I got an invitation to visit “Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria“. The name Ciottolina rang a bell. I saw her objects in 2015 in the garden of Fallingwater, Inara Pey’s Second Life interpretation. Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in Pennsylvania. (read my post of 2015 here). But I didn’t come across her ever since – but now.
The exhibition “Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria” combines two different sets of virtual sculptures by the artist: a garden in which blossoms are associated with the ideas of birth, motherhood and nurturing; and a group of robots in scenes that may be, at the same time, somewhat funny and poetic.
My visit started in the garden. For this exhibtion Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand have changed the house that hosts the gallery and selected a one story building. This way Ciottolina’s sculptures in the garden are more visible and the view of the visitor isn’t too much distracted by the house itself. The scuplture “Of Blossoms” show blossoms and babies that are proctected by the blossom itself and by the love of their parents.
“Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria (1)
The bots that are shown in the exhibition poster can be found at the back entrance of “The 22 art space in Bellisseria“. They really look funny above the porch. They seem to have fun!
Inside of the house you find more bots, yet they are more serious. Two of them seem to be reading, but actually they look at paintings, one is playing with a balloon in the shape of a fish and one is painting the walls in the house. It is surprising that the bots and the sculptures in the garden are from one and the same artist. Cittolina obvioulsy tries out different styles. And although the two themes of the exhibtion “Of Bots and Blossoms” seem to be independant from each other they do fit well together.
“Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria (2)
Ciottolina Xue is an Italian artist and active in Second Life for over 12 years. Roses like those in this exhibtion are one of her favourite motives. You can purchase her art either in her inworld store [C8] CREAZIONI di CioTToLiNa here or at her marketplace store. And Ciottolina has also a flickr account.
The 22 Art space is a 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”.
“Of Bots and Blossoms” by Ciottolina Xue at “The 22 art space in Bellisseria (3)
Inara Pey, in who’s garden I came across Ciottolina Xue’s art wrote also a blogpost about “Of Bots and Blossoms” (read here). The exhibition will stay open until Feb 14th, 2021.
Many thanks to Randy Firebrand and Ricco Saenz for enabling this exhibition. I enjoyed my visit.
Addendum:
After publishing this post I had a conversation with Ciottolina Xue. She told me that the robots in the house are looking at the paintings of Mario Emanuele Degni, who had an own gallery in Second Life. He was a friend of Cittolina and sadly died of an heart attack last month. Hence the exhibtion is also in remembrance of him. And Ciottolina Xue’s recent and future work will include a piece of his art.
Landmark to The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grenouille/60/35/35
Inara Pey’s blogpost “Ciottolina’s bots and blossoms in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2020/11/13/ciottolinas-bots-and-blossoms-in-second-life/
Ciottolina Xue’s inworld store [C8] CREAZIONI di CioTToLiNa
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lighthouse%20Oasis/36/160/2772
[C8] CREAZIONI di CioTToLiNa marketplace store
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/199291
Ciottolina Xue flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/169593978@N08/
Mario Emanuele Degni’s art
https://marioemanueledegni.com/author/degnimarioemanuele/
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 