Tag: Nitroglobus

Transcend Struggle in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Yann Gyro – Transcend Struggle

I first encountered Yann Gyro’s (sempiternel) work during what was to become the last set of exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli in December 2022, when he presented an untitled but engaging 3D installation (see: Five at La Maison d’Aneli in Second Life). I was not the only one taken by that installation, as Dido Haas also saw it as well and asked Yann to consider exhibiting at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – and he accepted. So, officially opening on Monday, March 6th, 2023, we have Transcend Struggle, a combined 2D and 3D installation created by Yann.

This is a highly personal installation for Yann, focusing as it does on his mother’s diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, and his love for her and his wish to support her through her diagnosis and subsequent treatment – and most of all to her memory and her strength.

For those who might not be familiar with the term, metastatic breast cancer is a stage VI cancer where the cancer cells have spread beyond the axillary lymph nodes to distant sites, including the bones, the brain, the liver and the  pulmonary pleurae. it can occur several years after a primary breast cancer has been identified and treated (or at the same time the primary cancer is identified) and is the final stage of breast cancer; while treatment is possible, there is no cure. Treatments can take many forms, some of which can be as debilitating as the disease itself (e.g. radiation and chemotherapy).

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Yann Gyro – Transcend Struggle

Given the above, it should come as no surprise that the images and 3D elements of Transcend Struggle are powerful in message; metaphor is not required (although it is powerfully present in one sculpture and one of the images). Supported by a poem by Yann, the pictures and sculptures speak eloquently and fully to his love for his mother, her strength, and what is means to live within the twin shadows of a terminal cancer and its treatment regimes – shadows which fall across both the person afflicted and those around them.

As someone who has both lost her mother to cancer and has herself faced breast cancer (mine was fortunately a benign DCIS, and as of May 2023 I am 5 years “clear” of the disease following surgery and treatment), I found Transcend Struggle deeply moving. However, you do not have to have gone through diagnosis and treatment – or know someone who has – to appreciate the outflow of love found within the installation; it in clear both within Yann’s words and the beauty of his images, while his sculptures convey an equally strong message. As such, it is difficult to write about it; Transcend Struggle very genuinely needs to be visited, and Yann’s the images, sculptures, words experienced first-hand.

Cancer loves to hide in the darkness of fear and silence where it can prey on the mind as much as it does on the body, gnawing equally on those diagnosed with it and those around them; confronting it – be it through seeking a diagnosis, through treatment or just by talking about it – may not always lessen its threat, but it does shine a light on it  and allow strength and love to be shared as it is faced. Transcend Struggle speaks eloquently to this fact.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Yann Gyro – Transcend Struggle

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Magdha’s Sole Fragments in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

For February 2023, Dido Haas presents Sole Fragments, a themed exhibition of monochrome photography by Maghda, at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery.

Like Dido, I first encountered Maghda’s work some 8 years ago, but in my case, it was at another shared exhibition hosted at the now-closed DaphneArts Gallery. Also like Dido, I also lost track of Maghda, and had no idea that she had departed Second Life for a time, and only returned in-world in 2022.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

With a focus on avatar studies, often featuring herself as the model and often presented in greyscale or monochrome, Maghda has a talent for pieces that offer single-frame stories, often with an element of introspection or personal discovery.

This is very much the case with Sole Fragments, a title which can be taken both literally – these are pieces offered from a sole perspective – and as something of a double play on words: the images represent a journey – a walk, if you will – through her Second Life and times; and walks are things we undertake on the soles of our feet. At the same time these images are reflections of Maghda’s soul.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

As Maghda herself notes, this is a collection depicting the highs and lows and triumphs and struggles endured; moments of growth and of emotional release. Each image is deeply candid, deeply atmospheric and powerfully resonant – made all the more so through the use of monochrome and greyscale.

Each of the twelve images in the collection is a step on Maghda’s journey, allowing us to share in moments of love, loss, escape, freedom, and self-expression. The order in which we follow the steps in this journey is unimportant; it is the time we take to experience each, both in terms of the story it presents across the entire canvas and the emotional self-expression by the artist – and in allowing that expression and story resonate within us.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

Given theses pieces are offered by the artist as a means of connecting within the emotions they contain and as a window into into her soul, it is really not my place to overlay them or the exhibition with my own subjective interpretations of specific images. What I will say is that this is a softly powerful collection of images, and I have no hesitation in recommending it as a must-see exhibition.

