Art in Second Life 2023 (43) “A Dream of Eating Colors” by Bamboo Barnes @ Artsville

11 Aug 2023 1 Comment

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

Tonight (August 11th, 12 PM SL-time) Bamboo Barnes will open a new exhibition at Artsville: “A Dream of Eating Colors“

“A Dream of Eating Colors” by Bamboo Barnes @ Artsville – exhibition Poster and first impressions

Upon landing your avatar will be submerged in colours – or eaten by the colours. Actually the landing point is inside of an installation consisting of 3 large coloured spheres. The spheres change their colour and the background as well as the floor is permanently changing as well. Just when you move out or zoom out, you can see that you became part of this colourful installation.

Once you stepped out of the installation you can see the whole setup of “A Dream of Eating Colors“. It is built on a large rectangular platform. In the corners Bamboo has installed 3D art objects. In the center is a large area with more 3D art, with red rays reaching out into the sky as well as with hands that reach out to the sky … and white gleaming boxes and spheres.  Make sure that you use Shared Environment, enabled Advanced Lighting Model and select a a raw distance abve 128m. Using shadows is also recommended, but I did not enable it myself.

Around the center and between the above corner installations, Bamboo presents her 2D art – colorful pictures, often you may see female faces or bodies in them, some are just abstract and as they are from Bamboo Barnes all pictures are made up of several layers, so that you can immerse into the pictures and see different objects, faces or impressions.

Impressions of “A Dream of Eating Colors” by Bamboo Barnes @ Artsville (1)

Back to the corner installations – one of them is made up of about 20 billard balls. You can walk between the balls. Once you get closer to a ball you see a picture, a court of a small town, in the ball. When you step away it is gone again. And the same picture appears under your feet when you walk to the center of “A Dream of Eating Colors” (where the hands reach up into the sky). Another art object a bit aside turned out to be a porch swing and I had a short break sitting there.

Impressions of “A Dream of Eating Colors” by Bamboo Barnes @ Artsville (2)

Bamboo Barnes added a poem in her opening party invitation. The poem might refer to the the red rays and the hands in the center:
“You, want my love for vain
I, want my blood red
Taste colors, still remain
In the woods of bloody red “

Impressions of “A Dream of Eating Colors” by Bamboo Barnes @ Artsville (3)

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). In December 2021 I saw her exhibition “The path” at Art care gallery (read here) and 2022 i visited “Metaphysics” at the Kondor Art Center, (read here), Colores Primarios (read here), “New Day”  (read here) and  “Personal Aspect” (read here). This year I saw “Unusual” at Kondor Art Center (read here) and “Far From” at Selen’s gallery (read here). One could say, I’m a fan of Bamboo’s art!

The exhibitions “New Day”  (read here) and “Far From” at Selen’s gallery (read here) are still open for a visit.
Look also at Bamboo’s flickr page.

Impressions of “A Dream of Eating Colors” by Bamboo Barnes @ Artsville (4)

Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso. Artsville itself is group owned, Frank Atisso is one of the co-owners. Bamboo mentioned Jerzzie Reece Redstar (Jerzzie Reece) and Jeanie (jeanienabottle) as a member of the Artsville team. Thank you all for providing the space for the art and for enabling “A Dream of Eating Colors“. Thank you Bamboo Barnes for your art.

I enjoyed visit.

Landmark to “A Dream of Eating Colors” by Bamboo Barnes at Artsville
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caribbean%20Ocean/110/112/1502
Landmark to Artsville
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caribbean%20Ocean/74/62/22
Bamboo Barnes’ flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bamboobarnes/
Bamboo Barnes on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/bamboo.barnes
Artsville flickr
https://www.flickr.com/groups/14823986@N21/
Art Korner blog
https://www.artkornersl.com/

Art in Second Life 2022 (102) The 5th Season by Milena Carbone

15 Dec 2022 1 Comment

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

I got an invitation from Milena Carbone (mylena1992) for the opening of her newest exhibition “The 5th Season” at Artsville. The opening was yesterday. I visited early on Tuesday, December 13th.

Milena herself wrote about “The 5th Season”:
“The fifth season is a three-part installation that questions our tendency to follow a path of self-destruction. It is related to the imminent threat of dramatic consequences for all living species as a result of climate change. It tries to dig deeper into the roots of our denial.
The “fifth season”, is an imaginary season, which will replace the four seasons we have known. One season in a year, chaotic, devastating. A foul beast that humanity will have created. I sincerely hope that this work will allow us to go beyond good conscience, purely intellectual awareness or judgment to lead everyone towards a fertile, new reflection on ourselves, on our relationship to the world; and to our planet, the only paradise that is a closed garden whose walls we have hit.

