Tag: Bamboo Barnes

Bamboo’s The Core – Murky Sphere in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
SLEA1 July 2026: Bamboo Barnes – The Coire – Murky Sphere

I received an invitation from Bamboo Barnes to visit her SLEA installation The Core – Murky Sphere. Bamboo is, as I’ve frequently noted in these pages one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists displaying her work in Second Life; I’ve never failed to be intrigued and fascinated by her exhibitions for multiple reasons.

With The Core – Murky Sphere, Bamboo offers something of an enigmatic installation; there are no notes from the artist supplied to offer thoughts or ideas, just a single poem and a hint of a theme in the accompanying biographical notes. And this is good, as it leaves the mind uncluttered when entering, free to consider the art and the words of the poem and those Bamboo offers following it.

SLEA1 July 2026: Bamboo Barnes – The Coire – Murky Sphere

However, before getting into things, do note that this is an installation best viewed under the Shared Environment and on a PBR enabled viewer. Draw Distance does not have to be high (around 64 metres will suffice), and if graphics quality can be pushed up to around High, so much the better.

The arrival point sits with a tunnel, the way ahead marked by a series of avatar studies by Bamboo. Two red spheres sit alongside the arrival point and, when touched, will supply a copy of the poem and Bamboo’s biography. Both should be taken and read. Beyond the tunnel, the installation opens out into the interior of a large cube.

SLEA1 July 2026: Bamboo Barnes – The Coire – Murky Sphere

On first viewing, this appears to be chaotic; 2D art and shapes mixing with 3D geometric forms including a cube-within-a-cube (with more elements within) and what  what might be a square stage, and seemingly random appearances of the poem. However, this is entirely in keeping with the thread of theme Bamboo offers for the installation in her biographical notes: a visualisation of emotions. Because is not a tumult of emotions we can so often feel – particularly in response to something – the most chaotic of experiences?

This is reason enough to consider the installation: a personal exploration through art of often tumbled nature of our own emotions. But there are perhaps other interpretations lying within it and revealed according to our own outlook on life. For example, one that occurred to me is that the installation seems to also speak to matters identity and alienation, of hatred / anger expressed by some for the somehow-threatening differences they see in others, differences expressed within the installation by the repeated use of images and forms.

SLEA1 July 2026: Bamboo Barnes – The Coire – Murky Sphere

This is because the majority of the poem seems to speak of separation, of alienation and isolation, be it by choice or by being a member of a clique in which it is easy to subsume personal doubts and fears by giving vent to anger and the dismissal of others on the basis of their differences, their beliefs or outlook or thoughts. In doing so, it is possible to feel safe, strong – and even “cool” when among those sharing such views. For those encountering these attitudes it can be disturbing, thoughts and emotions on the encounter rising unbidden long after occurred, just as the poem itself appears several times amidst the art of the installation.

The words accompanying the poem, meanwhile, serve as a reminder that the differences we see in others are not failures or weakness or something to be scorned / feared;  they are the very things that make all of us unique – and perhaps better and stronger as a whole. Through acceptance of such differences come opportunities to learn, to grow, to find common ground and end the negative separation created by anger, fear and hatred and find more in the way of harmony together. As the final line of the poem itself notes: separation, anger, fear lead a person nowhere – but that doesn’t stop those whom they would shun and reject from caring about them.

SLEA1 July 2026: Bamboo Barnes – The Coire – Murky Sphere

But again, that a personal reaction to The Core – Murky Sphere; there are obviously others (another that came to my mind was more in line with the idea of self-reflection, but I’ll say no more on that here). So this being the case, you should take those two paragraphs above with a degree of scepticism and put them aside when visiting The Core – Murky Sphere, and allow it to speak directly to you unencumbered by any preconceptions.

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“Here” with Bamboo, in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Artsville, June 2026: Bamboo Barnes – Ko Ko Ko Ko

“This exhibition is a summary of the last fifteen years of my work as an artist; mostly as a Second Life artist.” Bamboo Barnes says of her exhibition Ko Ko Ko Ko, which opened at Frank Atisso’s Artsville in Second Life on June 1st, 2026.