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The many aspects of Jules Farigoule in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

Opening on Monday, January 16th, 2023 in the Annex at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, is The Farigoule Collection, a series of images and settings by Jules Farigoule which – as always for Nitroglobus – offers a fascinating take on the art and expressionism of the artist involved.

The easiest way to introduce the collection is to use Dido’s own words:

A while ago when meeting with Jules in his loft, which is really a superb tastefully made place, I asked him if he was willing to exhibit his awesome art collection at Nitroglobus.  At first he hesitated and told me he was neither an artist nor was this a ‘collection’, just images which he likes to have around him; a very subjective and personal selection. .. a set of images, gathered from meetings, friendships and by chance, from the serendipity of Jules’s long Second Life.

Dido Haas

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

Now, on the surface, this may not sound so unusual – serendipity often plays a role in art, be in painting, drawing or photography, and in Second Life, photographs tend to focus on our personal moods or on the friends we make, the people we encounter and the sights we come across in our explorations. So what makes this collection so special?

Simply because, while it may not have any intentional theme or narrative thread, it is nevertheless something of a story about Jules – who hails from France – and his self-expression both in the physical world and within Second Life.

Some of the latter is expressed through the two settings occupying the floorspace of the Annex, and which offer a glimpse into Jules’ loft home in-world. Their simplicity of form and minimalism, coupled with the placing of the art on their walls and the sculptures, speak to a mind and eye driven by thoughts of beauty and balance, and something of a reverence for the female body – as well as the simple joy of taking photos.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

More broadly – and intimately – the exhibition as a whole offers insight into the dual nature of Jules’ time in Second Life, where both a male and a female avatar – Gaia Republic – are used (with Jules now being the primary and Gaia – although older – the “Alt”). The images from Second Life – outside of those Jules has on display within the “loft” sets which originate with other artists (including Dido herself) – come from both the persona of Jules and that of Gaia, and examining the differences in style, tone and subject between the two.

Most of the images by Jules, meanwhile present fair more structured results in which the more technical aspects of each – style, focus, presentation, cropping and production. Thus, there is perhaps a femininity reflective of Gaia that naturally comes to the fore within Mes copines, whilst Jules’ piece might be seen as leaning towards a more “masculine” expressionism.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

It’s subjective to be sure, and also subjective, given the technical skills required to produce Mes copines are as great as those seen within, say, ExMachina 04. More importantly, the contrasts speak to a person as ease within the skins of both Jules and Gaia, and makes for a delight layer of observation when viewing these pieces.

Mixed with the Second Life images are several which appear to have been brought into SL from the physical world, and these again offer insight into Jules’ outlook as an artist and the richness of his imagination.

Yet another engaging exhibition from Nitroglobus – and full kudos to Dido for persuading Jules to display his work, and to Jules for doing so.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

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The appeal of Dido’s greyscale Nudes in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Dido Haas – Nudospective

Since co-launching the original Nitroglobus Gallery and, over the last several years, Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, photographer-artist Dido Haas has established a well-deserved reputation for curating one of Second Life’s most engaging galleries for art in Second Life. Month on month she brings out the very best in the artists she invites to exhibit within the gallery’s halls, resulting in perhaps the most consistently enthralling series of art displays each and every year, hence why I attempt to cover the gallery as fully as possible through the year.

However, there is a drawback to all of this: such is the amount of work involved in managing and curating the gallery, Dido’s skills as a photographer-artist rarely get to be seen in-world, and this is a shame, as her work is the equal of any of those she invites to exhibit at the gallery. Hence why, when she drops a note about presenting a (possibly short-term) exhibition of her work in the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex, I’m scooting across to take a look.

Nudospective, as the name implies, is something of a “retrospective” in a much as it comprises a set of images Dido has produced over time. It is also, again as suggested by the title, utilises nudity as a linking theme. As such, this is an exhibition that might best be considered NSFW when viewing.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Dido Haas – Nudospective

My love of Dido’s photography lies in several elements. First, she tends to work predominantly in black-and-white or greyscale or with a monochrome lean. Secondly, she specialises in avatar studies and thirdly – and most importantly – she has the ability to communicate so much through her work simply through the use of angle, pose, and focus rather than relaying on excessive props or post-processing.

