Diomita Maurer’s Blog

I got an invitation to see Bamboo Barnes newest exhibtion “Drawer” at Hannington Arts Foundation.

The provided landmark leads you to the central landing point at Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) from where you can take a direct teleport to the exhibition “Drawer” by Bamboo Barnes. Right next to where you land at the exhibtion, you can grab a notecard from Bamboo Barnes and a notecard with the biography of Bamboo.

In the notecard Bamboo Barnes shared her thoughts about “Drawer” with the visitor:
Drawer that don’t close properly.
Drawer that you no longer use.
A faded picture stuck in the back, ton messed wrinkled one.
You’ve forgotten what was like but the smell comes back.
For the days you have loved close your eyes, close the drawer.

“Drawer” consists of about 20 pictures, in the typcial style of Bamboo. All pictures show female faces or upper bodies (just one shows several female bodies) under a layer of coloured abstract forms or objects or other pictures, thus providing several levels of how to look at the pictures. By the layers the pictures also develop a 3rd dimension. And – as you can expect it from Bamboo Barnes, the pictures are all very colourful.

Impressions of “Drawer” by Bamboo Barnes (1) – Spell (upper left), Breath (upper right), Bad habbit (lower left), Twin tails (lower right)

Looking a the pictures you can get lost in thoughts, trying to find the lowest layer, to grasp what is behind the objects. Instinctively your view is led to the spots where you can’t recognize what is behind and you try to add it in your mind, to fill the pictures. I like Bamboo’s comparision with a drawer, you try to open it to find out more.
I recommend that your hoover with your mouse over the pictures to see the name of each picture. That adds another thought of the the artist and yes, it fits!

Bamboo is in Second Life for over 14 years already, painting software & photoshop are her best friends. Bamboo had many exhibtions and appearances in the Second Life art scene and in 2018 she had her first exhibition in real life: “I create what I see but maybe you won’t, they are about people’s reality and  mind.” Bamboo’s art is a mixture of abstract forms, of people and photographs. Most pictures are colourful and it is in the eye of the beholder what we see in her pictures. I myself saw her work the first time at La Maison d’Aneli during the Holiday season 2019/2020 (read here). I also saw her exhibition “Marginal Mannerism” at DixMixGallery in April 2021 (read here), the exhibition “Meant to be” at Itakos Art Gallery last year (read here), I saw “Conjure” at FOCUS Magazine F.A.I.R Gallery in August 2021 (read here) and just recently I saw “Mindstorm” at IMAGO Land (read here). I also had a look at her flickr page.

Impressions of “Drawer” by Bamboo Barnes (2) – Orbit (upper left), The limit (upper right), Walls (lower left), Sonne (lower right)

Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) is owned by Hannington Xeltentat. Thank you Hannington for providing the space for the art and for enabling “Drawer” by Bamboo Barnes. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Hannington Arts Foundation
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/122/126/3427
Bamboo Barnes’ flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bamboobarnes/