After I published my post about the exhibition at Narcotic Concept (read here), I had contact with Spohie de Saint Phalle (Perpetua1010). And she told me that I missed another exhibtion of her at Narcotic Concept. There’s a so called “Red Room” where Sophie installed “Escape”, an exhibition which I saw last year at Sophie’s own gallery, the SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Centre. I wrote about it here.
Now this exhibition is re-installed at Narcotic Concept. This provides firstly to visit it for all those who missed the first installation, and it provides to have another look at it for those who saw the first installtion. Although the base is the same, the new installation is different – not only because the room is different. Also because the impressions are more effectful, going deeper, if you immerse into “Escape” by Sophie de Saint Phalle.
ESCAPE is showcasing black and white photos of a RL performance. Sophie de Saint Phalle put a big canvas (4×12 meters) on a stage and painted it in front of the visitors. Behind the canvas 10 professional dancers were waiting to cut the canvas and force their bodies through the openings to symbolize the escape from suppression, humiliation, brutality, disrespect and most of all the escape from indifference. At the end of the performance the canvas was cut into strips and sold.
The direct landmark to the red room brings you close to the exhibition. You have to go “through” a secret (phantom) door in the wall. The door is where a Statue of Liberty is displayed on the wall.
Please activate advanced lighting model and activate media for the full and right experience.
Impressions of “Escape” by Sophie de Saint Phalle (1) – upper left shows the entrance (the door in the wall)
The room itself has a red floor and red light elements, something that contrasts well with the black and white pictures of the performance. The pictures are arranged along the walls. Transperent curtains with the pictures are suspended from the ceiling and they move a bit permanently. By the curtains you see several layers of pictures interfering with each other.
Right at the entrance is a video screen with a short film by Sophie that reflects the theme: The architecture of terror, escape from dictation, escape from war, escape from abuse, escape from discrimination – think freedom. In the film Sophie mixed real life pictures with scenes from the performance. The film can be seen on youtube here.
The pictures are not raw photographs but are processed and show how the dancers break through the canvas.
Sophie de Saint Phalle wrote (on the back of a chair in the exhibtion: “With escape I want to take you into the world of terror and tragedy, into the reality of the true and unjustifiable essence of terrorist fanaticism. I want to show you the destruction behind and in front of the veil“
Impressions of “Escape” by Sophie de Saint Phalle (2)
Sophie de Saint Phalle (perpetua1010) is a Austrian RL painter and book author. She mainly paints nude from models and abstract art. She loves to experiment with different kinds of paint and lithography. Her favourite materials are sand, plaster, glue, terracotta, stones, bones, ash, charcoal, natural pigments and more.
Sophie has made several book illustrations and was for many years political cartoonist for a well known satire magazine. She lived and worked in the Unites States, Australia, Rome and Monaco.
You can also watch a video about the exhibtion on youtube here.
Narcotic Concept is a quite unique art place in Second Life as it features mostly the art of RL artists. It’s kind of a bridge between the virtual world of Second Life and the physcial world. With the exhibtion it can be proved that RL art can develop it strength also in a virtual world where light effects and the arrangement of the pictures can be done in a different way than classic exhibitions. I want to thank Lunhea and all others who worked to enable showing the exhibition “Escape” by Sophie de Saint Phalle in Second Life.
Direct landmark to Narcotic Concept – Red Room – Escape by Sophie de Saint Phalle
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/5/38/1490
Film showcasted at the exhibition “Escape”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSI8n5OP0w4
Film about the exhibition “Escape”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAU0a92RZfI
Sophie de Saint Phalle (perpetua1010)’s “SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Centre”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ocean%20Island/136/128/1002
My blogpost about the 1st installation of “Escape”
https://wp.me/psPPu-6mp
Landmark to Narcotic Concept – other exhibtions
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/90/105/1469
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 