Art In Second Life 2021 (44) Cancel Culture by Ambre Singh

17 May 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

Ambre Singh’s art has become an inherent part of this blog. This year I visited her new main gallery at Noir’wen City (read Art in Second Life 2021 (15) Ambre Singh Gallery at Noir’Wen City) and I saw her exhibtion “Titilliations” (read here).

I got an invitation from Ambre to visit her new exhibition “Cancel Culture” at Noir’Wen City that opened May 1st.

Ambre Singh’s exhibition “Cancel Culture” at Noir’Wen City – poster / entrance area / Ambre Singh herself in the entrance area

Together with the invitation Ambre sent out a notecard with a description and her toughts:
“The human being is full of contradictions. Homo Sapiens (in Latin, sapiens means “one who knows”) spends a good part of his existence trying not to know. This tendency to deny, probably the source of all psychoses, is the main activity of the ego. It is so much easier to deny or erase or eliminate what bothers us, even if it never works.
Today, our worldviews are being challenged more than ever. And instead of using crises to evolve, we tend to mask the problems with a veneer of outdated ideas. We rewrite textbooks, we rename streets, we sterilize languages, we censor everything that goes beyond. For the common good, of course.
I believe that to accept reality without wanting to deny it, a good dose of humor is needed.
In 14 paintings, this exhibition is an opportunity to laugh at our contradictions and, perhaps, to gain some sapience.“

What you will see at the exhibition are 14 world famous landmarks and pieces of art – seen with the eyes of Ambre, and knowing her it didn’t surprise me that her view is kinky and feminist. The first picture I looked at was Ambre Singh’s Statue of Felicity also known as Statue of Liberty.

Statue of Felicity at Ambre Singh’s exhibition “Cancel Culture” at Noir’Wen City

Along with the picture comes a text explaining her view on history and why the original landmark was replaced with the one you can see nowadays in the physical world.
With the texts Ambre Singh’s pictures tell a new story along with some true facts. Besides the Statue of Liberty you find Ambre’s view and interpretation of The Great Sphinx, Christ the Redeemer, Manneken Pis, Lincoln Memorial, Venus de Milo, The Thinker, Michelangelo’s David, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Angel of the North in Gateshead, Terracotta Army, standing moai of Ahu Tongariki, The Motherland Calls, Apollo and Daphne (Bernini) – all along with the texts containng Ambre’s views.

The “real” and “original” art: The Thinker, Christ the Redeemer, Venus de Milo at “Cancel Culture” at Noir’Wen City

Ambre Singh’s “Cancel Culture” at Noir’Wen City is pure fun. But after the visit you won’t be able to visit any of theses world famous landmarks without having her view in mind! Enjoy your visit.

Landmark to Ambre Singh’s exhibition “Cancel Culture” at Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/41/117/23
Landmark to Ambre Singh Gallery at Noir’Wen City
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/47/126/3522
Ambre Singh’s website
https://ambresingh.ch/
Ambre Singh’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ambre-singh/

Art in Second Life (43) Nitroglobus Gallery in May 2021

12 May 2021 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , ,

I got an invitation by Dido Hass, owner and curator of the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery to see the gallery’s exhibitions in May: White Canvas by Diconay Boa and Retrospective by Sina Souza

Diconay Boa writes about her exhibition:
“People get them for many reasons: for attention, self-expression, artistic freedom, rebellion, a visual display of a personal narrative, reminders of spiritual/cultural traditions, sexual motivation, addiction, identification with a group or even drunken impulsiveness. Our current society craves individuality and self expression. And now many people wear their artistic expression.
Tattoos are especially interesting in the virtual world because of its lack of permanence on a virtual mesh body. But someone talented in the digital arts can really make it look surreal and beautiful.
To me tattoos represent creativity, sensuality and this is what I have hoped to achieve in this study. This exhibit is a study of second life tattoos and my interpretation of the work of some tattoo artists in SL.
This is the reason I call this exhibit a White Canvas, representing the bare skin on which will be imprinted memories, emotions and art. I hope you take some joy from it.“

Impressions of White Canvas by Diconay Boa @ Nitroglobus (1)

