On Wednesday, December 1st, a new exhibtion opened it’s doors at La Maison d’Aneli. Aneli Abeyante presents 8 artists for the last exhibition of 2021: Adwehe, Calypso Applewhyte, Awesome Fallen, Sweet Susanowa, I am Free… (libbberamente), Tamashii (TamashiiRent Starsider), ZackHerrMann, and 9Volt Borkotron.
I visited the exhibition before it’s opening – and thus I had the opportunity also seeing Tamashii (TamashiiRent Starsider)’s work. Tamashii had to cancel his participation.
My visit began with Adwehe. Adwehe is still quite new to Second Life, she joined 3 years ago. What I saw so far from Adwehe was always very different as she tired out herself and the artisitic opportunities that Second Life offers. The last time I came across her was also at La Maison d’Aneli (read here). And once again Adwehe playes with lights, with line, beams of lights, with one motif, that migh be a dancer. She plays with colours and with a dark forest in which the scene takes place. You can see more of her art at her flickr page.
Calypso Applewhyte is not new to me. I wrote already quite several times about her and her art. Calypso Applewhyte is a SL Photographer from France, who joined SL in 2010. Her focus is the avatar itself as a means of expression to transport emotions. She processes her pictures with Photoshop. You can recognise her style, she has found her personal characteristic artistic style. Her pictures do tell stories, like good art has to do.
This time her skybox is quite dark and fog is covering the floor. The pictures are at the walls a little bit set back in alcoves. All pictures show a woman in fear, desperate and trying to retreat in her fear and pain. Caly uses facial experssions as well as the postures to express the emotions and she succeeds very well in it. The spectator can feel with the woman.
According to her profile Calypso also blogs and has written articles for several magazines. And she also makes portrait pictures of course. You can see more of her work on her flickr account.
I saw Sweet Susanowa’s art the first time at another exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli back in July 2019 and later once again in May 2020 (read here). Sweet joined Second Life 13 years ago without thinking about any exhibition at a gallery. She is a photographer now in real life as well as in Second Life. The 4 walls of her skybox at La Maison d’Aneli show 4 different themes: monochrome female portraits of women at different ages, monochrome snapshots of a couple in love enjoying each other’s touch, colourful scenes of party life with a touch of pop art and pictures of female display dummies that look like the bluprint of a female.
Now you can make a connection between the 4 themes. Do they show the different phases of life? As there are 5 pictures of each theme – are we looking at the scenes of 5 lifes? Or is Sweet just showcasting the different styles and techniques she had developed for herself? Anyway – intriguing.
I am Free… (libbberamente) is in Second Life since March 2018. She says about herself: “I am not a realistic woman, I am only a cartoon”. Her skybox at La Maison d’Aneli is full of things to discover, it’s a Metaverse in which she invites the visitor. I am Free… (libbberamente) wrote about her installation in the accompanying notecard:
“The theme is always the journey, constant in the life of the artist: the movement, the change, the exploration, emigration, until the banal transfer for work reasons. In Second Life she found another dimension to travel to especially walking on the streets and driving a locomotive on the remarkable heterocetera railroad. Impossible buildings alternate with
perfect reconstructions of reality, approximations are accompanied by detailed manifestations of maniacality. Everything existing in the world, or that has existed, that has been thought, imagined, filmed or sung in poetry …… And then she photographs the possible and tries to build the impossible and another fragment of dreamadds to the reality of Second Life”
Discover objects, science fiction, space ships, videos, structures … dive into the metaverse.
ZackHerrMann is a French psychedelik artist from the French Riviera. He’s in Second Life since 2012. He writes about his work in the accompanying notecard about himself:
“Early I was attracted by arts, nature was my first inspiration. Later I have discovered the Marvel Comics and that increase my drawning passion. I have done years of art school, than was trying to go to stylism school, but it was too expensive. So, I started to discover the nightlife, especially in the LGBT Community. There I got in touch with a ‘lil around Drag queen and the creature universe. I discovered the power of making creations with a PC, with Photoshop and other tools, with grapic tablet, etc.
