawn to the boutique-style Kiku Art Gallery, operated and curated by Rafael Nightshade and Suzanne Logan – who also operates the Amatsu Shima estate within which the gallery is located – for an engaging and fun exhibition with combines Second Life photography with another visual medium: Asian Cinema.

Occupying the South room of the gallery, is 18 Images Inspired by Asian Films by Daikota Wind, which also carries this shorter title Asian Cinema. As both titles suggest, the focus of the exhibition is on cinematic productions of the Far East, which film-making is (as if it needs saying) as rich and genre-spanning as cinema in the west (or anywhere else in the world).

When considering Asian cinema, thoughts are likely to focus on the likes of Chinese (/Hong Kong) and Japanese productions which have a long history of western exposure (and inevitable re-makes / re-interpretations), together with – more recently – that of South Korea. Due to the prolific output of these three powerhouses, they do dominate this exhibition, although Indonesia and Thailand also get very honourable mentions. However, rather than focusing on national output, this exhibition seeks to offer insight into the aforementioned genre-spanning nature of Asian film-making.

To achieve this, Daikota presents 18 images of films ranging from action to thriller, passing by way of comedy, drama, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, romance and more, each image inspired either by a scene from the film it represents or from the posters used to advertise it. Each image shares its space with a brief synopsis of the film’s storyline.

The images themselves appear to have been subjected to minimal post-processing, adding to their connection with the film they represent, rather than suggesting how the artists interprets the film. The accompanying text offers a fair description of each film’s plot, together with some insights by Daikota giving each one more of a personal feel.

Some of the films – Infernal Affairs, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ju-On, to name three, but Daikota’s images and synopses give them a freshness and vitality which certainly increases the desire to go and watch them. Light and engaging, 18 Images Inspired by Asian Films offers a worthwhile exploration of Daikota’s photography and the films of the far east.

SLurl Details

• Kiku Art Gallery (Amatsu Shima, rated Moderate) 

Recently opened within the main gallery at NovaOwl Community Centre & Gallery operated by ULi Jansma, Ceakay Ballyhoo & Owl Dragonash,  is what might be called a 3-part exhibition of avatar studies by photographer-artist Ninae Trallis. I say three parts, because there are three elements of equal import within Do You Believe? – the images themselves (together with their supporting 3D elements), the selection of music offered with each picture, and how both resonate individually and jointly with our emotions / imaginations.

Unlike most exhibitions I’ve visited within the main gallery at NovaOwl, Do You Believe occupies both the 3-room gallery space and the adjoining space which had, during part visits, been generally given over to a café / lounge space – and rightly so, as these are genuinely captivating images. Ninae is one of the few artists in SL who focuses on avatar studies whilst largely eschewing the use of post-processing to enhance her images. Instead, she uses framing, composition, environment and the viewer – Black Dragon in this case – for her work, relegating tools such as Photoshop to the role of small-scale touching-up.

This gives her images a crisp richness and depth which is immediately engaging. Her use of lighting ensures most colours are softened to natural pastels, while her use of black and white gives a further sense of authenticity of live and vitality. Each image sits as a single-frame story, expanded upon through the use of the 3D elements placed before and around the images. What that story might be folds another of the three elements into the exhibition: our imagination.

Through the title we are offered a challenge – to believe in … something. Through the images we are offered hints of ideas, some obvious, some more subtle: to believe in love, fantasy, the existence of fae and / or faerie tales, our own ability to create, to trust in another – be it with secrets, or hearts or even our submission to them – and not to fear rejection; to believe in the power of nature and in things unseen.

How we might opt to interpret individual images is given a further little tilt in that each image is accompanied by a piece of music (click the music notes found to the lower left or right of each picture – under under the middle of a couple! – to be offered a You Tube URL to the music in question. As Ninae notes, these pieces, which range from classical pieces through soundtracks through to rock and pop ballads, might be completely unrelated to the image in question – like many of us (myself included), Ninae listens to music whilst the creative juices flow – but then again, they might not (as hinted by her use of “sometimes” in the notes accompanying the exhibition).