Diconay Boa is in Second Life for 14 years. Diconay Boa was a model which served as a starting point in fashion production. She began to create poses out of fun. This project soon turned into a shop in 2011, which she named CORPUS. As a result, she decided to focus more on the field of photography. In her RL she completed a degree in product design and made a career in graphic design. She writes: “I’m mostly driven by my mood and my fuel is music, often linked with the work I create.“

Impressions of White Canvas by Diconay Boa @ Nitroglobus (2)

I wear 4 tatoos myself. Although there’s the SL magic that you can easily change them I wear mine as part of my existence in this virtual world, one is an intimate tattoo that marks me as Mistress Jenny’s slave wife (actually the only one that ever changed as I wore another tattoo as her Mistress wife before). The three others tattoos on my “canvas” never changed: “Jen’s wife”, a rose on one of my breasts, and another personal tattoo that Mistress Jenny stitched in my skin to mark me as hers. So I fit in well into the above thoughts about tattoos in Second Life

The exhibition White Canvas by Diconay Boa stays open until End of May 2021

The second exhibition at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is in Dido Haas’ room at the gallery: Retrospective by Sina Souza (sinalein)

Sina writes about her exhibtion “Retrospective:
“Retrospective is not an exhibition where I want to show you my previous work. It is an exhibition about struggles in my past, wrong decisions that I have made or experiences that I have gained.
It is a path between depression, strokes of fate and the problem of trusting others. But it’s not just a look back at what’s behind me, it is also a kind of self reflection, a step forward, a way to learn from mistakes and to grow from experiences. Sometimes we need to look back to look ahead.“

Sina Souza (sinalein) started with creating images in Second Life in November 2012. She has had a lot of exhibitions, from which I saw just one back in 2017 “Mental Levels” at MetaLES (read here). Actually that was the last exhibtion of Sina Souza before she took a break of Second Life for 4 years. But now she’s back and we can look forward to see more of her art.

Impressions of Retrospective by Sina Souza @ Nitroglobus (1)

Sina’s art is surreal. Sina tries to visualisize thoughts, snippets that come to her mind. Her work is intriguing. One of her pictures summarizes it perfectly: Think outside of the box,

Retrospective by Sina Souza @ Nitroglobus will stay open until End of June 2021

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is owned and curated by Dido Haas. It is a great exhibtion space, the mirroring effect of the floor adds a lot to the experience of a visit and higlights the art in a particular way.
Thank you, Dido for providing the space for the art and for these two outstanding exhibitions.

Landmark to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/36/21/1001
Diconay Boa’s fLickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/diconay_work
Diconay Boa’s website
https://diconayboa.wixsite.com/diconayboa
Sina Souza’s website
http://sinadesouza.wix.com/mindfactory
Sina Souza’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sinalein/
Sina Souza on fineartamerica
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/sina-souza

Art in Second Life 2021 (42) The Dream Hangover by Suzen Juel

05 May 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , ,

I visited “The Dream Hangover” by Suzen Juel.

The Dream Hangover is an installation by Suzen Juel (Juel Resistance) showcased at Second Life Endowment for The Arts – SLEA, Region 1.

It’s hard to describe what you see, my pictures tell more than I could write. The Dream Hangover is a collection of dream snippets, scenes that you might remember after an intense dream, reflections of what you experienced during the day, exaggerated, surreal, unconnected.
The Dream Hangover is (of course) in a dark environment. Don’t forget to check “Use shared environment”, so that you get the right experience. It is built on an “island”, the ground is blueish with stars and other elements embedded. Nonetheless the installation is quite colourful.

Impressions of “The Dream Hangover” by Suzen Juel at SLEA, Region 1 (1)

There are quite some statues, at least one is from Mistero Hifeng, others are from Suzen Juel herself. And quite many have a television instead of an head. The whole scenery is surreal, as are the single art objects.

Impressions of “The Dream Hangover” by Suzen Juel at SLEA, Region 1 (2)

I saw some of the elements and objects before, like the elefants with the long legs, that I saw in installations of Archtype11 Nova, or the levitating whale. And as you would expect of dream snippets, there are at least 2 clocks and some text snippets hidden.

