Tag: Scylla Rhiadra

Scylla’s “Almost” in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
IMAGO Art Galleries, March 2025: Scylla Rhiadra – Almost

Philosophy and art can make for an interesting coupling; on the one hand, philosophy can trigger an artistic response that in turn might serve to illustrate the central thesis being discussed; on the other, art triggered by a philosophical precept can go on to spur thinking and reflection which can reach beyond the original focus of both the art and / or the precept it initially illustrated.

Such is the case with Scylla Rhiadra’s Almost, a compelling series of pieces of art with accompanying textual extracts (often a common element within Scylla’s work), which opened to public display on March 20th, 2025 at Mareea Farrasco’s  IMAGO Art Galleries.

As I’ve noted in covering past exhibitions of her work, Scylla is one of the most gifted communicators in Second Life; her ability to to use art to convey ideas, feelings, realities and truths, and/or to expose concepts and ideas and encourage the grey stuff between the ears to fire on all available cylinders, is second to none. Nor is she unfamiliar with building upon philosophical thinking to explore our notions of what it is to be human, to live, to move through life; in this I would point to Swerve, her exhibition from 2024 which grew out of reflections on atomism as prompted by Titus Lucretius Carus (see Scylla’s Swerve at Nitroglobus in Second Life for more).

IMAGO Art Galleries, March 2025: Scylla Rhiadra – Almost

Within Almost she takes as her seed the work of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea – specifically one of his Paradoxes of Motion (which are perhaps the most well-known of his paradoxes), which Scylla refers to as his “Atalanta Paradox”, but which is perhaps better know as the Dichotomy Argument.

In this Zeno asks us to imagine the Greek heroine and athlete running half the distance to a finishing line, and then requires us to notionally half the remaining distance and time again, and again, and again, ad infinitum. The “logical” and mathematically “provable” corollary of this exercise is the realization that the runner will never reach her goal; she will merely get closer and closer, by smaller and smaller spatial and temporal increments.

– Scylla Rhiadra, introducing Almost

IMAGO Art Galleries, March 2025: Scylla Rhiadra – Almost

The Dichotomy Argument, together with Achilles and the Tortoise and Zeno’s Arrow Paradox are regarded as such because between them, they postulate that everything is, to all intents a purposes, motionless. Atalanta can never finish her race; Achilles can never catch the tortoise, that at any given point in its flight, the arrow is in fact standing still. Not only does this mean the races / arrow flight can never be completed – they can never actually commence – which is clearly a logical fallacy, given they can and do. This fallacy offers some interesting lines of thinking, as Scylla goes on to note:

I found the concept an interesting metaphorical approach to understanding what it means to be “human,” existing in real time and space. In some ways, we are always “almost” something or another, in part because we are always in the process of becoming — of “almost” being someone or somewhere else — and because it is a fundamental condition of human existence that we never achieve an ultimate, absolute state.

– Scylla Rhiadra, introducing Almost

Thus, within this series, Scylla presents images which explore the dichotomy created within Zeno’s paradoxes in a highly visual manner.  Each offers a complete story on the human condition within its frame, whilst simultaneously presenting the potential for much broader narratives.

IMAGO Art Galleries, March 2025: Scylla Rhiadra – Almost

In this they are like Atalanta’s race – just as they almost present a “finished” image and idea, so to do they hint at a further measure of consideration, a further line of narrative, drawing the imagination onwards towards a line of “understanding” we never quite reach as we constantly re-evaluate what we are seeing within each image as our view shifts and changes both in light of our emotional state / mental processes and in reaction to reading the text accompanying each piece.

And it is in the textual excerpts that Scylla again teases; whilst they might almost illuminate an image in terms of a single point of understanding, so do they also open doors on to new avenues – or corridors, as Scylla puts it – of thinking and reaction, which can themselves subdivide further than further the more we dwell on what the text might say / mean and what might have motivated its selection.

IMAGO Art Galleries, March 2025: Scylla Rhiadra – Almost

This makes Almost wonderfully subjective – perhaps “personal” might be a better term; there is no single “given” within any single image or its text. Instead there are layers of potential that might be peeled away as each piece and its companion words are examined and considered, very much informed by the feelings and thoughts we bring to them as much as by the scenes they capture. A magnificent and deeply engaging series rich in interpretation from one of Second Life’s most engaging photographic artists.