Occupying three sky platforms – one forming the entrance level and the other two the gallery levels, all linked via a teleport system which also connects back to Artsville’s ground level – this might be said to be something of a retrospective of Bamboo’s art, although I found myself looking on it more as an introspective celebration of her work.

Artsville, June 2026: Bamboo Barnes – Ko Ko Ko Ko

That I use the term “introspective” with regards to Bamboo’s work should come as no surprise; her work is rich in both her use of colour and framing and in her ability to offer reflections of her inner self; reflections that very often chime with our own, becoming something personal to both artist and viewer.

“Celebration” is equally valid in that the pieces within the exhibition do reflect the many facets of Bamboo’s art; art which has developed and changed over the years whilst remaining indelibly Bamboo. In this it also celebrate the fact that many of these changes have caught Bamboo herself by surprise, as someone who acknowledges that in life, she is uncomfortable with change.

There were times when my work took unexpected turns. Maybe it was inevitable. I came to love those changes in my creative path — otherwise I would not have continued loving my own art.

Bamboo Barnes

Artsville, June 2026: Bamboo Barnes – Ko Ko Ko Ko

Discomfort with change is also something that resonates in all of us. Few people like uncertainty in which the outcome cannot be foreseen; we’re often far more content to maintain the status quo. But without change we risk atrophy – and that is a state which cannot be applied to Bamboo’s art. It has grown and changed over the years, often in the most subtle of ways, each new experiment or turn of style adding to the sum total of her ability to express, to touch, to engage with us.

Bamboo notes that the term “ko” carries multiple meanings, whilst “koko” can mean “here”. I’m personally please that she is here in SL, quietly creating images and art, gently prompting us to consider who and where we are through the prism of her own self-reflection.

Artsville, June 2026: Bamboo Barnes – Ko Ko Ko Ko

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Nowhere B and Bamboo Barnes at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Nowhere B – Homebody Surrealism

As I continue to try to get back into regular blogging (and catch up with the backlog of invites and suggestions – please bear with me on this!), it was off back to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, operated and curated by Dido Haas, to peek at a couple of exhibitions, one of which is by one of my favourite SL artists.

Within The Annex of the Gallery is a new exhibition by Nowhere B, who makes a return to the gallery, Dido having hosted Nowhere’s first solo exhibition back in 2023 (see:  Intimist journeys and Zorian women in Second Life).

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Nowhere B – Homebody Surrealism

That exhibition presented a highly personal journal (if you will) of Nowhere’s journeys through Second Life. With Homebody Surrealism, he presents another series of images which again carry with them something of a personal subtext, but which take the observer in an entirely different direction, as Nowhere explains:

Homebody Surrealism is a domestic surrealist exploration—an inward journey into the strange and the marvelous hidden within ordinary life. It proposes that the familiar spaces we inhabit daily are not dull or exhausted, but quietly enchanted. Within the home, the most mundane objects become portals to wonder. An egg, a drawer, a window, a curtain—each holds the potential for revelation…
Homebody Surrealism invites us to look again, more slowly and more attentively. When attention deepens, the ordinary begins to shimmer with ambiguity and quiet mystery. The domestic world—so often dismissed as trivial—reveals itself as fertile ground for imagination, introspection, and awakening.

Nowhere B.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Nowhere B – Homebody Surrealism

The result is a collection of highly imaginative and engaging images and pieces which are captivating when first seen, then quietly beckon us in closer to decern more of what they wish to say – or at least, invite us to see beyond the “mundane”, as Nowhere puts it.

Given the nature of the pieces, their potential subjective resonance and that touch of subtext, I’m not going to colour your thinking by offering my own thoughts on the pieces within Homebody Surrealism. Rather, I invite you to visit the exhibition yourself and see them first hand.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Bamboo Barnes – Infinity Wall

The main hall at Nitroglobus sees the return of Bamboo Barnes with her fifth exhibition there, one which is deeply introspective in nature and form, carrying with it the title Infinity Wall.