Impressions of “The Dream Hangover” by Suzen Juel at SLEA, Region 1 (3)

Suzen has also added her 2D art, spread over the installation, showcased on big boards. And there is more…. a cat space ship, a colourful glowing framework, a landed space-capsule, butterflies, a windmill…
As I wrote before, it is hard to describe, you have to see it yourself and who knows, maybe some of the snippets appear in your next dream.

Impressions of “The Dream Hangover” by Suzen Juel at SLEA, Region 1 (4)

I came across Suzen Juel (Juel Resistance) the first time this year when I visited the Artists’ Village at Campbell Coast (read here). Suzen is in Second Life since 2005. Suzen has her own website with an event calendar and more examples of her art and her music. I was quite impressed. In the accompanying notecard, that you get at the central landing of SLEA at the TP point to The Dream Hangover, Suzen writes that she grew up in an artists family and was connected to art and music since her early youth. She has tried almost every technique. And she illustrates children books in RL.

Impressions of “The Dream Hangover” by Suzen Juel at SLEA, Region 1 (5)

Thank you Suzen for this installation, thank you Tansee for your hard work enabling SLEA.
“The Dream Hangover” by Suzen Juel will stay available for a visit until June 30th. Enjoy your “dream hangover” when you visit yourself.

Second Life Endowment for The Arts – SLEA
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLEA7/23/26/55
Direct landmark to The Dream Hangover. Suzen JueL Resistance. Region1
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLEA1/250/6/21
Suzen Juel’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/suzenjuel/
Suzen Juel’s website
http://www.suzenjuel.com

Art in Second Life 2021 (41) “Dialogues: patterns, people” @ The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria

03 May 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , ,

Just recently I reported about Melusina Parkin and her exhibition “Wandering and Watching” at DixMix Gallery (read here). And now there’s another exhibition of her at The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria.

The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria features a “conversation” between the art work of Melusina Parkin and Whiskey Monday. The exhibtions consists of ten photographs of each artist divided in sets that “talk” to each other in the exhibition “Dialogues: patterns, people”.

“Dialogues: patterns, people” @ The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria

Both artists interpret the themes “patterns” and “people”. On the ground floor of The 22 Art Space is one room showcasting Melusina Parkin’s pictures showing patterns and one room showcasting Whistkey Monday’s work about patterns.
On the second floor each artist has one room on the theme “people”

“Dialogues: patterns, people @ The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria” – patterns by Melusina Parkin and by Whiskey Monday

 

In the accampanying notecard Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand, the owners and creators of The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria write: “The idea behind “Dialogues: patterns, people” is that the dialogue between Whiskey Monday’s and Melusina Parkin’s productions may underline some characteristics of each set of images. Also, it allows visitors to see the same subjects from very different points of view, recognizing that, though distinct, they can communicate, further enriching themselves.“

And indeed it is intriguing to see the different interpretations of the same theme from two different perspectives. And in this direct comparision you see the difference between the two.

“Dialogues: patterns, people @ The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria” – people by Whiskey Monday

For me – and that is only my personal impression – Melusina focuses on minimalism. She finds the right motif within Second Life, motifs that are not disturbed by anything else. Whiskey Monday’s pictures on the other side guide the spectator to focus on the deviant spot of her picture. For example in her picture “Law of Diminishing Returns” with the many balconies and robots standing there, each one in a different pose, there is one human falling down.

The difference is even more obvious looking at the theme “people”. While Melusina takes clear and simple pictures, which seem to be unprocessed, Whiskey has a more artificial approach and presents people in in front of art backgrounds.

I have seen Whiskey Monday’s art work just once so far 2014 at a gallery named “The viewing Room” (read here). Whiskey is in Second Life since 2009. And back in 2014 Inara Pey wrote about her work “Her work is thought-provoking, intelligent, evocative, mischievous, fun, pointed, and more – and all of it is certainly some of the finest expressions of art as a medium for social and general commentary I’ve ever seen. It’s also deeply personal, much of it reflecting on Whiskey’s real life and times in a frank, honest way free from pathos while laying bare her mindset and emotions.” (see here).
Whiskey has flickr account, where you can see more of her work.

