Diomita Maurer’s Blog

Once again I picked a landmark from scoop.it SL Destinations for my simploring tour Thursday, August 30th – VOIR Gallery. I admit I did never hear about it before.

VOIR Gallery – Landing in front of the VOIR Gallery Building (upper left) / “Les egouts” – the canalisation (lower left) / the road with the entrance to the “Garage” (right upper and lower)

The landing is in front of a big building with the sign of the VOIR Gallery above the entrance. The environment looks very shabby. To the left and right of the entrance the walls of the building are painted with graffiti, a suburban railway station is closeby as well as the entrance to underground railway. I didn’t focus on that first but entered the gallery. A board at the entrance advertised an exhibition of Megan Prumier named “Fragments of time”.

I entered but the whole 1st floor, called “The Lobby”, was empty. In the middle of the lobby was an elevator “More upstairs”. I went upwards, this level is called “The penthouse” and there I found the exhibition of Megan Prumier. The board at the entrance gave no information but I recognized immediately the pictures of Megan Prumier. It was not long ago that I saw her art at La Maison D’Aneli (read here: Simploring 2018 (73) – Art Afternoon).
Megan Prumier is a multimedia artist and resident in Second Life. Her skills are extended on the field of photography, mostly portraits on modern, minimal and even surreal Scenes. The exhibited pictures at VOIR Gallery are fragmented and put together misaligned, an artful effect which provides another view on the partly erotic pictures. I liked it.

Megan Prumier “Fragments of time” at VOIR Gallery

From the pictures of VOIR Gallery at scoop.it SL Destinations I knew that there must be more gallery space. At the entrance to the VOIR Gallery you can find teleporters to the other galleries. I first went to the “Garage” and landed in a really shappy road, an environment I wouldn’t go to in Real Life ever!
The “Garage” is a park house, with no cars and of course it is as shabby as the the surrounding environment. The current exhibition at the “Garage” is a retrospective by Calypso Applewhyte. Calypso Applewhyte is a SL Photographer from France. At the “Garage” her pictures are groups made of 3 pictures with the same motive, either from another viewing angle or another detail or cutout. These pictures invite you to have a closer look and are quite intriguing – and a strong contrast to the surrounding.

Retrospective by Calypso Applewhyte at VOIR Gallery

From there I used a teleporter to “Les egouts”, the canalisation – another scary environment. There I found no art at all, but I began to realize how the exhibitions and the environment connect. VOIR Gallery is located in a real run-down down, where you wouldn’t step in Real Life. The gallery space “Garage” is located in the street to the right of the VOIR Gallery building, “Les egouts” (the canalisation) is below the VOIR Gallery and I assume it is used as exhibtion space as well. The lobby must be also exhibtion space.

I began exploring this run-down city and found more exhibtion space. If you go down to the underground railway station you find the art of Frenchy25. The exhibtion compromises about 10 large pictures which are made of several party transparent layers providing depth as well as hiding details. The work of Frenchy25 is also very intriguing.

Frenchy25 is the SL partner of Calypso Applewhyte. Together both created the run down city and named it “Merdopolis” (look at the play with words “Metropolis” and the French word “merde” which translates to shit). The VOIR Gallery is in this town and the town itself is a piece of art if you look at it in a different way than I did before. Frenchy25 is the curator of VOIR Gallery.

Frenchy25 “Best of Flickr” exhibited in the Underground Railway Station at VOIR Gallery

Further exploring I found the VOIR tube, where the winning photographs of a contest are exhibited. Also quite impressive pictures, I don’t know however from whom they are.

Exhibits from a photo contest at VOIR tube at VOIR Gallery

Finally I aslo visited the “Canyon”, the deep hole opposite of the VOIR Gallery building. There are the living quarters at VOIR, the places where the inhabitants or former inhabitants of “Merdopolis” found their retreat, also for sure not luxurious but there’re some cosy spots in the hole.

Impressions of Merdopolis, the Canyon and VOIR Gallery

VOIR Gallery and Merdopolis are a place for art based on pictures made within Second Life. The environment itself is worth seeing and builds a perfect contrast. Thank you Frenchy25 and Calypso Applewhyte for creating this place, providing the gallery not only for your own art but also for other artists and for making it all available for the public. I enjoyed my visit a lot, although it took some time to understand and value it.

Landmark to VOIR Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Topaz%20Square/50/30/2208