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Scylla’s Swerve at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, August 2024: Scylla Rhiadra – Swerve

August 5th, 2024, saw the opening of Swerve, a themed exhibition by Scylla Rhiadra, hosted by Dido Haas at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery.

Scylla is, quite frankly one of the most gifted communicators in Second Life; her ability to to use art to convey ideas, feelings, realities and truths, and/or to expose concepts and ideas and encourage the grey stuff between the ears to start firing on all available cylinders, is second to none. This is especially true with Swerve, which takes as its subject matter, a visualisation of the essence of De rerum natura, (“On the nature of things”), a six-part (and potentially unfinished) poem by the 1first century BCE Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher, Titus Lucretius Carus.

It is also, again quite frankly, an exhibition I’ve found exceptionally difficult to write about. This is partially due to the fact that Scylla lays out out the inspiration and ideas for the exhibition quite wonderfully through both a poster on the wall close the gallery’s main landing point and through the notecard that can be obtained by touching said poster. As such, anything I might further say on in this regard is rendered somewhat superfluous.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, August 2024: Scylla Rhiadra – Swerve
“Swerve” is the most usual translation of the Latin term clinamen, a key word and concept in De Rerum Natura, a 1st-century BCE philosophical poem by Titus Lucretius Carus. Lucretius was the great populariser of Epicureanism, and his poem is a long and detailed explication of the ancient understanding of atomism, and of its implications for human life. It is also, in an important sense, the inspiration for this exhibition.
Lucretius tells us that nothing that is not “matter,” composed of atomic particles, exists in the universe. We swim through a torrential downpour of plummeting atoms that crowd the void of space, and these fall naturally in a straight line. Vitally, however, they also sometimes swerve from their straight, downward course and, colliding with others, cohere into new clumps of matter or ricochet off each other in unpredictable ways. “Swerve” is thus the foundation of all existing things, and, as importantly, of all change. The idiosyncratic motion of these swerving atoms is also, Lucretius asserts, the origin of human free will, for we too “swerve” from our natural course according to the dictates of our appetites and passions.

Scylla Rhiadra, introducing Swerve

There’s also the fact that by pure happenstance, I’ve not long since finished reading Greenblatt’s The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, the story of how the last known remaining copy of De rerum natura was rescued from certain loss in the early 15th century, helping to kick-start our modern understanding of modern physics an physical sciences.

While there is much that is perhaps questionable within The Swerve (particularly around Greenblatt’s propensity to interject his own view on religion together with a blurring of historical lines), I have nevertheless found it hard to divorce my thoughts on the fundamental story of the rescuing of the poem and how it potentially influenced modern thinking as outlined in Greenblatt’s book, from Scylla’s far more focused and elegant examination of her opening question posed when introducing her exhibition:

What does it mean to live in a godless, materialist universe ruled by the laws of physics and propelled by the endless fall and collision of atoms in apparently chaotic order?

Scylla Rhiadra, introducing Swerve

This is not in any way to fault Scylla; the fault is mine alone; I have lacked the mental discipline to keep my mind focused purely on Scylla’s work.

However, in trying to keep that focus, what I can say is this. The images Scylla present within Swerve are – as always – of a nature that allows each of them to stand on its own as an engaging piece of art while also offering a depth of reflection and / or enunciation of ideas either posited by Lucretius or to which we might be led in considering of his explanations of life, the nature of the mind and the soul, the driving forces behind our own actions and reactions to the cosmos – and others – around is, and most particularly by our own inner passions and desires, which can both aid and foil us.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, August 2024: Scylla Rhiadra – Swerve

In this there is much subtext to be found within many of these pieces – be it the placement of an icon on the wall or the juxtaposition of a woman’s body behind the bloom of a flower. Some of this again stand quite independently of Lucretius’ writing – but at the same time, understanding his outlook and the Epicurean view of the cosmos and humanity greatly enhances how these pictures might be viewed – an they, aided by Scylla’s words, tickle the desire to know more about this almost-lost didactic poem.