“Dialogues: patterns, people @ The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria” – people by Melusina Parkin

Melusina is in Second Life since September 2008. She has been a fashion manager, a journalist, a furniture creator, a builder, a decorator and a photographer. Her work as a photographer has been showcased in more than 50 exhibitions – from which I saw just two. Melusina has a flickr account which counts more than 13,000 (!) photographs. Extensive collections of her photos can be seen also on her blog Virtual Exhibits and on some slideshows on Youtube (links under this post). Melusina has several galleries of her own (links also under this post).

The 22 Art space is a gallery in Bellisseria, a 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”.
Thank you Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand for enabling and presenting this great exhition. I enjoyed my visit a lot. “Dialogues: patterns, people @ The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria” shall stay open until June 26th.

The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grenouille/60/35/35
Whiskey Monday’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75351422@N03/
Melusina Parkin’s Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusina_parkin/
Melusina Parkin’s “Second Life exhibits 2011-2019” as a book to read online
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d
Melusina Parkin’s Virtual Exhibit blog
http://meluphoto.blogspot.it/p/home.html
Slideshows of Melusina Parkin’s work on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
Melusina Parkin’s inworld gallery “Minimum Gallery” and bookstore “Melubooks”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/192/9/21
Melusina Parkin’s Photo Gallery at Time Portal
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Melusina Parkin’s studio at PAC
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cherished%20Melody/38/34/2165

Art in Second Life 2021 (40) La Maison d’Aneli May 2021

29 Apr 2021 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , ,

On April 28th a new exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli opened its doors. This time it features 3 installations / showrooms created by Morlita Quan, Yann GYRO (sempiternel) and a joined installation by Tutsy Navarathn and Eupalinos Ugajin.

The room of Morlita Quan is on the ground level just close to where you land. The room is held in white, Morlita’s pictures show abstract moitfs mixed with real life pictures (at least parts do like like real life pictures). Her art work is intriguing and thoughtfully put together. I’d prefer the presentation of it on a darker background, but that’s in the eye of the beholder.

La Maison d’Aneli May 2021- Morlita Quan

Morlita Quan was born in Galicia, Spain. She’s in SL for over 12 years. She’s an artist in Second Life as well as in real life, where she’s known as MorlitaM. In her pictures she focuses on abstract, graphic design and nature with geometrical shapes. She also works in other art and music projects. For more information, look up her website.

Yann GYRO (sempiternel)’s installation consits of a spaceship and one attached room. The landing is in the spaceship. At both sides of the spaceship are Yann’s pictures, yet you have to move your camera to properly see them. You can see into the attached roon from inside of the spaceship. Inside of the room is a forest, but not mesh trees or RL textures. Rather the trees look like drawings, just like you would draw them for an illustration. Once you enter you see that it is actually scene, a war scene. A war plane shooting with machine gun on a girl that runs for her life. I suspect it is an illustration for a story, that I don’t know.

La Maison d’Aneli May 2021- Yann GYRO (sempiternel)

Yann is in SL for over 3 years and an active member of the UASL, United Artists of Second Life. Yann says: “I always think if an art need a title to be understood its because its not good enough.” The artist loves to try any media and is not limited to one style in SL. A RL artist from France. A photographer and wood and steel sculptor.
Yann has an own store and a flickr page.

Tutsy Navarathn and Eupalinos Ugajin present their installation “Get drunk”. It is an installation to enjoy art, experiment with new technical features and to have fun. It consists of 4 stations around the themes “Food, Wine, Sex and Poetry. If you select “use shared environment”, the environment will change between the 4 stations and it will change randomly inbetween (it did that for me at least).

La Maison d’Aneli May 2021- Tutsy Navarathn and Eupalinos Ugajin: Get drunk! (1)

There are sculptures, abstract and non-abstract pictures, there are bottles circling around the 4 stations and there’s poetry from Charles Baudelaire – Get drunk!