Which of these might be the case is left open to personal interpretation – and while some might appear “obvious” in their influence on the production of the image they accompany, the lyrics, when listened to in full, might actually suggest otherwise. But discerning whether or not the choice of music for any given piece is intentional or simply the result of it being a piece Ninae likes independently of the image is actually irrelevant here. Each piece, whether Chopin, Lewis Capaldi, Hans Zimmer, original composition or cover version, echoes that challenge of the exhibit’s title, the music mixing with the images to set our imagination free to reflect, to travel where emotions might lead, to conjure feelings and ideas in which might believe, however transitory their existence in our minds and imaginings.

Rich and eye-catching – and potentially containing a little in the way of personal revelation through the selection of music as much as the images themselves (which adds to its beauty and mystique, Do You Believe? is an engaging, gently layered exhibition.

SLurl Details

• NovaOwl (Novatron, rated General)

Having opened on June 29th, 2023 at the main gallery area of the Kondor Art Centre operated and curated by Hermes Kondor, is an evocative and provocative exhibition by UK-based Janus Fall.

Combining classical poetry, digital images, global current affairs, the increasing dichotomies of society, and reflections on human nature, Auguries of Innocence is a visual essay of juxtapositions and contrasts offered as commentary on the current downward spiral of intolerant, insensitive, judgemental otherism (of others) and denial (of others and also of things like our impact on matter of climate change, etc.) which is too quickly becoming the accepted state of being within large portions of modern societies (particularly those known for their previously more liberal lean), when we really should by now know better.

The exhibition takes its title from the 132-line, single stanza poem of the same name by William Blake. Like much of Blake’s work, the poem did not gain recognition until well after his death in 1827; in fact, despite being written in the early 1800s and going to be frequently quoted (particularly the opening four lines), it didn’t actually see the light of publication until the late 1860s.

In content, the poem might be seen as a plea by the poet for humanity to do better, lest we lose all we have been given under the judgement of God. In this it contrasts the cycle of nature, wherein the world is constant reborn and remade, all the time growing in both nurturing innocence and experience / interconnectedness, with the cycle of humanity, in which we are born into that same innocence of nature, only to push it aside as we grow into adulthood, replacing it with self-serving corruption and inhumanity towards others and nature.

However, the poem is not only notable for its content, but also in its structure, which is as intentionally complex as the subject matter it contains. Throughout its length, Blake frequently switches both rhyming schemes (e.g. alternative rhyme to rhyming couplets) whilst mixing different forms of meter (e.g. trochee and anapest) with the predominant iambic meter, whilst also using a range of literally tools such as alliteration, repetition, metaphor and – most notably – juxtaposition and paradox.

Within this structure, the opening four lines act as both an overall introduction to the poem’s concepts and also offer guidance on how the imagery within the rest of the poem should be interpreted. Within Janus’ exhibition, those four lines perform something of the same purpose; working with a diary extract written by a 16-year-old girl seeking to escape the war engulfing her country, they offer both an introduction to the images presented within this exhibition and give context in how they should be viewed both cognitively and physically. In terms of the physical, they – and the extract from the diary – are to be found on the left front wall of the gallery as you enter it, to form a potential starting point for viewing the mages, encouraging visitors to progress from there  and around the lower floor to the stairs and the upper level, thence back down to complete the circuit and finishing at the artist’s final notes and Memorial to a Woman in a Field.

The images are striking, Janus reflecting the diversity of styles and techniques Blake uses within his poem within each of her images. Where he uses metaphor, alliteration and simile, she uses technical and artistic approaches such as motion blur, superimposition and Chiaroscuro. However, most strikingly, Janus matches Blake’s use of juxtaposition within her images, most notably through the placement of the natural beauty of the women in her images against their backdrop. Whether drawn from images initially captured in Second Life or the result of digital manipulation of images produced outside of SL (and possibly using AI toolsets?) matters not.