Bamboo is, for me, 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. Her work is both vibrant and open in its use of colour and tone, yet also deeply introspective – that latter often brought forward by her use of those same assertive colours and tone. her themed exhibitions are thus a window into art  – and into the artist herself.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Bamboo Barnes – Infinity Wall

This is very true of Infinity Wall, which is one of the most personal of Bamboo’s exhibitions. This is very much noted by Bamboo herself:

It felt like a small universe—perhaps because both of our lives had somehow fallen out of sync with the world. Now I find myself asking questions I cannot answer alone, and at times I shrink from the pain they bring. It is like standing before an infinity wall, staring at a black dot as it slowly fades away. I no longer know where I stand—whether I am falling or floating. The only certainty is that there is nothing beneath my feet.
…Nothing is perfect, and once something begins, it moves inevitably toward its end. This is a quiet, unchangeable truth we must accept. Until that moment arrives, we drift, sometimes sink, and continue trying to create a universe we cannot hold onto forever.

Bamboo Barnes

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Bamboo Barnes – Infinity Wall

The majority of the images in this collection are self-portraits; pieces which are deeply emotive and beautifully telling in their stories. From individual pieces through to a triptych, these pieces reveal Bamboo’s talent for setting mood and suggesting thoughts and feelings – and offering insight into her own thoughts and reflections.

As with Nowhere B’s exhibition, Infinity Wall must be seen directly rather than seen through the lens of my thinking in order to be properly heard in its messages. As such, I again thorough recommend a visit.

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Sunshine Homestead is rated Moderate.

The Shape of the Whirlwind in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind

Art exhibitions at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, operated and curated by Dido Haas, are – as I’ve frequently mentioned in these pages – among the best in Second Life in terms of visual content, theme, richness of expression and the challenges Dido tends to offer the artists invited to exhibit at her gallery. However, there are times when the artist appearing at the gallery has a reputation for offering thematic art intended to to provoke the grey matter into cogitation without any prompting from Dido.

One such artist is Bamboo Barnes. To me, she is one of the most vibrant and emotive artists in Second Life. She is also one of the most unique in terms of content and in the manner in which she mixes digital techniques, blending images captured in SL wand via digital means, her use of vibrant colours and abstracted overlays. In doing so, her art is always marvellously expressive, reflecting her inner thoughts, feeling and perceptions, whilst also being strongly assertive in its own right. This latter aspect additionally allows individual pieces speak directly to the observer, both in terms of the over-arching theme of an exhibition, and as pieces standing in their own right.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind

Such is the case with The Shape of the Whirlwind, Bamboo’s latest exhibition (at the time of writing!) to be hosted by Dido at Nitroglobus. However, there is a further unique twist (or two) about this exhibition. The first is that it is – if my memory is not failing me (which is entirely possible!) – this is the first exhibition to span both halls of the gallery, both the main hall and the Annex.

The other element of uniqueness with this exhibition is that I’m not going to wibble on about it here, as is usually my wont. This is because Bamboo has provided an excellent introduction to both The Shape of the Whirlwind and the thought processes that brought her to create the pieces displayed and which are reflected through the pieces. I think her own words introduce the exhibition in such a way that any exposition / interpretation on my part would be little more than a distraction. So, I’ll let Bamboo speak for herself.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind
I have never been inside a vortex, but I wonder what the distortion of the world would look like when being able to see from the inside.
The concept of a vortex—something that twists and distorts the flow of reality—becomes a metaphor for the hidden, often imperceptible forces that shape our lives and selves. Inside a vortex, the world would bend and stretch, the familiar becoming strange, as if time itself were folding in on itself. The distortion of sight would be overwhelming, pulling you into a realm where what you think you know, what you think you see, slips away from your grasp, much like memories that fade or shift when you try to grasp them.

– Bamboo Barnes on The Shape of the Whirlwind

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind
Rising just a little against gravity, you might glimpse what is hidden—perhaps the edges of your own consciousness, which you usually only sense in fragments. And yes, memories, while they seem solid, can distort the truth, shaping how we see the world around us. The tension between the unseen forces and our struggle to maintain our sense of self would feel like a constant, gentle pull, drawing us into something greater than our understanding, yet more familiar than we’d like to admit.
At least remembering something, someone—however fleeting—might be a tether to a time before the vortex, a trace of what we were, or what we might still become. What do you think? What is it that you’re trying to remember or hold onto through this?