La Maison d’Aneli May 2021- Tutsy Navarathn and Eupalinos Ugajin: Get drunk! (2)

You literally act like drunk, when you get in contact with the bottles, you begin to dance and the world is turning around you- funny. I also had fun when I noticed an open book attached above my head. Yet there is more and this part was quite new for me: augmented reality – or in this case augmented virtuality. How does it work? You need a smartphone and an app. After installing the app on your smartphone you hold the cam of the phone on the QR code next to some of the pictures. The smartphone loads a video that is played in the foreground with the picture that you see through your smartphone cam in the background. This way the picture become alive – and again: almost as if you were drunk you see your own reality (virtuality). A nice and artful demonstration of what is there to come soon more and more.

La Maison d’Aneli May 2021- Tutsy Navarathn and Eupalinos Ugajin: Get drunk! (3) (Remark: the two pictures on the right are taken from my smartphone)

Eupalinos Ugajin is in Second Life for almost 13 years. Inara Pey has visited Eupalinos Ugajin’s “Avaloir” and writes in her blogpost Eupalinos Ugajin’s Avaloir in Second Life: “Those familiar with Eupa’s work will know that it covers a broad canvas, often containing humour, whimsy, a little self-deprecation, which can be mixed with social commentary, imaginative projection worth of the likes of Gilliam, and an artistic flair that can quite captivate the eye and mind.”
I myself have visited his installation Avaloir (read here). And there’s a flickr page.

La Maison d’Aneli May 2021- Tutsy Navarathn and Eupalinos Ugajin: Get drunk! (4)

Tutsy Navarathna is an artist I didn’t really come across so far. I saw 2 of his pictures at the exhibtion “Soulportraits at Itakos Art Gallery this year (read here). Tutsy is in Second Life also for almost 13 years. He likes to produce machinimas and has an own youtube channel. And there’s also a flickr page.

Thank you both for this great installation. I enjoyed my visit and got virtually drunk!

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/23/65/22
Morlita Quan / MorlitaM’s wbesite
https://morlitam.com/
Yann GYRO (sempiternel)’s store
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/fr-FR/stores/211360
Yann GYRO (sempiternel)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/people/154701358@N02/
Eupalinos Ugajin’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eupalinos/51132219351/
Tutsy Navarathna’s flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tutsy-navarathna/with/42510577194/
Tutsy Navarathna youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/TutsyNavarathna

Art in Second Life 2021 (39) Marginal Mannerism by Bamboo Barnes

26 Apr 2021 2 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

I visited the exhibition “Marginal Mannerism” by Bamboo Barnes in room Amalfia at DixMix Gallery.

“Mannerism, also known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it.” (source wikipedia)

For this exhibition I would refer to another definition that I found in the German wikipedia and that fits far better for “Marginal Mannerism” by Bamboo Barnes: Mannerism is based on the idea that an artist should develop and emphasize his very own style, the “maniera”. The artist uses all technical possibilities to achieve an extreme design.

Impressions of “Marginal Mannerism” by Bamboo Barnes at DixMix Gallery

In this sense the exhibition features 10 pictures of Bamboo that represent her very own style, colourful and strong in their expresssion. They all show faces either alienated and or overlayed by other textures or structures. The spectator has to decide where to focus on and thus immerses deeper into the art. And yes, Bamboo Barnes has developed her strong own signature style.

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 exhibtion “Meant to be” at Itakos Art Gallery last year (read here). And I had a look at her flickr page.

“Who knows” by Bamboo Barnes

Thank you Dixmix for providing and curating the DixMix Gallery, thank you Megan for building it and for contributing at it. I enjoyed my visit and seeing Bamboo’s art. The exhibition “Marginal Mannerism” by Bamboo Barnes will stay open until May 28th.

Landmark to Dixmix Gallery 2020
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/46/213/22
DixMix Gallery website
https://www.dixmixgallery.xyz/
Bamboo Barnes’ flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bamboobarnes/

Art in Second Life (38) Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros

24 Apr 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , ,

In December 2020 I visited “Spirals and Metaspirals – An exploration by Simulat Almendros” at Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) (read here). This exhibition is still open for a visit – and it is worth it.
Last month I visited again, this time my focus was on the expansion of the exhibtion “Virtual Tables by Simulat Almendros” (read here). The expansion was done by adding a second level above over one half of space.
And now there has been a second expansion, another level added above the remaining half. This expansion is named “Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros“.
I visited Monday, April 5th.