The 5th Season is the final exhibition of a triology, consisting of “Blind”, “Africa” and “Heroes”. All three parts are shown at Artsville. Milena recommends to see “The 5th Season” in exactly this order.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (1)

It is recommended that you use “Shared Environment” and “Advanced Lighting”. If your macine allows it, use shadows from projectors and sun/moon and allow media streaming.

I saw the first part “Blind” in June 2022 as a part of an exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli (read Art in Second Life 2022 (57) La Maison d’Aneli June/July 2022)

Blind explores our denial of the studied, validated, stated, detailed crisis of climate change for which we are collectively responsible : natural, economic, social and demographic disasters. And yet we do nothing, but continue our frenzy of senseless consumption and expend our energy in war.
Blindness is a recurring theme in myths, particularly Greek myths. Tiresias and Oedipus are well known examples. Blindness is both a punishment and a way to change one’ s view of the world and oneself.
The exhibition consists of five themes displayed in an original installation, thirteen images and seven short stories.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (2) – part I: “Blind”

The exhibition is not set up as the one I saw at La Maison d’Aneli in June. There are 4 rooms titeled “Don’t Look Up”, “Don’t Look Beyand”, “Look Down On” and “Look Away”.
Milena’s art consists of texts, pictures and visual experience. Each room is dedicated to a story that you can download to read and that Milena illustrated with pictures and objects. In total you find seven stories … that feature Tiresias, Daphne, Oedipus and his daughter Antigone, Clarissa Dalloway, and George and Martha. Milena published the stories on her website,

“Africa” is the second part of “The 5th Season” and I saw it end of October 2022 at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, (read Art in Second Life 2022 (88) Africa by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery).

Milena wrote about “Africa”:
“Africa” takes a look at the African continent, both amazed and crude.
Amazed, because Africa is a fertile paradise of biodiversity and beauty and the cradle of humanity, born in the rift, the vagina of the earth.
Crude, because Africa is a continent raped, slaughtered, poisoned, looted with impunity by empires, in cynical disdain of its inhabitants. Africa is what started it all by the grace of evolution, and will end by the rapacity of man.

“Africa” consists of 13 pictures:
The story of Grace, in seven paintings, an Ethiopian orphan who, at age 33, inherits the home of her father whom she never knew. As she explores this strange house, she more or less follows the biblical journey from creation to paradise and God’s doubt one Sunday night (“Oh my God, I think I’ve screwed up so damn bad”). In this part, Milena Carbone clears God of predestination and gives keys to understand that, if he is at the origin of the Creation, he has created the conditions of free will.
The Twilight of Humans is the story of Abel, an African man whom Grace meets in her house. In six tableaux, he travels through the destruction of the African continent, ends up being the last man in the world and makes his own burial ground in the rainforest.

Again “Africa” is displayed different than at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. I personally was more impressed of this part of “The 5th Season” the way it was presented at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The pictures at Artsville are presented at the walls. In the center are some 3D statues of African animals. Once you get closer, the statues vanish and texts appear instead. As always in Milena’s exhibitions, texts and pictures build one unit. While in “Grace’s wing” the texts deal with God, the texts in “Abel’s wing” deal with the plagues that mankind has caused on earth: climate change, extinction of species and forced migration.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (2) – part II: “Africa”

Milena mentioned in the accompanying notecard that her writing style for the texts featured at the exhibition “Africa” is “more syncopated than usual, cutting the story with several levels of interpretation with inserts of scientific facts, memories or questionings of herself. I readily admit to having been amazed and inspired by the American author Jenny Offill.“

For the pictures Milena continued further expanding and broadening her style. She used the AI Midjourney again to create the backgrounds of her pictures. Milena had an exhibition of pictures created with Artifical Intelligence just recently: “Metamorphoses” (read here). The characters were added from Second Life.

The third part of “The 5th Season” is called “Heroes” and it was new to me.
Heroes tells 12 extraordinary stories of ordinary or mysterious people, all imaginary. The stories take place in the future, in all parts of the world. Milena’s intention is to set the stage for new myths. Myths structure our vision of the world. The myths of today are the same as those of ten thousand years ago: men dominant and superior, carnivorous and subduing the living, violent and cunning, explorers and conquerors in a world without limits.
We are facing the limits of our planet, our myths are no longer operative. We must create new myths, new imaginaries that allow us to find our place in an entirely new, exhausted and limited world. Each story features values compatible with this world, diverse heroes from all walks of life. They are written in a style reminiscent of the news stories found in the back pages of newspapers.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (2) – part III: “Heroes”

When you approach one of the the 12 pictures it folds up into 3 parts – the picture in the center and the story on the left and right. Just one picture folds up into tow pictures and one text in the center. As it takes time to read the stories, there’s a chair in fron ot each of the 12 heroes where you can sit down and read – and get into Milena’s world of pictures and texts.

