Tag: LEA Reviews

“There is no truth, there is only perception … immaculate perception,” Krystali Rabeni enigmatically states in her introduction to Immaculate Perception – Immaculate Reflection. “What you see is what you thought before you looked … The immaculate perception of it is an immaculate reflection of the viewer. A very interesting abstraction proving that there is no truth, only perception.”

It’s a provocative statement leading the way into a surreal and thought-provoking setting, one complete with touches of abstract and the absurd – but one which is also compelling, given the artist’s statement. Across a watery landscape sits a host of vignettes drawn from multiple sources. Pieces in some of them will be familiar to visitors, others will be wholly new.

All present some curious scenes: animals hanging from balloons, a pair of women in 50’s style clothing walking a pair of hot-dogs, skeletons watching TV, chess pieces from one side pinning the king from the other side under a net, a pat of flamingoes examining images of other flamingoes; pocket watches with starfish, the list goes on.

However, what is important here is not from whence they came or even, necessarily, what the artist may have intended each to represent – but how we perceive them, and how that perception may be informed by the shadows of our own thinking even before we see what is in front of us.  Of course, how we perceive and interpret any art is a matter of personal reflection, but it is generally a subconscious process; here we’re being asked to consciously think about that process – which in turn further influences our perceptions.

In this, the track of thinking can become recursive: we question whether or not how much of what we’re perceiving in one vignette is shaped by our prior thinking, and then as we move on,  how much of that thinking is influencing our perception of the next vignette we see, which in turn calls into question our perceptions of the next vignette, and so on. Thus observation becomes as much introverted act, as it does a consideration of the art itself.
Within the installation, the potential recursiveness of our thinking  is perhaps enhanced by how the various vignettes are  placed. It is almost impossible to observe one without seeing two or perhaps three others, thus shifting our attention, directly or subliminally, influencing our thinking on the piece at hand, and thus influencing our perception of it.

However, and with all that said, we can leave the deeper considerations about Immaculate Perception – Immaculate Reflection to one side, and simply approach each vignette entirely on its own. Each offers a scene captivating to the eye which can be enjoyed in its own right, regardless of what is informing our perception, whilst also allowing us to tease ourselves with possible allusions which may appear to be in some of them which might otherwise be missed in any deeper appreciation / introspection.

However you approach this installation, it offers plenty of opportunity for visual appreciation and / or considered speculation.

SLurl Details

• Immaculate Perception – Immaculate Reflection (Rated: Moderate)

Update: To mark the anniversary of William Henley’s birth, Storm would like to hold a poetry event at Invictus at 15:00 SLT on August 23rd. She has a open invitation to Second Life poets and voice artists who would like to attend and read either their own work or that of their favourite poets (“even if it’s Dr. Seuss!” , she told me, eyes twinkling). If you are interested, please contact Storm via note card or via email.  

Invictus (Latin: “unconquerable“) is the name of the full region installation by Storm Septimus, which is now open through until the end of 2016. It is a stunning visual interpretation of William Ernest Henley’s famous 1875 poem of the same name.

The poem, untitled at the time of its writing (editor Arthur Quiller-Couch added the title when including it in The Oxford Book of English Verse in 1900), came at a time when Henley was facing severe challenges. Diagnosed at an early age with tuberculosis of the bone, he had lost half his left leg to the disease in 1869, when he was just 20. Rather than accept the loss of his right leg as well, he spent three years hospitalised between 1873 and 1875 while noted surgeon Joseph Lister (ultimately successfully) fought to save the limb, and it was at the time of these multiple surgeries that Henley wrote his poem.

It is this determination of the human will to overcome adversity, no matter how dark, even with the portal of death awaiting, which forms the central theme of the poem. It takes the reader on a journey through life’s hardship, enduring the battering of circumstance and chance, to the recognition that whatever circumstance we face, we alone determine our fate. Dark through the initial three stanzas, the poem emerges in an affirmation of spiritual fortitude; a triumphant proclamation of self-will over fate, and our ability to lay claim to our time on Earth.

It’s a powerful message, and one evocatively presented within the installation, which offers a visual journey through the poem. This begins on the upper floor of a tower. Notes on navigation are presented on a scroll, and touching it will deliver them in note card form – recommended lest you find yourself forgetting directions.

To descend the tower is to descend into the black pit of the poem’s first stanza, which awaits at the lowest level. Outside, the journey continues, winding down a mountain, passing the remaining stanzas along the way, their surroundings reflecting and interpreting each in turn through metaphor and symbolism.

Any attempt to describe this journey is meaningless; it is something which is to be experienced first-hand. There is marvellously expressive symbolism to be found throughout; not only of the poem itself, but also the broader themes encompassed by its verses. Some of this is obvious, such as the giant hands grasping chain reins of great stallions, encapsulating the idea of taking control of one’s fate, reflecting the exultant final two lines of the poem.

Elsewhere, the symbolism is perhaps less obvious. Are the arrows found throughout the upper parts of the installation perhaps be a reference to “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, a line from Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy on life and the nature of death? After all, the latter is not so very far removed from Henley’s own musings on the subject found within in the couplet, “Beyond this place of wrath and tears /   Looms but the Horror of the shade”.  Elsewhere we might also find reflections on the nature of life and death, and on he times in which Henley lived; the child-angels, for example, might be seen as a reminder of the high infant / child mortality rates in England in the mid-19th century.

This is also, I would suggest, something of a personal statement by Storm. Just as Henley used the poems written whilst hospital to explore his time as a patient, so Storm has used her art in Second life to explore her own circumstance through installations like 2015’s Failure to Thrive, exploring depression, or 2014’s examination of insomnia through The [Void] (which I wrote about here). Thus, within Invictus, it is hard to escape the feeling we’re being given a glimpse of Storm’s own self-affirmation the she, and not the challenges she faces, holds authority for her life.

Across the water from the mountain and tower lies the ruins of a cathedral set within a garden. Storm indicates this is not strictly a part of the poem’s interpretation, being intended for photography and events. However, it would seem to offer both a further motif for the more spiritual lines from Invictus and a contemplation of the calm certainty which follows the poem’s final two lines. To reach it, visitors can either fly or – in a more light-hearted nod to those final lines – by taking the rowing boat waiting at the foot of the mountain, thus figuratively becoming the “captains of their souls”.

SLurl Details

• Invictus (Rated: Moderate)