Lines of Force – the second expansion of Simulat Almendros’s exhibition at Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF)

Lines of Force is an exhibtion of pictures made using a simulation of the magnetic fields. While you can visualize magnetic forces in experiments in physics, you can also simulate the “lines of force” between the poles in computer programs. Simulat Almendros overlaps several of these magnetic fields pictures, he adds other regular formulars which influence the colors or the deviations from one point to the next – and the result is true artwork.

The exhibtion is organized in 3 concentric circles. The outer circle shows Linofo images that Simulat used as seeds for supersymmetric pictures that he calls Snowflakes. Inside he shoes pictures that are just as they emerge from the simulation. And in the inner circle are explanations about how the simulations are created.

Examples of “Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros” (1)

Simulat is in SL for almost 14 years. He’s an artist and displays his work at two galleries. In the 1st life tab of his profile he describes himself with the tags: “Computer art, philosophizing Web, graphic arts programming, simulations“. Simulat picked his name because at the time he got his first internet account he was writing simulations of physics. He simulated a gravity field and a magnetic field and later he wrote a system that imitated biological forms. These systems all used the computer screen to display the output as images.
The magnetic field simulation turned out to have the most artistic potential. Simulat spent about 5 years working with that simulation, slowly extending it’s capabilities and exploring the possibilities. That led to his first (and unfortunately also last) real life gallery show.

Examples of “Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros” (2)

Now Simulat rediscoverd his former work and with the better performance of computers and graphics nowadays, he could create even more and also more complex simulations.

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 exhibtion “Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros“. Right next to where you land, you can grab a notecard from Simulat. In this notecard you find a lot of information about how Simulat makes his pictures. And you get even more information in the above mentioned inner circle, where several boards explain the different techniques.

Examples of “Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros” (3)

If you haven’t seen “Spirals and Metaspirals” or “Virtual Tables” yet, don’t miss the opportunity to visit both – it’s all in one exhitbion space.

Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) is owned by Hannington Xeltentat. Thank you Hannington for providing the space for the art and for enabling “Lines of Force by Simulat Almendros“. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to “Lines of Force” at Hannington Art Foundation (central landing point)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/169/204/3521

Art in Second Life 2021 (37) Spring by Fiona Fei

22 Apr 2021 3 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

Fiona Fei (FionaFei) is one of the artists that I have featured in this blog quite often already, but not yet this year. I visited her Shui Mo Gallery (read here), I saw her installation at La Maison d’Aneli (read here), I saw “Impostor” at Sim Quarterly (read here), I saw her exhibit “Chuanghu (Windows)” at GBTH Project (read here) and I saw her installation “I Had a Dream, and You Were There” at the Hannington Art Foundation (read here).

Saturday, April 17th, her newest installation was opened at DixMix Gallery and I went there and attended the last minutes of the opening party. There was quite a crowd, mostly artists and I knew quite some of them from my art tours. The party took place outside of the Dix Mix Gallery building in front of Fiona’s installation, which is installed on a half round object, that looks like the screen of a photo studio. Hence it almost invites you to add poser and make extraordinairy pictures of avatars as part of the installation.

Fiona is Chinese by decent but spent the majority of her life in the West:
“I have a fascination with Chinese history and culture, but I often feel like I’m viewing my ancestry through a filter of Americanized information and experiences. Furthermore, my artistic background has been in charcoal and oil painting mediums, and I’ve had very little experience in actual ink-brush painting. Much of my early years were spent painting landscapes and portraits using oil paint on canvas. However, I developed a love for non-photorealism over the years as an artist. In continuation with my love of non-photorealism, I now produce Chinese ink-brush art in Second Life and exhibit my work around the grid.”
For more information look up FionaFei’s own website.

Impressions of “Spring” by Fiona Fei at DixMix Gallery (1)

If you have been to any of FionaFei’s installations before, you’ll recognise her specific style of art immediatiately. You literally enter an ink brush painting and become a part of it. If you look at the installation at DixMix Gallery built into the “photo studio screen” from a bit farer away you see some quite high mountains in the background with bushes and trees in the foreground. This time the ink-brush painted environment is not just in black and white. The bushes and trees are bloooming in red. You can also recognize a few birds, also in red, picking food from the ground.
Considering the strong third colour (red), the birds, and the bushes and trees almost exploding to new life, it does make sense that Fiona herself called her installation “Spring”.