Heroes is the concluding chapter of the trilogy “The 5th season”. It is the hopeful part of the work.

Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.

Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso. Frank is also the curator of exhibitions at Artsville.
Thank you for another great exhibition, Milena. I enjoyed my visit. Thank you Frank Atisso and the whole team at Artsville for enabling “The 5th Season” by Milean Carbone.

Landmark to Artsville and The 5th Season by Milena Carbone
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caribbean%20Ocean/62/97/3201
Landmark to The Carbone Studio
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/176/163/3287
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/news
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568

Art in Second Life 2022 (91) Greyscale Magic by Melusina Parkin

11 Nov 2022 Leave a comment

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

I got an invitation of Melusina Parkin to see her newest exhibtion “Greyscale Magic” at Artsville.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’s style is minimalistic. She takes her pictures in Second Life. The minimalism forces the spectator to focus on details, that might stay unseen when too much distracts the view.
For Greyscale Magic Melu tried out something different again. As the title implies the pictures of this exhibition are monochrome. There’s an accompanying text at a board right where you land when you visit. In the text Melu gives an historic abstract about photography and films in black and white and later in colour. And while films are all produced in colour nowadays, black and white photography is still widely spread in art photography. Thinking of it, one reason is that the spectators have to add the colours in their mind and thus translate the greyscales into colours.

Impressions of “Greyscale Magic” by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville (1)

Processing pictures taken in Second Life into monochrome pictures make them look very real, in particular if the pictures are a bit blurred. As the spectator compares the picture with known patterns, a picture of a “real” situation or view appears. It’s quite facinating. For example cars do look always a bit unnatural in Second Life photography. Maybe we miss the dirt, the traces of usage. In black and white picture we add that in our mind – and they look real!

Impressions of “Greyscale Magic” by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville (2)

The exhibition is shown in one large exhibition room with two smaller rooms. I didn’t count the pictures, it might be roughly 20. And every picture is a piece of art. I was quite intrigued.

Next to the board with the accompanying text you find a table where you can purchase a a photobook about “Greyscale Magic”. Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already. Melusina makes one of every exhibition. The book about “Greyscale Magic” is sold at the exhibition, all others are sold under her brand “Melubooks” in a seperate book store: Melubooks shop.

Melusina Parkin 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 a few. 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 also under this post).
There’s also an online book with her Second Life exhibits 2011-2019 here.
Melusina Parkin has an own gallery at Time Portal, “Melu’s Photo Gallery” and an own store for Art Deco furniture called “Melu Deco“. Melusina also owns a second place (Melu Space) with another gallery (Minimum Gallery), a bookstore and another “Melu Deco” inworld store.

Impressions of “Greyscale Magic” by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville (3)

Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso. Frank is also the curator of exhibitions at Artsville.
Thank you for another great exhibition, Melusina. I enjoyed my visit and seeing again something different from you.

Landmark to Greyscale Magic by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caribbean%20Ocean/49/59/2251
Art Korner blog
https://www.artkornersl.com/
Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
Landmark to Melu Space (Minimum Gallery, Melubooks, Melu Deco)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/173/25/22
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
Melusina Parkin’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
On line book Second Life exhibits 2011-2019
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d

Art in Second Life 2022 (69) Refractive Index by Adwehe

23 Jul 2022 Leave a comment

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

I visited the light installation “Refractive Index” by Adwehe that was opened July 20th at Artsville.

“Adwehe presents a stunning installation bathed in 16 different EEPs of her own creation, transitioning from one to the other very slowly, thus coloring the installation in different shades much like a dynamic 3D abstract painting.” (taken form the accompanying notecard).

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (1)

Upon landing you’re asked to set your viewer to use Shared Environment, enable Advanced Lighting Model, set shadows from Sun/Moon + Projectors and to turn you sound volume up. And I can only recommend to follow the instructions as Adwehe’s installation is based on these viewer settings.
You enter the installation through a long tunnel. On it’s sides you find the wavelengths of different colours and different refractive indexes for these colours.

“In optics, the refractive index of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index may vary with wavelength. This causes white light to split into constituent colors when refracted. This is called dispersion. This effect can be observed in prisms and rainbows, and as chromatic aberration in lenses.” (source wikipedia).

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (2)

“Refractive Index” consists of different elements. It seems to be a court surrounded by town houses on the first glance. But there’s also a single house on the other side. There are sculptures arranged on the court: two hands, some dancing figures, other figures and abstract objects. The scenery is very different depending on when you visit. I saw it in bright yellow, in red, in blue and in green. The ground is transparent and the the light from the ground changes as well.