This is very much in evidence within Nudospective; mostly presented in greyscale, these are pieces which – although utilising nudity – are not in any way directly sexual or voyeuristic. Rather, they are elegant narratives on the beauty of the female form as visualised through the medium of a virtual avatar, some of which offer what might be considered a subtle commentary on the subtleties of beauty compared to the expectations of beauty.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Dido Haas – Nudospective

Take, for example, Legs. It features what is all too frequently a tool of heightened (literally and metaphorically) sexualised beauty: the high heel. But is it the heels that give the legs image their inherent form and beauty, or is it their muscle tone, angle and placement – all of which could be present sans the heels? Similarly, in Freckles alongside of it, is it really the firmness and curve of a breast – again so often seen as an expression of sexuality – really as worthy of our attention as a mark of beauty as much as the simple patina of freckles over the flesh of an upper arm and shoulder?

Across the hall, and a little conversely, Belly Piercing comes from another direction entirely. Within it sits a duality of innocence pointing towards a certain sexuality. On the one hand, it offers a natural statement on the beauty of a body piercing, whilst on the other the ball of the pearl, sitting on the cusp of the navel and the play of shadow within it offers a suggestion of focal point of female sexual pleasure.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Dido Haas – Nudospective

Beautiful executed individually, taken collectively, Nudospective forms an engaging, easy-to-appreciate exhibition of photography which potentially has a lot to say.

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Junction Points at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

The law of polarity (aka the law of opposites) states the idea that everything has an opposite: with every day, there is a night; for every moment of sadness there will come a corresponding one of joy; for every electron there is a positron; every life ends in death, and so on. It’s a notion akin to Chinese yin and yang; and like that philosophical concept, it suggests that these opposites, if not directly joined, are interconnected at some level.

It is this interconnectedness – this duality, if you will – that is the focus of the December exhibition now open at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas. And like many exhibitions there, it is an exhibition that is layered in potential interpretation.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

Entitled Junction Points, it as presented by Selen Minotaur, and features both 2D and 3D pieces (together with a machinima), and in describing it, Selen focuses on the idea of duality inherent in the law of polarity, and the importance of finding balance:

We live, in fact, in duality: high-low, left-right, chiaroscuro, good-bad, day-night, healthy-sick, cold-hot, north-south, etc. Duality teaches us what we prefer to experience and helps us recognise how to change our way of thinking to create that preferred experience in our lives. We know we prefer happiness because we have known sorrow. We love health because we have known sickness.
The challenge, for everyone, is therefore to find the points of junction, those which make it possible to feel “ONE”, in symbiosis and in balance with oneself, with the others and with the universe.

– Selen Minotaur

In reflection of this, the images and sculpture forming the exhibition offer elements of duality throughout, together with their inherent points of connection. In doing so, she presents pieces that are both highly visual whilst frequently offering insight and commentary on life and the human condition.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

Take 1+1=3 for example. It suggests two people caught in a dance or coming together in greeting / celebration, and about to clasp hands. Between them is a third individual placed in a front split, feet touching both of the standing figures. Set on a backdrop of geometric forms, it is a piece visual rich in ideas of duality, reflection, and connection. More deeply, however, it might be said to reflect the basic truth that the singularity of life (symbolised by the middle figure connecting the two upright figures, complete with hair growing into a tree-like form – the tree being itself a symbol of life) is born out of the duality of two people becoming a unity.

Across the hall, Double Sided offers a a commentary on our need to at times being both striking in our looks and gaining the attention of others and for our need to to be private, as symbolised by the use of shaded glasses and the hat in one  half of the image. Thus, on a deeper level it offers a metaphor for the fact that we are, by turns, both social and gregarious creatures whilst also creatures of needing solitude and privacy, and somewhere between the two is that junction point of nature where me might be most true to ourselves.