With thoses new tools, a creature I made when i was younger was reborn, her name is Linda Cluster. In SL, I focus a lot of my Linda Cluster creations ’cause its probably the more advanced works that I’ve done in RL. With SL, I renew some works and give another light to my previous works!”
I have seen ZackHerrMann’s art before at La Maison d’Aneli and I could identify immediately that I see ZackHerrMann’s art when I entered his skybox. It is very impressive. The visitor is overwhelmed by the light, by the shine of gold. You feel like in an ancient treasure chamber. And it takes some time to adjust and to see the details. I enjoyed the luxury and the art, the many many things you can discover here. It’s nothing I can easily describe. I hope my pictures provide an idea – best is to see it yourself.
ZackHerrMann has a little museum in Second Life – Zack Herr Mann Universum. You can also see more of his art at his flickr page.
I came across 9volt Borkotron just once back in 2018 and also at La Maison d’Aneli. 9volt Borkotron is in Second Life for more than 13 years. His digital works are most influenced by the gradual and often musical stages of natural transformation in all it’s forms ranging from the macro/micro biological material to the quantum electromagnetic on all scales.
The installation for December 2021 is very colourful and you get great views walking up a spiral into the sky. At it’s end is a platform where you can sit and look down into the sea of colours. The textures and colorus, the constantly changing explosion of colours and lights are made specifically so that hearing impaired can also get the music. As the music is playedm the geometric shapes or bars pulse to the various tones. Hence make sure to have media enabled. For me it was very impressive.
I saw Awesome Fallen’s artwork in January 2021 the first time when I visited “Mind the Gap” at Itakos Project and Art Gallery (read here).
Awesome Fallen is in SL for almost 12 years, yet the profile does not give away much: “…… just another wave in the ocean …….”. Awesome has a flickr page tough with a lot of followers and I can understand why. The pictures are intriguing, invite you to take a closer look and to comprehend what Awsome wants to express or to make up your own story to the pictures.
In her skybox at La Maison d’Aneli Awesome showcasts 12 pictures. The space is kept in black and you barely see any frame or conture as the pictures melt into the black walls. The pictures comes 3 themes: clown faces, imprisonment in a small inescapable room and a young girl with a balloon visiting a fair. I can’t tell why, but I was fascinated by Awesome’s pictures and by the stories they tell for me.
Tamashii (TamashiiRent Starsider) is in Second Life for 12 years. Tamashii ‘s exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli is called “Surviving is an experience”. In the accompanying notecard Tamashii wrote: “It is the first installation in a series on the same theme that I believe I will be working on for the next few months. It will be enriched with new elements over time in the next installations. Most of the items you can see here will also be available for sale in my shop in the marketplace.
The theme of my works, even if it can vary, essentially expresses existentialist concept.”
Tamashii had issues with his pc and Aneli helped arranging the objects, but on a short notice Tamashii did decide not to particpate. I got an insight in his owrk nonetheless. I’m sure we will see more soon.
The skybox featuring Tamashii’s work featured a scene with 3 figures in front of a wall of stones and boxes. On the three remaining walls you could see pictures of the aforementioned wall with boxes and of the 3 figures as the artist began to create them in Blender. It might give an impression of how much work is behind this all.
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 inspired me.
Landmark to La Maison d’Aneli
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/23/59/22
Adwehe’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/187796045@N03
Calypso Applewhyte’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/calypsoapplewhyte/
I am Free… (libbberamente)’s blog
https://free-libbberamente.blogspot.com/
ZackHerrMann’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/people/7706
Zack Herr Mann Universum
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pop/136/214/243
Awesome Fallen’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awesomefallen/
Tamashii (TamashiiRent Starsider)’s shop on the marketplace
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/119884
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 