Tag: Art 2024

Lalie Sorbet invited me to visit her latest collaborative piece – working with Chrix (chrixbed) – entitled Bloom: Flowers of Evil, and which is currently open to visitors at the Second Life Endowment for the Arts. A dynamic installation built around what I understand to be a scripted particle system of their own design (and called, appropriately, Bloom), mixed with 2-dimensional elements also under scripted management.

The result is a hard-to-define but infinitely beautiful series of collages-in-motion, centred on a 3D element of standing stones and a “starfish” which looks to be an elegant star-like piece of lava. Close by is an upright piano atop which a female form reclines and with an arc of benches with singles and couples poses ranged before it, allowing people to sit and appreciate the particle display.

The artists state that the installation is inspired by the works of French art critic, poet and essayist, Charles Baudelaire – the title being the English translation of what is regarded as his most famous volume of work, Fleur du Mal, first published in 1857. The original volume, with its focus on decadence, eroticism, sexuality, original sin and death, caused a considerable stir when it first appeared, with six of its poems leading to Baudelaire and his publisher being prosecuted for “creating an offense against public morals”, resulting in both being fined and the six “offending” poems being suppressed for several years, only appearing in volumes of their own published outside of France (as with Épaves  – The Wrecks – published in 1866 in Belgium).

However, both despite and because of the outrage it caused, Fleur de Mal not only remained in publication – less “offensive” works by Baudelaire were substituted in place of those which caused some to try and suppress the volume entirely – it became synonymous with all his works, with the title being used for successive collections which both incorporated the original poems and other works, including an edition printed in 1868 following the poet’s death at just 48 and which includes 14 of his previously unpublished poems.

It is in this wider guise, and as a source of inspiration / reflection that Lalie and Chrix appear to utilise the title, rather than offering a more direct visual interpretation of poems from the volume (although there are what appear to be small nods towards some of the themes, here and there, for those familiar with the various sections of the volume). Baudelaire is regarded as a master of rhyme and rhythm within his prose-poetry – demonstrated by the fact that his style and work not only influenced poets down the years, but also artists and musicians, with some of the latter utilising Flowers of Evil or Fleur du Mal – and it is this aspect of his work which appears to be celebrated most directly through the ebb and flow of the piece, where particle patterns and images might be seen as poems and the stanzas therein, caught in a delicate dance of imagery.

Within Bloom: Flowers of Evil, the artists capture the essence of Baudelaire’s rhythm through the particles and images offered, whilst also reflecting the romanticism which also lay at the heart of his work. It also (possibly in part coincidentally) offers echoes of other ways in which Baudelaire’s influence has been felt; within the audio stream accompanying the installation is Sahalé’s Fleur du Mal, a piece with takes the iconic title and mixes it with the rhyme-like rhythm of Eastern and African music, whilst the presence of the piano put me in mind of Susanna Wallumrød’s Baudelaire and Piano (2019), which set several of Baudelaire’s works to music.

Whether or not you are a follower of Baudelaire or feel compelled to seek out his works (I admit to finding some of his work “florid” (for want of a better term), although Tableaux Parisians is a captivating read, presenting both a contemporary walk through Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s renovation of Paris at the behest of Napoleon III and a critical response to its modernity, thus combining Baudelaire’s gift as a poet with his work as a critic), Bloom: Flowers of Evil stands in its own right as a visually engaging installation; just be sure to try sitting and viewing it in Mouselook, rather than purely through a 3rd-person view!

SLurl Details

• Bloom: Flowers of Evil (SLEA6, rated Moderate)

Open through until late February 2024 within the ground-level main gallery at NovaOwl Community Centre & Gallery operated by ULi Jansma, Ceakay Ballyhoo & Owl Dragonash, is a small but engaging exhibition of images by fellow blogger and Second Life traveller, Susann DeCuir.

Entitled Nature and Animal Impressions from Second Life, this is a modest display of pieces with – as the name suggests – a focus on animals (particularly our feathered friends!) and landscapes. Taken at various locations around Second Life, they images serve to both illustrate Susann’s enthusiasm for the many faces of this digital realm and her richly engaging style of photography.

It also, if I might say so, provides insight into Susann’s humour and philosophy on life. The former might be found in the captions provided for some of the works, with Attention, this morning… carrying a hint of a Jets and Sharks confrontation to the point where you can almost hear Bernstein’s music in the background, and Owls Tribunal with its quintet of owls sitting atop fence posts like judges at the bench considering Issues Of Import.

The latter – Susann’s outline on life, might be most clearly glimpsed within Don’t Cry Because It’s Over, Smile Because It Happened; a valid philosophy for looking on life, loss and love.

What I particularly appreciate about Susann’s work is her approach and style. Not only does she have an eye for capturing a scene and an theme or idea, she has a deft approach to processing her images, as she notes herself.

I only use one program for the Second Life photos, the free version of Fotojet. I use it to put the motif in the right light by using some minor effects. Apart from that, everything is shown in its original form as created by the sim designer. I pay particular attention to the fact that I use the region’s own EEP.

– Susann DeCuir

This results in images which are both personal in the message they may carry whilst also giving a richness of depth to her impressions of the places she has visited without betraying the creator’s original intent. All of which makes this a genuinely treat of an exhibition; my only regret with it is that there are not more pieces on display to enjoy!

SLurl Details

• NovaOwl (Novatron, rated General)

Obscured by Clouds is one of the more uncommon (and perhaps underrated) of Pink Floyd’s studio albums. Released in 1972, it features much shorter individual tracks than found on other albums – particularly Dark Side of the Moon, the recording of which was paused in order to make way for Obscured by Clouds – with the lyrics focused on life and love. It was written and produced as the soundtrack for the 1972 French film La Vallee (also known as Obscured by Clouds), the story of an accidental voyage of self-discovery embarked upon by a young woman.

I mention this because it might help illuminate why Mareea Farrasco selected the title Obscured by Clouds for her latest collection of art. This opened to visitors on January 11th, 2024 within the Art Square at the Kondor Art Centre, operated and curated by Hermes Kondor. Like the film, Mareea’s exhibition is something of a voyage of introspection, each image a short refrain  – or perhaps stanza or verse might be a better description – on life in modern times.

As Mareea herself notes, we are living in a world of confusion; a place where the norms of social discourse are being torn asunder; where people’s right to think for themselves, to hold views of their own is disintegrating under the demands to conform in some manner – be it religious or a simple matter of skin colour, or something else; a place in which decency, humanity, caring and concern for social equality is more and more sneered upon and disparagingly labelled whilst coarseness, violence are lauded. It is a world of distorted realities, where it is all too easy to lose sight of simple truths – and even of oneself  -, at a loss as to who we are and where we are trying to go.

All of this is hauntingly and beautifully reflected in Mareea’s images. Each one forms a single-frame statement on these confusions and distortions and our need to if not confront them, at least have the wherewithal to move through and beyond them and try to regain what has become obscured before we lose it entirely.

Collectively, the use of post-process clouding and misting effects adds a depth of feeling to them, evoking that idea of trying to pierce the confusion and find reality – and provocative in their message. These are each images which deserve not so much to be seen but to be contemplated; viewed both through the lens of the world today, and as a lens through which we might better see that same world and understand how we might both escape it and – more importantly – seek to rebalance it; to rediscover the really important things in life and discover who we are as individuals and – perhaps – as a race.

An intense and rewarding visual essay.

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Square, Kondor Art Centre (Royal Tea, rated Adult)