Impressions of “Spring” by Fiona Fei at DixMix Gallery (2)

As always I had fun walking through it, seeing it from different angles and becoming part of it. Thank you Fiona for another piece of art.
Thank you Dixmix for providing and curating the DixMix Gallery, thank you Megan for building it and for contributing at it. DixMix was also present at the opening and I asked him how long FionaFei’s installation will be available. His spontaneous answer was funny considering that Fiona works with ink: “Until it rains”. Luckily that was just a joke. “Spring” by Fiona Fei will stay open until mid of May.

Landmark to Dixmix Gallery 2020
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/46/213/22
DixMix Gallery website
https://www.dixmixgallery.xyz/
FionaFei’s Shui Mo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dreams/149/42/2554
FionaFei’s own website
https://fionafei.portfoliobox.net/
FionaFei’s Flickr:
https://flickr.com/photos/fionafei/

Art in Second Life 2021 (36) Wandering and Watching by Melusina Parkin

20 Apr 2021 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

I visited the exhibition “Wandering and Watching” by Melusina Parkin at room “Amona” at DixMix Gallery. Although I had seen just two exhibitions of Melusina so far, her style is easily recognisable. Minimalistic pictures focusing on one or two details. The simplicity of her pictures is intriguing.

This time we get a lot of information by the artist herself along with the exhibtion. Right next to the entrance is a board with Melusina’s thoughts about “Wandering and Watching“:

Urban subjects are one of the main inspirations of my photographic work since my beginning as a photgrapher.
This time I wanted to show some details we could always see when we wander around in a twon: cars, buildings, buses, benches, signs, fences…. They could look meaningless when we don’t look at them closely; they fade out into the mess of the urban landscape. Nonetheless, they are the essentail ingredients of the recipe called “city” that we cook and eat every day.
I wanted to show also two possible way to observe ubran reality: some of the photos are in warm tones; shadows and subeams are protagonists of the image like in a sunny afternoon, they give to our gazes the image of a friendly environment where we can happily live; red spots call our attentions while a warm, suffused light turns us to a calm mood.
Other ones are in cooler tones: they represent the less attractive side of city life: voids, decay, lonely and sad places sunken in the light of a cloudy day. Even tehm are part of our daily life; giving them dignity of protagonists can reveal their charm; in some of them a rather vivid spot on a faded and blurred background, remeber us that sadness and happiness are always mixed up.

Impressions of “Wandering and Watching” by Melusina Parkin (1)

Also right next to the entrance you can purchase a book:
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.
Last but not least you find a notecard with Melusina’s biography by clicking the picture of her above the table with the book.

Impressions of “Wandering and Watching” by Melusina Parkin (2)

Melusina is in Second Life since September 2008. She has been a fashion manager, a journalist, a furniture creator, a builder, a decorator and a photographer. Her work as a photographer has been showcased in more than 50 exhibitions – from which I saw just two. Melusina has a flickr account which counts more than 13,000 (!) photographs. Extensive collections of her photos can be seen also on her blog Virtual Exhibits and on some slideshows on Youtube (links under this post). Melusina has several galleries of her own (links also under this post).

Her 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.

Impressions of “Wandering and Watching” by Melusina Parkin (3)

Thank you Dixmix for providing and curating the DixMix Gallery, thank you Megan for building it and for contributing at it. I enjoyed my visit and seeing Wandering and Watching by Melusina Parkin. The exhibition “Wandering and Watching” by Melusina Parkin will stay open until May 7th.

