Wednesday, June 23rd, a new exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli has been opened. It features the art of Asperix Asp, Therese Carfagno, Melusina Parkin, Mistero Hifeng, Vroum Short and ChrisTower Dae.
I started my visit at the skybox of Mistero Hifeng. I think everybody, who is somehow connected to art in Second Life has come across Mistero Hifeng already. And if not – visit La Maison d’Aneli. Mistero has a very unique style which makes his 3D figures really unique. His way to break up part of his figures into pieces has become his signature. For his skybox at La Maison d’Aneli he reproduced some of his 2D artwork into 3D.
Mistero is in Second Life since 2007. You can see his art in many sims – also at our home. Mistero Hifeng’s art can be purchased at his “New Store Digital Art – Cammino & Vivo Capovolto“. He also has a flickr account.
Melusina Parkin showcases almost 30 pictures in her skybox at La Maison d’Aneli. She titled her exhibition “almost nothing”. How fitting!
Melusina Parkin’s photos tend towards minimalism, which is Melu’s main inclination: simple details from daily life or usual landscapes are the subject of mostly empty scenes, stressing voids, space, geometries, lights; this reveals hidden meanings or pushes the observer to give them her/his own one. Her favorite subjects are wide landscapes, city views, industrial environments, popular lifestyles and daily objects.
I was once again intrigued by Melusina’s style, that forces the spectator to focus on a detail and such pulls the spectator into the picture .. and you begin to make up a story in your mind.
In the center of the exhibition room you find a table with a book with all pictures showcased at La Maison d’Aneli in the exhibition “almost nothing”. Or you can get a particular display show. Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already:
Melusina All-in-One Exhibits allow you to keep at home the whole exhibit you visited and loved. It’s an alternative kind of the exhibit catalogue: you can hang the object on your home’s walls and enjoy the changing images.
They come in four versions, that you can choose according to your home style: plain or framed, changing image by touch or in random loop. The objects are set as modifiable, so you can adapt them to your walls.
Melusina has her own gallery, her own shop “Melu Deco”, a flickr account, a blog, an online book about her former exhibtions 2011-2019, and a youtube channel.
The opening event took place in a seperate room on the ground right where you land at La Maison d’Aneli. This room was created by Vroum Short, another artist who I covered already a few times in this blog. The room is held in black with a lot of white permanent changing light effect on the floor, the ceiling and the walls. Within the room you find little islands with penguins and the dance floor in the center. Of course there’s a dj’s desk (with an animated robo discjockey and drummer. Vroum named her room “Ice disaster”. Considering the islands on which the penguins survived, the light effects may symbolize the meling ice, the ice disaster. You can also recognize some penguins in the light effects.
I know Vroum Short as the owner of VeGeTaL PLaNeT. I peeked at it several times but never found the time to really visit it and to write an extra blog entry about it. The VeGeTaL PLaNeT also hosted Aneli Abeyante’s La Maison d’aneli for about a year. VeGeTaL PLaNeT is gone but there’s now the VeGeTaL PLaNeT Gallery (read about it here and here)
Vroum Short is a French SL artist since 2007. She works with lights and light effects, sometimes also very colourful. Vegetal Planet Gallery a world where everything becomes possible and achievable where the barriers of reality fade away to let the imagination flood it with life.
Vroum has a store for her art on the marketplace and a flickr account.
Asperix Asp is in Second Life since 2007. He’s a Spanish senior artist with 35+ years of experience in digital image, infography, rendered tridimensional fractals, virtual entorns… and had many expositions in RL and SL. For me it was the first time I came across his artwork. Asperix skybox at La Maison d’Aneli is a sphere with a transparent floor in the center of the sphere so that it is a half sphere, a dome. The sphere is textured with fractal art, some look like snails, the lights make it look like space art, the texture of the floor reminded me of the Statue of Liberty, in particular together with the Sculpture in the center of the room. Looking down through the floor you get more and other views.
Around the center sculpture Asperix arranged 8 fractals. They change permanently, hence each picture you take is a bit different. The fractals remind of mineral, of stones and for me at least are either from space or details on earth we never see. Fractals are just intriguing. To see more of Asperix work, visit Asperix’ gallery “Render4”.
Therese Carfagno came to Second Life in February 2007. Soon she got a job as a journalist, and met the most interesting artists in SL. Seeing so much creativity inspired her to start taking pictures herself. Therese thinks that taking pictures helps to look at the world a little closer – and there are so many wonders to see in SL:
“I have no interest in calling myself an artist. I take snapshots. If I’m happy with the picture because of the motive, the colours, the people in it, or anything, I upload it to Flickr or exhibit it somewhere. That’s it. And if someone else like what I do, that’s even better.”
You can see Therese Carfagno’s pictures also on her flickr account.
The pictures presented in Therese Carfagno’s skybox at La Maison d’Aneli are all but simple snapshots, at least in my opinion. The black and white pictures look very real and were in the style I expected as they fit in line with a former exhibtion of Therese Carfagno at La Maison d’Aneli. The colourful upright pictures are very artful and some seem to be a mixture between abstract pictures and portraits. I have no idea how that is made – but it is quite artistic and not just a snapshot. Chapeau, Therese.
ChrisTower Dae is in Second Life since December 2006. It’s the first time that I came across ChrisTower Dae. His passion are avatar portraits. He tries to capture the expressions that a skin can offer, that give (according to many people) a soul to the avatar and make it a personality.
ChrisTower has designed his skybox at La Maison d’Aneli like a labyrinth, yet it is not a labyrinth. The black and white structures are extraordinairy. From the ceiling, that is textured with a labyrinth too, ChrisTower has suspended his avatar portraits – not just along the walls but crisscross.
The portraits are mostly coloured, a few are in black&white. And yes, ChrisTower proves that you can create very expressive faces within Second Life, even if we all are mostly very beautiful and young. You can give your avatar a soul, make it your second appearance, make it being yourself. And I know from myself that I identify with my avatar. ChrisTower succeeds in making the soul tangible and understandable.
More of his artwork can be seen on ChrisTower Dae’s flickr account.
La Maison d’Aneli is owned by Aneli Abeyante. Through her gallery she brings together all forms of creativity in RL and SL and the featured artists come from around the globe. Aneli’s intention is to “put her gallery in the service of artists, so that the world can be better, exchanges and meetings probably contribute even though it seems to be particles.”
Thank you for another great joined exhibtion, Aneli. As always I enjoyed my visit and writing about it. It always inspires me.
Landmark to La Maison d’Aneli
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/23/59/22
Mistero Hifeng’s “New Store Digital Art – Cammino & Vivo Capovolto”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fashion%20Boulevard/47/96/1503
Mistero Hifeng’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/incognitadelmistero/
Landmark to Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/243/99/1930
Melusina Parker’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusina_parkin/
Melusina Parkin’s Virtual Exhibit blog
http://meluphoto.blogspot.it/p/home.html
On line book Second Life exhibits 2011-2019
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d
Melusina Parkin’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
Landmark to VeGeTaL PLaNeT Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oreo/64/100/501
Vroum Short’s flickr account
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vroum_short/albums
Vroum Short’s art on marketplace
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/fr-FR/stores/81862
Asperix Asp’s gallery “Render4”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Polyakov/57/27/33
Therese Carfagno’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carfagno
ChrisTower Dae’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/christowerdae/
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 