There are perhaps small aspects of Scylla commentary that might give cause for disagreement. Her use of the word godless might be seen as inaccurate, as neither Epicurus nor Lucretius posited a universe without deities; rather they held that such was the natural, elemental nature of an atomic universe, ordered by simple rules and interactions (such as clinamen), there was simply no need for any gods to involve themselves in the affairs of mortals; they could simply get on with enjoying absolute peace for all eternity. However, I would respond by saying that in a wider context – that of the “modern” world – Scylla’s use of godless is well-founded; while we have no evidence throughout De rerum natura that Lucretius was an atheist, in its denial of divine intervention and its repudiation of the immortal soul, the poem was (and sometimes still is) seen as “anti-Christian” and “dangerous”.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, August 2024: Scylla Rhiadra – Swerve

There is so much more I could say – but (thankfully for you) I won’t, other than do go as see this exhibition – read Scylla notes and then view her work; allow it to inhabit your thoughts and whisper to you with the voice of history.

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Scylla’s study of the Virtual Toxic in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic
Elven Years ago, I opened a new exhibit that tackled the subject of representations of gender violence in Second Life entitled Is This Turning You On? About a month and a half ago, Hermes Kondor asked me if I’d be willing to return to the subject of toxicity and hypocrisy within Second Life.  This exhibit is the result.

– Scylla Rhiadra, introducing Virtual Toxic

Thus reads the introduction to Virtual Toxic, what will be for some, an uncomfortable exhibition at the Kondor Art Square.

Without a doubt, whilst Second Life offers a lot that is positive in life – physical or virtual; however, it also attracts the more negative aspects of human behaviour. And while other platforms also suffer from their own forms of toxicity, negativity and hypocrisy, the fact that Second Life does offer the means for positive immersion leads Scylla to frame this exhibition around a central question:

Why do we persist in replicating the flaws and toxicity of our sublunary physical existence in the virtual world as well? We can literally fly here. Why then do we fetter ourselves to the dark places on the ground?
Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic

Thus we are presented with a baker’s dozen of images that deal with what can be seen as the more toxic – or at least darker – attitudes that can be expressed through words and activities in-world.

Virtual Toxic starts in the north-east corner of the square with Imagine Dark, a piece that offers a narrative on the fact that in entering Second Life, we are presented with multiple opportunities for discovery and expression, light and dark – and ask the question as to which we might chose. From here, the remaining images progress clockwise around the edge of the square with the last sitting in the centre. Each has a particular focus on behaviours and activities that all have an uncomfortable edge to them – sugar daddy / baby girl role-play, direct violence, rape “play”, the objectification of the female, and more. Each comes with its own text element offering  either direct or narrative context.

Each image and its associated text is provocative in the statement offered for us to consider; statements that – due to the fact they are based on physical world situations, attitudes, outlooks, activities – obviously extend beyond the virtual and challenge us to think more deeply and broadly about how we interact with one another and why we might chose to engage in actions that are in the physical world abhorrent to us and / or why we opt to display toxic / hurtful attitudes towards others.

Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic

The former of these aspects is duly noted in one of the three information panels on the exhibit in the centre of the square (Some Important Disclaimers), which should be read when visiting the exhibit. The latter is perhaps most clearly defined in the south-east corner of the square, and the pieces My Name Is… and Gaslit.

Within the former we see reflected the fact that there are some who have an unwillingness to view others as equals / individuals with thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc; the avatar stands with face blotted out by the word Whatever. It’s a term that can have both positive and negative implications – and here is the usage is reflective of the negative / passive-aggressive form (as in, “I don’t care about you or what you have to say or feel”). Gaslit, meanwhile, references our use of words to manipulate others into self-doubt or (possibly) taking an action they’d normally avoid.

Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic

Offered for public consumption to overlap with the UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, which draws to a close on December 10th, 2021, a campaign specifically focuses on violence and abusive acts against women (1 in 3 of whom, globally, will be subjected to violent abuse at least once in her life, with that abuse extending well into digital environments, as seen through the likes of Gamergate), Virtual Toxic is an arresting exhibition. However, it is not polemic; in asking its questions – most clearly exemplified by the 13th image, Why? at the centre of the art square – it invites us to view, read and consider what is presented without undue sway on the part of the artist.

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