Landmark to Dixmix Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/46/213/22
DixMix Gallery website
https://www.dixmixgallery.xyz/
Melusina Parkin’s Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusina_parkin/
Melusina Parkin’s “Second Life exhibits 2011-2019” as a book to read online
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d
Melusina Parkin’s Virtual Exhibit blog
http://meluphoto.blogspot.it/p/home.html
Slideshows of Melusina Parkin’s work on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
Melusina Parkin’s inworld gallery “Minimum Gallery” and bookstore “Melubooks”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/192/9/21
Melusina Parkin’s Photo Gallery at Time Portal
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Melusina Parkin’s studio at PAC
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cherished%20Melody/38/34/2165

Simploring 2021 (16) IMAGO Land

18 Apr 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life, Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Thursday, April 1st, I selected IMAGO Land from scoop.it SL Destinations. The landmark description read really tempting to me – simploring and art in one place: “Nature, Art & Culture area open for visitors who love to explore, relax, take photos or admire the highly talented artists works displayed in IMAGO Art Galleries.”
The entry led to an entry of Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: IMAGO Land“, which I read before visiting myself.

IMAGO Land – Bird’s eye view and orientation map

IMAGO Land is a moderate homestead owned Mareea Farrasco. It consists of one one bigger and one smaller island. The islands are quite flat and connected by a bridge. The landing is close to a dancefloor where are band is playing. Some people are watching the band. Mareea used quite some prim, mesh and animesh avatars to liven up her sim and this is one outstanding feature of IMAGO Land.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (1) – Dancefloor, Bar and Beach

Right where you land is a teleporter and a big board with the destinations: Dancefloor, Bar, Beach, Forest, Rocky Shore, Small Island. These are all destinations on the two islands. The destinations Storytellers Burrow and Studio are seperate skyboxes. And the destinations Carelyna’s Red Alert and Gallery I lead to two other skyboxes dedicated to art.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (2) – Forest, bridge to the smaller island, at the rocky shore

I visited all destinations. The islands offer nice backgrounds for taking pictures, in particular if you want to take pictures with a few people. You won’t be sitting alone at the bar and you won’t be the only one taking a bath in the sun – and there are children playing on the beach.
All buildings on IMAGO Land are relative small and simple but nicely decorated outside. And of course there are some animals, seagulls and other birds. There are plenty of motifs for photographers. I enjoyed exploring and taking a few pictures.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (3) – smaller island, another bar, Diomita and a mesh avatar on a pier

The two skyboxes Storytellers Burrow and Studio can be used for taking indoor pictures. As the name already gives away Storytellers Burrow is a flat with many books. The Studio is a luxury appartment in a high-rise building.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (4) – Two more picturesque buildings, Studio (upper right), Storyteller Burrow (lower right)

Carelyna’s Red Alert is an exhibition of Carelyna’s art – her red pictures, hence the name. The pictures are quite impressive and get a particular strength as they are all held in red and black.
I had come across Carelyna in October 2020 when she had a space at La Maison d’Aneli (read here).
Carelyna is in Second Life for more than 8 years. SL gave her the opportunity to reach two dreams of her childhood. She grew up on a boat, and she took art classes and learned to paint on an easel with oil paints. This is the reason why she tries to make her photos look like paintings. She replaced the traditional tools with the computer. Carelyna has also a flickr page.

Impressions of the exhibition “Carelyna’s Red Alert”

At Gallery I is an exhibtion of Mareea Farrasco herself. It is called “Painting the Summer”. The Gallery I is a modern gallery. Mareea’s pictures are quite large. They are based on pictures taken within Second Life. Most of them are in a little bit softened, without sharp contrasts, almost a bit blurred and held on light warm tones – reflecting the Summer.
I hadn’t seen any pictures of Mareea before and have no information about her, just that she’s over 11 years in Second Life and that she owns IMAGO Land and the two galleries. And of course she also has a flickr page.

Impressions of the exhibition “Painting the Summer” by Mareea Farrasco

I spent an enjoyable hour exploring IMAGO Land and visiting the two galleries. IMAGO Land offers something different with the many mesh avatars – and the two galleries were worth a visit itself. Thank you Mareea for sharing your sim, your galleries and your art publicly!

Landmark IMAGO Land
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Broken%20Mountain/86/132/21
Flickr IMAGO Land
https://www.flickr.com/groups/IMAGOLand/pool/
Mareea Farrasco’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96165669@N06/
Carelyna’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99718983@N06
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: IMAGO Land”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/03/simtipp-imago-land.html

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