Within the 3D pieces, both Mood Swing and Depth are especially layered in interpretation, offering ideas on the manner in which we need to find balance within the see-sawing of our emotions both for our onw piece of mind and our relationships to others; through our perceptions of self and those around us, and the fact that we can seem at time to be incredibly deep and at other extraordinarily shallow, with the junction between the two being whom we really are.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

Visually expressive, rich in context and (again) supported by lighting and elements by Adwehe on behalf of Dido and the Gallery, Junction Points is an exhibition well worth spending time pondering. However, when visiting, do make sure you have Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced Lighting Model is checked; no need to have Shadows enabled as well) in order to see all of the pieces in the installation correctly.

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Milena Carbone’s Africa at Nitroglobus

Posted on by Inara Pey

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa
Milena Carbone is an artist who is constantly pushing at both the boundaries of her own creative means of expression and what might be regarded as the bounds of comfort of her audience.  Through her work, she has encouraged us to consider the world around us and challenged us to face up to the harm we, as a race, appear hell-bent on doing to it – even though that harm may ultimately bring about out own demise. She has also often held up a mirror to humanity’s arrogance and poked us with the conceit of gods created in the image of Man, and she has dared to encourage us to face the failures of religion, the threat of climate change, and more.

Almost all of this is touched upon and / or embraced in Africa, her new exhibition of art opening on October 31st, 2022 at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated and operated by the marvellous Dido Haas; a complex and layered exhibit, comprising images, interactive 3D elements, and external elements that present further depth to the installation, which takes as its central (but not exclusive) focus the subject of climate change.

The most obvious elements in the exhibition are the images. These are framed within the continent of Africa – a place of both unparalleled beauty and bio-diversity, and which has perhaps suffered more than most thanks to the uncaring hands of the so-called “developed” nations, and is set to do so even more unless those same developed nations are willing to actively work to reduce the global threat of climate change. They present two interwoven stories, those of Grace and Abel, which unfold as an almost Biblical journey from creation (symbolised by In the Beginning, located on the Gallery’s east wall to the right of the café building), to the end times and the fall of mankind, couple with latter-day plagues.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa

These are stories we can enter into by clicking on the title plague for each image, located just below its lower left corner. These can be used to open “chapters” on Milena’s website which both offer narratives on Grace and Abel and their respective journeys, and offer-up broader food for thought -notably on the realities of climate change – for consumption.

Within the images themselves – which are also hybrid art pieces, utilising background generated via the Midjourney AI art generator combined with avatar images – can also be found reflections and dualities. Take Deluge for example. In title and tone, it echoes the story of Noah and the flood, and the destruction of all that went before; but even as it does so, it suggests more of a foreshadowing then a look back: because as climate change increases, the people of Africa – as noted in the preceding Burn Them All! – will face some of the greatest outfalls, prompting a mass migration – a literal deluge of peoples that could wash away our comfortable civilisations to the north and east of that great continent.

Running along the centrelines of the gallery’s two arms is a series of plinths mounting models of African animals. Each bears a label which may at first appear nonsensically humorous, but in fact offers commentary on the nature of our global society, where the divide between humanity and nature is becoming ever wider and more harmful, thanks to the former’s self-indulgent demands for instant gratification in all things. These models also carry additional subtext on both the issue of climate change and on the nature of “god” – whether seen as an independent consciousness or as a construct formed in our own image -, and our relationship with it. To appreciate this, it is essential that visitors to Africa approach each of the plinths in order to trigger its transformation.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa
(There is also a further interactive element to the installation in the form of a dance video displayed at one end of the gallery, complete with dance positions visitors can use to join in with the performance.)

Further examination of our relationship with “god” can be found within the constructs of the images and the characters within them. Milena herself notes that “Abel” is drawn from the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel, whilst “Grace” is a name and a term often associated with “god”. The story of Cain and Abel is perhaps one of the clearest demonstrations of “god’s” fickleness whilst also presenting a metaphor for man’s inhumanity to man – something for which Africa, as a continent both straddling the equator and containing some of the world’s poorest and more in-need nations will perhaps pay one of the highest prices.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa

From the above, it is hopefully clear there is a lot to unpack and interpret within Africa, and that it is an installation where interpretation should be guided via the artist’s words, and not an “interpreter” (or interlocutor) like me. As such, I will leave you with a recommendation that you visit Africa and allow yourself time to be immersed within the stories and flow of ideas lying within it.

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