Tag: Art 2026

STAY is the title of an immersive exhibition by Selen Minotaur, currently open at the Kondor Art Centre, curated and operated by Hermes Kondor.

A multi-part, interactive installation, STAY is described as a journey that unfolds through spaces, images, and presences that evoke solitude, memory, and reconstruction – the overall theme  examining what remains after a fall, an inner upheaval.

Exactly what form this upheaval has taken is up to us to discern, shaped by our own experiences / attitudes / outlooks at the time of a visit, together with our responses to the installation itself. As such, I’m not going to offer my subjective conjectures lest they colour your own perceptions in visiting.

The important aspects when visiting the installation are that you preferably use a PBR-enabled viewer, accept the Shared Experience, and add the STAY companion HUD when offered and ADD. You’ll then have to accept the SL Experience as offered by the HUD and make sure media and sound are enabled. If, for any reason, the HUD is not offered, there is a small icon mounted on the wall close to the landing point which will deliver it when touched.

Once the above are all set, progress through the various rooms of the installation is by means of seeking – and passing through – the white lights. This might itself be somewhat symbolic, perhaps, particularly given the nature of the first room to be visited – but again, I’ll step aside from adding my own conjectures here.

A further point to make here is that STAY is an installation to be taken at a leisurely pace, the name itself offering a dual meaning. The first is related to the theme of the installation:  that which remains – which stays with us after a personal upheaval. The second is a more traditional meaning of the word: to tarry, and spend time.

The latter is important, as this is – as noted – an immersive experience; one which only unfolds if one gives it the opportunity to do so. This definitely requires pausing in all of the rooms and taking the offered seats within those offering them in order to trigger the room’s visual contents. The latter should then be considered – and note, images may not only appear on the wall in the direction in which you are facing).

A very small note here is that the first of these interactive elements is a video presented through You Tube. Sadly – and due to You Tube itself, this video cannot auto-play (and in fact may not run at all in-world). As such following the dialogue box to view the video via browser is necessary.

In all there are eight rooms to visit, including a “double room” connected via walkway rather than white teleport, plus the final room in which visitors are reminded over a further use of the words “stay”. Richly visual, STAY is an engaging installation with quite a lot to set with those with the – so to speak – eyes to hear the unfolding story.

SLurl Details

• STAY, the Kondor Art Centre (Royal Tea, rated Adult)

I’m not sure exactly why Dido Haas selected the title Interim for the title of her exhibition at The Annex of her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, which opened on Monday, September 7, 2026. Perhaps it is because she has had to fill a sudden gap in the gallery’s calendar; I’ve no idea.

The one thing I do have an idea on, is that the title drastic undersells what is a richly engaging exhibition of personal – and slightly NSFW given the nature of some of the images – exhibition I cannot help but feel should have been called Intimacy.

I say this because each piece – most featuring Dido herself as the model – is a study in intimacy, both personal and shared. Further, all are presented in monochrome verging on chiaroscuro, giving them a depth which reaches beyond a level of engagement that might be achieved using colour, heightening their personal nature.

The personal element comes in the framing of the majority of the pieces, which feature solo images of a naked, or near naked Dido. They present a woman at ease with her one body; someone who has an intimate relationship with herself.

By intimate, I do not mean sexual; I’m using the term in its broader, personal and special meaning. These are studies of a woman entirely at ease, so to speak with her body, her skin – her very appearance. It is not prideful or driven by hubris or sense of self beauty / worth, it simply is.

At the same time, the use of long, black gloves does tip the balance of intimacy a little. There has long been something of a sexual suggestiveness in the wearing of long, opera-style gloves, one that can run over into the realm of fetishism.

Thus, through their use in several of the images here, Dido is more overtly encouraging observers to share in the intimacy of her nakedness; the placement of her hands on her body becomes more overt in the suggestion of sexuality, making it possible for the observer images their hands are the black on the white of her naked flesh in a personal – although not necessarily sexual – moment of joint intimacy.

This idea shared intimacy is further offered through three of the pieces featuring a partner in poses which – again – are by no means sexual. But which suggest very personal shared moments together. Again, perfectly framed, these three set the observer as both a passing voyeur of these moments and as the possible partner.

The result is a beautiful, engaging collection of images carrying a finely layered richness of interpretation which reaches far beyond the exhibition’s title to captivate the observer.

Slurl Details

• Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex

JaiRus Bly is a Second Life photographer-artist who recently invited me to pop along to the opening of his latest exhibition, hosted at the Centre for the Arts in SL. Sadly, I was unable to make the opening itself, but I did make sure to hop along as soon as time permitted.

The exhibition – entitled Fragments – is housed within a skybox gallery at the Centre for Arts, and whilst small in terms of the number of images, it is very well themed and captivating in its content.

Fragments is perhaps best encapsulated in JaiRus’ own words:

I am drawn to atmosphere, cinematic light, shadows, solitude, beauty, mystery, and the emotions hidden beneath the surface. My images often explore the space between reality and imagination, using Second Life as a canvas where I can create scenes and stories that exist beyond the limits of the real world.

For me, photography is not simply about how an image looks. It is about how it feels.

– JaiRus Bly, discussing his work

So it is that the exhibition presents 12 images, the majority of them avatar-centric, each one framed as a moment in time; a fragment, if you will, of life – or perhaps a life, depending on your response to each of them.

As moments of a life, they are not necessarily connected in terms of whose life they might come from outside of the artist’s avatar generally being the focus – although I suspect they might be seen by some purely as expressions of the artist’s own thoughts and feelings simply because they use his avatar as the primary subject.