– Bamboo Barnes on The Shape of the Whirlwind

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind

A genuinely rich and engaging exhibition given added depth through the use of animated elements (sometimes directly, sometimes as additional overlays) which mirror the twisting tumbling nature of thoughts and emotions are they surround us, and further supported as well as 3D elements by Bamboo and pieces by other artists placed within the gallery space by Dido, The Shape of the Whirlwind should seen and appreciated.

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Bamboo’s Broken Chair at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, December 2023: Bamboo Barnes – Broken Chair
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.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, December 2023: Bamboo Barnes – Broken Chair

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.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, December 2023: Bamboo Barnes – Broken Chair

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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Bamboo’s meditations on time in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Selen’s Gallery: Bamboo Barnes – Far From

Midway through its run at Selen’s Gallery, operated and curated by Selen Minotaur, is Far From by Bamboo Barnes, featuring previously unseen works by the arts drawn together in a theme I always find fascinating: the nature of time and its relationship with personal experiences and the formation of self.

It’s a subject I’ve been fascinated by since first reading Burnt Norton, the first poem in what would become T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, a discussion on the nature of time, the relationship between past and future and both of them with the current moment in time, alternate realities, the contrast between the experience of the modern man and spirituality, mixed with ideas of unity with the cosmos, and more. Whilst The more spiritual reflections of time and human nature are not necessarily a part of Bamboo’s Far From, the central theme of Burnt Norton’s opening (perhaps the most famous lines of the poem / The Four Quartets as a whole) was immediately brought to mind for me when reading Bamboo’s introduction to Far From.

What do you feel now if you close your eyes? Do you see the faint flicker of light that your memory gives you as you reach out in total darkness? Or is it something you wish you could have forgotten? A past that has become distant yet drawing you in heavily. The now that seems so far from it, but it is a part of you. A part of you that can never be denied.  

– Bamboo Barnes, Far From

Selen’s Gallery: Bamboo Barnes – Far From

In other words, what we has gone before, given if not fully remembered – even if we no longer wish to recall it – is as much a part of us today, just as what we now do will become a part of our tomorrow; that while we might live in the “now”, we also live with the shadows and light of the past, factors which perhaps distort, or at least consciously or not, direct our way towards the future, subliminally or directly influencing as they do the decisions we make in the now.

Compare this with Eliot’s opening reflection from Burnt Norton:

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.

– T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton

Again, which is not to say the Bamboo’s art is intended to be any kind of visual essay on Eliot’s works; far from it – this is a subjective parallel I saw, and which other may not see or agree to. However, it is these kinds of parallels I so often find in Bamboo’s work and which – for me – further elevate her art.

That is, within Far From she offers a unique and highly visual meditation on then theme of the interconnectedness of time, just as Eliot does through the ideas he offers within the five parts of Burn Norton. Bamboo does this not only through her introduction to this exhibition, but in the manner of the images themselves. Each is distorted, some somewhat fragmented, all utilise colour in a striking manner.

Selen’s Gallery: Bamboo Barnes – Far From

These approaches are all elements which set Bamboo’s work apart from that of others, and can be found in many of her pieces. Here they combine to visually represent those memories and events which have shaped who are are now, and how we came to be who / where we are within our life (and, particularly, in our understanding of our own self). At the same time, elements of the images, combined with the 3D elements Bamboo has included in the exhibition space engage in themes of the past and present combing to shape our personal future – and that, but for decisions of the past, the idea that our life’s path might have taken a different course; the the flow of decision as much as the fluidity direct our lives.

This latter point might must clearly be suggested by the animated mosaic Bamboo presents as the landing point for the exhibition. The interconnectedness of past, present and future might also be see within those images which use repetition of images, the different colours within them underpinning the influence of past on present, and present on future (and, if we opt to extend – the manner in which the future itself informed those past actions which have brought us to where we are today.

Selen’s Gallery: Bamboo Barnes – Far From

A further beauty of Bamboo’s art is that her images can be enjoyed in their own right, as essays in style, colour, light, shade, subject and composition, each one standing entirely independently to the others around it. Thus, whether or not – like me – you opt to see an elegant artistic treatise within Far From, it offers a collection of richly engaging pieces which can each be appreciated on its own merits, making it a very worthwhile visit, and it will remain open to view through into August 2023.

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