Diomita Maurer’s Blog

Bamboo Barnes is going to open a new exhibition at The Hannington Arts Foundation today, on August 19th, 12 pm slt (9 pm CET).

I visited on August 15th. Bamboo added these thoughts to her exhibition called “New Day“:

A slithering, damp darkness.
A blood stained rainbow, shed by a stagnant sky.
When was the last time you cried,
covering the scars that linger in your heart.
Yesterday’s tears and a new day’s embrace
on outstretched fingers.

When I think of Bamboo Barnes, I immediately think of colours, of colourful pictures, of a feast of colours. All exhibitions that I saw from her were colourful – and so is “New Day”

All of the exhibited pictures show females, mostly female faces. But the faces are often blurry and other elements cover them, layers of colour, simple lines, geometric patterns. You have to focus to see the face clearly itself, if you can at all. There are two pictures where Bamboo just choose a different set of colours for the same picture – and of course it looks different.

Some pictures express pain, misery and worries. The colour red is often used to express that – as are bright and happy colours like yellow express a new beginning, a new day. A new day is always positive. It has the mystery of a new beginning, a fresh start, leaving yesterday behind us – not to make it forgotten but to embrace the mystic that is in all beginnings.

I see this positive energy in the yellow picture, that is right where you land next to the notecard giver. The picture is called “Too long 2022” and shows a female face bathed in yellow on the left very blurred with several several layers and on the right more clearer, as if the sun had cleared it up.
The picture used for the exhibition poster is called “Solace 2”. Solace is what you need when you grieve. Solace shall help you to gather the energy to start a new day. Hence this picture is kind of both considering Bamboo’s thoughts about “New Day“.

Bamboo is in Second Life for over 15 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), “Mindstorm” at IMAGO Land (read here) and “Drawer” at Hannington Arts Foundation (read here). Last December I saw her exhibition “The path” at Art care gallery (read here) and this year “Metaphysics” at the Kondar Art Center, (read here) and Colores Primarios (read here) – wow, quite a list in the meanwhile!
Look also at Bamboo’s flickr page.

When I visited “New Day” on August 15th the exhibition space was not yet finished. I visited again, Thursday, August 18th. Kerupa Flow added 3D art objects to the exbibition, that fit well into the theme. They are named “Birth place”, “Fetal Movement” and “I’ll be sure to find you” – so the theme “New Day” is accompanied by “New Life”. The 3D objects are not completely static. In “Fetal Movement” one part is appearing and vanishing, “Birth place” and “I’ll be sure to find you” look different from every angle and have light effects to liven up the objects.

Kerupa Flow’s 3D art objects at “New Day” by Bamboo Barnes

Kerupa Flow is a 2D&3D artist from Japan and in Second Life since 2007: “After all, there live the same person both SL and outside SL, so even if the tools changed, you can have the same scent.“.
Kerupa has a permanet place “Kerupa’s World” at Akimori. For more information and current exhibitions look up Kerupa’s profile or grab a notecard.

At the opening event hEIN (heinrichmader) will be the dj. hEIN is from Austria. He had over 500 online DJ sets in SL between 2010 and 2022. He’s also a DJ in RL and got several awards. hEIN! publishes electronic music that he calls “Art Techno” because of the voice processing he does. If you want more information about him, read the interview about his RL and SL activities that he gave in March 2022 here. hEIN! has also an own website.

I enjoyed my visit.

Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) is owned by Hannington Xeltentat. Thank you Hannington for providing the space for the art and for enabling “New Day” by Bamnoo Barnes. Thank you for your art, Bamboo.

Landmark to “New Day” by Bamboo Barnes at Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/121/127/3427
Bamboo Barnes’ flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bamboobarnes/
hEIN! RL/SL Interview 3/2022:
https://www.cityflyer.at/heinrich-mader-aka-hein-tanzen-im-metaversum/
nHEIN! website:
www.hein.vision
Kerupa Flow’s World at Akimori
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Akimori/55/129/4000