But as moments of life I would argue they have a power connect more deeply to each of us; the emotions, feelings, outlook and attitude they express resonating more strongly when seen in terms of our own lives, outlook and emotions. Whichever way one views them however, the richness of the emotional narrative within each piece is inescapable. These are images with a voice all their own, simply asking for us to stop by each and listen to what it has to say.

Coupled with a masterful use of technique and use of either monochrome or colour to further define the moods and sensitivity of each piece, Fragments is a visually engaging, through-provoking collection.

Slurl Details

• Fragments, Centre for the Arts (Waterstone, rated Moderate)

Catch-22: the paradoxical situation a person cannot escape due to contradictory rules or limitations. It lies at the heart of Joseph Heller’s satirical novel of the same name (and which in fact spawned the term) – and currently, also at the heart of C a t c h, an installation by Eta (etamae) which opened in Second Life in late August 2026 at her space within Souland Gallery, operated by Julana Allen (Julana Teichmann).

For Eta, her paradox came in the form of the recent heatwave experienced by the UK (and much of Europe) and her need to be creative. The former was such that its heat and humidity resulted in lethargy and a sense that any expenditure of creative effort would be overpowering to achieve anything, whilst the need to create could only be accomplished by the expenditure of effort, mental and physical within the sapping lethargy of the heatwave, potentially resulting in nothing being achieved.

Within my skybox at Souland Gallery I have tried to convey my no win situation of the intense heat and humidity I felt at a moment in time. Those feelings of being unable to move, being stuck fast even if I was in a place I dearly wanted to be and had paid silly monies to get there.

– Eta

The result is an installation in which monochrome is used to great effect with white suggestive of heat and lethargy, and darker elements to hint at the need for coolness and respite from the heat.

Tall figures and groups of figures are rendered in white. gathered together in poses suggestive of melting or wilting, much as we feel in extreme instances of heat. Meanwhile, dark swirls suggest the vortices of cool air and grey forms on the walls suggest the longed-for cooling influence of fans and / or a longing clouds to come between us and the Sun and offer some respite to allow us to do more than just wilt.

A poem – c a t c h – accompanies the installation, summing up the feeling of being trapped by the heat, of seeing everything we want to do become lost and unimportant in the need to escape to simply be.

Visually engaging and making subtle use of PBR (the installation is best seen in a PBR capable viewer & using the local shared environment.

SLurl Details

• C a t c h, Souland Gallery (Moordon, rated Moderate)

 

 

Currently open at The Whisper of Phoenix Gallery, operated by Princess Venusia (Venusia McMahon) is an exhibition of art by Carelyna, which she had called Double Sided. It carries with it a simple yet nuanced idea: why have an image on one side of a canvas and leave the reverse blank when you can have two images, ostensibly of the same scene but each somewhat different on nature, one to either side of the canvas?

The result is a series of  paired images with each picture in a pair having its own story to tell.

Take She Sails Against the Wind as an example; in one version, the sky is brighter, the mainsail more fully set, the waters calmer, all of which give a sense of excitement: a sailboat cutting through the water, its pilot likely at ease as she sail towards ports. In the other, the mainsail is taller, thinner, the clouds darker and more roiled, the water heavier, all of which carry a hint of a gathering storm. Thus in one we have a story of carefree times on the open waters, in the other a more uncertain sense of foreboding for the boat and its mistress.

But there is also perhaps something of a nuanced exploration of choice to be found within this collection. Each pair of images gently asks us to compare / contrast their two sides and deliver a verdict as to which we prefer. In doing so, they gently nudge us to consider why we are drawn to one over the other, and the emotional processes at work within us which drive us to that choice.

And even if if such Deep Thought is not something we want to plumb when visiting Double Sided,  there is a third element in this approach: should we be moved to purchase a piece, we in fact have two images we can hang at home and change according to our mood or the changing of the environment in which we live in-world.

All of which makes for an engaging collection.

SLurl Details

• The Whisper of Phoenix Gallery (Papercut, rated Moderate)

Summer continues at Mysterious Isle, Cica Ghost’s Homestead region, as she opened her installation for August 2026 on the 13th of the month.

Called Summer Dream it’s another charming setting blending whimsy with fun in which we’re asked to frolic over hill and dale and under the boughs of tall trees, spot the local wildlife and perhaps lie among the daisies and flowers.

However, this isn’t any ordinary landscape; almost everything we can see appears to have been knitted or perhaps formed from pipe cleaners and wads of foam that have been twisted and glued together, cut and shaped and painted to become knobbly bushes, tall trees and mushrooms wearing their caps like wizard’s hats.

The result is a magical setting reminding us of childhood summers, when the days stretched away before us, bright with opportunity and adventure and without the clouds of school to cast a shadow over us.

Here is a world without a care within it; a place where a bear can enjoy time fishing from the end of a pier; ducks can paddle waters rippled by sunshine and a rowing boat offers the chance to just dip one’s feet in the water and keep them cool. It’s a place where even the tree houses are precisely that – houses perched in trees!

Summer Dream is not a place you want to walk through – it’s a place where you want to start skipping and running, filling the air with laughter and shouts of joy; where the houses and fir trees suggest a game of hid-and-seek might be in order.

It’s always summer somewhere, a quote from Lilly Pulitzer, the fashion entrepreneur famous for her colourful, summery clothing, reminds us.

With Cica, it’s fair to say a good part of summer resides in her heart, and we’re all fortunate to have it shine on us through Second Life.

 Slurl Details

• Summer Dream (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)