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (3) – 4 pictures of the same view

What seems to be rain first are particles that form words. I saw: silence, truth, post-truth, expanding, breaking-up, reflecting, responding, recording, focus, colliding and refractive. I assume there are more. Around the corner is a semie transparent wall with a quote from José Ortega y Gasset “… the stupendous reality that is language cannot be understood unless we begin by observing that speech consists above all in silences“.

Spheres of different colours pop up every once in a while. The combination of permanent changing colours, the permanent changing particles and the changing spheres make this installation so outstanding. There’s no single scene that isn’t unique. Every single picture you take is unique and not reproducible.

The sound adds to the experience. It’s not music, there are words and noises of different kind.

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (4)

I took quite a lot of pictures again. The installation “Refractive Index” captivates the visitor. You can’t get enough to take different points of view. Everywhere there is something new to discover. And what was just blue now appears in red or is covered by a colored sphere or the particles become words or …. or. An intriguing great piece of art in Second Life. Thank you Adwehe.

Adwehe joined Second Life in September 2018 and describes herself in her profile as “Instable media Artist, Sound explorer, Painter and Photographer“.
What I saw so far from Adwehe was always very different as she tired out herself and the artisitic opportunities that Second Life offers: “I explore an ever changing drawing using lines, light and darkness, strong color and whatever i can find to express. Creating depth and perspective expanding the dimensions of the exposition room, mostly abstract and animating. The theme’s I always come back to are everlasting change, transformation, (in)stability, chaos, light, color, movement, slowness and (different) ways looking at the world. I mix textures from my traditional RL drawings, acrylic and oil paintings inside and outside of SL to achieve abstract and figurative patterns, moods and motions“

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (5)

You can find more of Adwehe, mostly unedited landscapes and some art snaps, on her flickr page.
In the Virtuality blog you can find an interview by Violet Boa with Adwehe here.

Artsville is owned by Vally Lavender-Prodigy (Valium Lavender). Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso. Thank you Vally and Frank for creating Artsville and providing the space for the arts.

Landmark: ARTSVILLE – Refractive Index by Adwehe
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ValiumSL/112/12/3201
Adwehe’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/people/187796045@N03/
Virtuality Blog Interview by Violet Boa with Adwehe
https://www.virtuality.blog/interview-with-adwehe/

Art in Second Life 2022 (59) “Freaking Beauties” by Maloe Vansant at Artsville Gallery #1

01 Jul 2022 1 Comment

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

Friday, June 24th, a new place for the arts has been opened – Artsville. Artsville consists of 3 galleries. The first exhibition at Artville is “Freaking Beauties” by Maloe Vansant.

The layout of the gallery space reminded me a bit of DixMix Gallery – 3 galleries, with space for around 10 pictures each and an event area in the center. The builder is Megan Prumier, who also built the DixMix Gallery.

“Freaking Beauties” shows pictures of – surprise – freaking beauties. The pictures are very colourful, most consisting of several layers. They focus on the kinkiness, yet the pictures are intriguing, not off putting. They invite the spectator to look for details. And the freaking beauties themselves look satisfied and proud. Each picture is an eye catcher!

Maloe Vansant joined Second Life in 2007, a new world for her who had never played games or joined any social network site: “After creating little Maloe, my barbie doll, my pixel soul, I discovered the possibility of making snapshots and I started to make a graphic diary of Maloe’s journey in Second Life, showing the emotions she experienced in this pixel world. I think I succeeded in doing this by using some post processing in Photoshop. I am not a woman of many words, I try to express myself, my feelings, my passion and probably my dark side through my pictures.”
Maloe has also a flickr account where you can see more of her artwork.

The virtuality blog published an interview with Maloe Vansant by Violet Boa back in August 2021. Violet Boa wrote in the introducing text about Maloe:
“Maloe belongs to the group of people who are strongly guided by feelings and she is blessed with ability to touch our souls with her photography.
With skillful game between light, shadow, color and composition she creates works that appeal to us not only on the quality level, but also write stories of life and with it catch our thoughts and hearts.”
Read the full interview on virtuality blog here.

Artsville is owned by Vally Lavender-Prodigy (Valium Lavender). Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso.

Thank you Vally and Frank for creating Artsville and providing the space for the arts. Thank you Megan for building the gallery. And thank you Maloe for your art, I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Artsville and to Freaking Beauties by Maloe Vansant
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ValiumSL/60/180/22
Artsville flickr
https://www.flickr.com/groups/14823986@N21/
Art Korner blog
https://www.artkornersl.com/
Interview with Maloe Vansant by Violet Boa in virtuality blog
https://www.virtuality.blog/interview-with-maloe-vansant/
Maloe Vansant’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31954671@N08//