Diomita Maurer’s Blog

I got an invitation from Ricco Saenz to visit a new gallery – The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria. The 22 Art space is a new gallery in Bellisseria, the new continent with many Second Life prime members homes. The gallery is on one of these homes. It is owned and curated by Randy Firebrand and Ricco Saenz. The gallery’s name refers to the Modern Art Week in 1922 in Brazil, also known locally as “The 22 Week”. For the inauguration there’re two exhibtions at The 22 Art Space – “5 Times Boudicca” by Boudicca Amat and “Carol Ann”, an installation by Randy and Ricco.
Both exhibtions are opened until October 24th, 2020.

The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria

“5 Times Boudicca” is shown on the ground level.
It is “a retrospective of Boudicca Amat’s art, but one with a very particular intent. By concentrating on five themes – “Pretty”, “Light”, “Chairs”, “Wings” and “Broken” – that seem recurrent in Boudicca Amat’s repertoire, the exhibition allows us to observe her work along the years and explore different faces of her photography. At the same time, it underlines the artist’s consistency: with different subjects, in different years, there is a coherence in the way she treats light (which is one of the themes of the exhibition and also the foundation of the whole project) – and observing that is one of the main objectives of this selection of photos. And, as a bonus, the exhibition brings four new pictures, recently taken by Boudicca.”

Impressions of “5 Times Boudicca” at “The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria” (1)

The 5 themes are in 2 rooms on the 1st and 3 rooms on the 2nd floor of the gallery. Some of the pictures did really impress me and I selected them for this blog entry. As everybody has a different taste and as art does touch us differently and very personal, it is just my personal selection.

Boudicca is in Second Life for more than 13 years. She writes about the exhibition of her pictures at The 22 Art space:
“Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand’s unique overview of six years of Second Life photography, their selection reveals subtleties, and recurring themes that even I had never realised were there. Their thought provoking vision and passion has propelled a collection of images into an entity richer, more vibrant, and more meaningful than I could ever have hoped for.“

Impressions of “5 Times Boudicca” at “The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria” (2)

On the 1st floor of The 22 Art Space there’s also a bar and an opportunity to sit. Next to the bar you find a teleporter to a skybox. In this skybox Ricco and Randy installed “Carol Ann”:
“Carol Anne is an experience of enlightenment and extinction, of distance and affection, of ambiguity. In practical terms, the installation is about static non-player characters (NPCs) and what happens to them when an avatar, controlled by an actual person, approaches.”

The installion is in one room full of NPCs. They are static …. but once you want to mingle between them or to pose next to them, they begin to glow and disappear. After a while they reappear. This is funny on one side but also gives an impulse to think. I tried to capture the moment of disappearing in my pictures. I also tried to empty the room by bumping into all of them, but when I was done, the first were reappeared already.

Impressions of “Carol Ann” at “The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria”

Ricco Saenz is from Brazil – hence the idea for the name of the gallery. He’s in Second Life for more than 13 years and partnered with Randy Firebrand. Looking at Ricco’s groups in his profile you can see easily that he loves art in Second Life. The same goes for Randy, who is in Second Life for more than 10 years. He’s from the US.

Thank you for the hint, Ricco. I enjoyed my first visit to The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria. And I enjoyed Boudicca Amat’s art as well as your and Randy’s NPC installation. I look forward to the next exhibtions.

Landmark to The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria – ground level
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grenouille/60/35/35
Landmark to The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria – skybox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grenouille/60/34/2222