There is so much to unpack in these pieces, that it is possible to end up writing a treatise. The aforementioned Memorial to a Woman in a Field for example, offers so much to consider, from the manner in which it presents what should be harmony between people and humanity and nature, through to the way it offers a subtle reflection of Blake’s deeply held Christian beliefs whilst rejecting the constructs of organised religion for the manner in which it encourages the corruption of self  through the promotion of judgemental intolerance and denial of anyone who can be branded as “others” – something which we can still see only too well within modern society.

However, rather than ramble on, I think Janus herself does more than enough to present her work as it should be seen and understood. Certainly, Auguries of Innocence does much to offer a questioning challenge to us, one with which Blake himself would doubtless agree: given it is now over 200 years since he wrote the opening lines of his poem, isn’t it about time we finally started putting aside self-centred and social indifference / cruelty to one another and tried to be better, both for the benefit of others and the world as a whole?

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Centre (Waka, rated Moderate)

It was back to Psygallery, operated and curated by Twister Grut in mid-June for me, this time to view another pairing of exhibitions within the gallery spaces by two very different artists. While each is entirely independent of the other, they nevertheless might be seen as being linked by a thread of – well, life (or at least, within the context of celebrating life).

Within the two-level main hall of PsyGallery sits Embryos by TerraMerhyem. No liner notes are provided for this selection of work, spanning as it does both static and animated pieces. However, given it is by Terra, you can expect it to be nothing short of expressive, and each of the pieces visually engaging. The one set of notes that are provided come in the form of reminders on the floor of each level within the gallery that Advanced Lighting Model should be enabled (Preferences → Graphics → make sure the option is checked) in order to see the works at their best.

For most of us, the term embryo most likely brings to mind the stage of human life following fertilisation through until the  ninth week after conception, with mental images of of the growing embryo lying within the womb as it commences its journey towards / into life. Some of this is perhaps evident in the static pieces presented here by Terra, showing as they do male and female human forms contained within protective spheres, like embryos within the womb. However, give that the figures in their spheres are fully-formed adults means this is not an artistic treatise on life per se; rather it is perhaps more of a comment on the fact that from beginning to end, life is a continuous process of growth, maturation, change and – for all of its gregarious opportunities – ultimately isolated and individual.

That no influence is exerted by the artist on how we opt to interpret these pieces, thus leaving us free to interpret them as some form of commentary – per the above – or purely as purely visually engaging, highly creative and imaginative pieces of art similarly enhances the appeal of the 2D pieces; allowing each to be taken as a whole unto itself, or – in the case of four of the pieces – artistic pairings.

Similarly, how we interpret the animated pieces, which mix 2D and 3D creations, is left to out own processes of thought and reaction to art and design. Utilising geometry, images and colour to rich effect, these are pieces literally pulsating – one might say beating with the rhythm of a healthy heart – in a manner which is strikingly beautiful whilst still carrying that suggestion of life and change we might opt to see as a possible message within the static pieces, through both the regularity of their pulsations and their gently repeating motions.

On the uppermost level of the gallery, and reached via the teleport board is Summer Solstice, a series of images by Canaris Restless offered as a visual essay on the subject of the titular event and how it is viewed by different cultures, past and present.

As Canaris notes, the Summer Solstice has been, and remains for many, a time of new beginnings, and / or renewal of life and growth; a time when all that is good about life is celebrated as the cycle of life moves ever forward; and within this might be ween the thread linking both of these exhibitions into something of a themed whole, if one chooses to do so.

The smaller of the two installations, Summer Solstice is marked by Canaris’ elegant photography captured within Second Life and by free-standing displays of (literally) heliocentric art reminding us of the reality that the Sun – whilst perhaps not worshipped as once it was – truly remains the most prominent giver of life for our world.

Two very visually engaging exhibitions by two very different artists they many, but Embryos and Summer Solstice do compliment one another in terms of potential themes and ideas, so do be sure to see both when visiting.

SLurl Details

• PsyGallery (Charm, rated Adult)