Art in Second Life 2023 (9) Reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) & Onceagain Art Gallery

06 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

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

I got an invitation to visit Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s latest exhibition named “Reflections” at Onceagain Art Gallery. A good reason to visit Onceagain Art Gallery (once) again, as it is more than one year since I my last visit there (read Art in Second Life 2022 (2) Onceagain Art Gallery).

The landmark leads you to a small gazebo within a park. From there you walk through the park, cross the gate, turn left twice and walk a path upwards to reach the exhibition “Reflections” which is shown in kind of a cloistered court.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (1) – from the landing point to the exhibition

Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) wrote about “Reflections”:
“I’m really pleased to host in my gallery a delicate artist, who I discovered last year by chance when I won one of her works at an auction.
In life you don’t always need to look for deep meanings, sometimes beauty is enough to reconcile you with the world and Maddy with her works is what she manages to do.”

The exhibition consists of 11 pictures all showing woman, mainly portraits, in their beauty. Most of the pictures are monochrom (not all) and the women are all dressed beautiful and they wear flowers, ornaments, jewelery and other accessories underlining their beauty and attracting the spectator to look for details and to get pulled into the picture.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (2)

Maddy wrote: ““Reflections” is a journey of portraits that experiments with new ideas using A.I. technologies. The exhibit showcases photos created with Midjourney and Second Life Avatars, combined with the use of A.I. to create a melancholic and dark atmosphere that captures the essence of the subjects portrayed. The soft colors and blurs emphasize the intense emotions and intimacy of the portraits, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in the images.”

Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) is in Second Life since 2009. She’s passionate about photography in RL and SL. She writes: “I’m not an artist but a researcher of images to be developed… a dreamer with open eyes of this world “out of time”. In SL always open to new possibilities of experimentation trying to convey the magic that I see.”
I’ve seen Maddy’s art the first time back in 2017 at Enchanted Art where her exhibition “Maddy 2017” was showcased (read here). Further on I saw Maddy’s work at La Maison d’Aneli in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 and at GenovArt Glass Gallery in May 2021 (read here). You can see more of her art at her flickr page.

Once at the gallery I took the teleporter, where I landed for my visit to “Reflections” and visited the Onceagain Art Gallery.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (1) – Two buildings / Two sculptures (Cherry Manga and Bryn Oh)

The place has changed quite a lot, the concept is still the same. In a large park are several buildings. The park and the buildings are full of Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s art collection. In the park you find 3D art as well as inside of the buildings at windows or larger spaces. The buildings are galleries and feature the art of many artists.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (2)

I know and wrote about most of them, though I admit that there’re some, who I didn’t come across yet. The following list of artists is certainly not exhaustive, but it testifies to the size of the art collection and the many styles:
Moki Yuitza, Mihailsk Syros (mihailsk), June Langer, Kika Yongho, Eviana (eviana.robbiani), Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau), Milena Carbone (mylena1992), Filthy Fluno, Marina Münter (vivresavie), Melusina Parkin, CioTToLiNa Xue, Zia Branner, Maloe Vansant, ZYNTHEA, Mareea Farrasco, Celestial Demon (celestialdemon), Gully Rivers (gullyrivers), Karma Daxeline (Karma Weymann), Cad (cadwallader), Lika Cameo (LikaCameo), Scylla Rhiadra, Mara Telling, Frank Atisso, Cherry Manga, Harbor Galaxy, miu miu miu (miumiumiusecond), Therese Carfagno, Bryn Oh ….

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (3)

onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) ist in Second Life since 2007. Manoji is Italian and lives and works in Tuscany, Italy. She “likes photography, art, landscapes, animals, visiting strange places, most of these things she also does in RL“. You find more of her also on her flickr account.

Thank you for showcasting so many artists in a great environment and for enabling Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s exhibition “Reflections”.
And thank you Maddy for your art.
I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Onceagain Art Gallery and to Reflections by Maddy
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Peaceful%20Mountains/51/173/3502
Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/magdyne/
Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69389809@N03/

Art in Second Life 2022 (66) Kids These Days by Lex Machine

17 Jul 2022 Leave a comment

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

I got a group message from Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova) announcing the opening of “Kids These Days“, his latest installation.

Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova) was formerly known as Schmexysbuddy Resident and created the Hotel California sims, which I visited in 2019 (read here and here). I saw Lex Machine’s installation “Isolation’s Passengers” in 2020 (read here), his installations Bermuda Locket (read here), “The House that Love Built” (read here), Numb (read here) and Nero (read here) in 2021, “Stillborn” in February 2022 (read here) and now I visited “Kids These Days“.

Impressions of “Kids These Days” by Lex Machine (1) – overview

Lex Machine’s installations are collections of art objects from different artists, some of the objects were not intended to be art. Lex’ art is arranging them in his own way and setting them into a context and into an intriguing environment. While quite some of Lex Machine’s installation were dark and yes, a bit depressing, “Kids These Days” is not dark. I wouldn’t go so far to say it expressed fun and happiness, but it is art nicely spiked with absurdity – in my eyes. You find many different scenes and objects at “Kids These Days“. The big whie figure on the top of a mountain range is from Bryn Oh and it overlooks the island like the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.  And in the mountains you don’t the “Hollywood” sign but “Pretty Much Fucked”.

Impressions of “Kids These Days” by Lex Machine (2)

Once again there are many scences realised at “Kids These Days” and most probably I haven’t seen all of them. You land in a field, a tractor is nearby, irrigation systems and a piano. My eyes were caught first by the old Missisippi steamer a bit away. Huge scarecrows seem to guard the old boat. Behind the steamer is kind of a small village with a barn and a chapel … and a pouncing fox (another one from Bryn Oh) looking down at two artful statues (*CM* Sisters by Cherry Manga).

The many objects interfer with each other and it is difficult to focus on one. In the center of the sim is an old steam engine. I once reduced my drawing distance to get just the engine on a picture. The steam is built by birds btw.
Also the scene at the corner of the island, exploding female upper bodies, revealing robot technic inside is difficult to catch alone.

Impressions of “Kids These Days” by Lex Machine (3)

What else? Wrecked cars of course. a bit clown in the mountains, a killer cat with 2 skulls (that one could be from Halloween). slaves pulling a carriage … I sat down and played the piano.

Impressions of “Kids These Days” by Lex Machine (4)

There’s a whole circus in the mountains, the figures are from Silas Merlin. Other objects are from Rebeca Bashley and from Fresh3D (the scarecrows for example). You hardly know where to look first. The only common theme I could gather form all the art is: Enjoy, don’t take everything too serious, something nice in these days of war in Europe. Who knows, perhaps I didn’t realize the message … it is just “pretty much fucked” *winks*

Impressions of “Kids These Days” by Lex Machine (5)

Did I mention that avatars visiting “Kids These Days” are just dwarfs compared to the figures and art objects? Everything is huge, despite the wrecked cars and the piano, the tractor and the steam engine are “normal” sized and the Missisippi steamer is comparably small. I had fun spoiling my eyes with art and getting distracted like in a desolate dream, in which things often do not fit together.

Thank you Lex for another installation. I enjoyed my visit!

Landmark to “Kids These Days” by Lex Machine
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eve%20Bayou/134/137/23

Art in Second Life (40) Lobby Cam by Bryn Oh

01 May 2022 Leave a comment

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

Bryn Oh gave me the opportunity of seeing/expieriencing her latest installation “Lobby Cam” that is going to open on May 1st. So far I have visited Bryn Oh’s sim Immersiva a few times but I never spent enough time to immerse deeper into her installation. Getting this exclusive opportunity I decided to visit her newest installation, which is not at her sim Immersiva but on a sim named Immersivist.

Before I visited I tried to get a deeper insight into Bryn’s world and a I read a few posts from Inara Pey on her blog. Quite helpful was her post “Hand and the art of Bryn Oh in her own words“.

“With my work I build for different types of people. There are those who have followed my work and know how to search for the deeper layers; they are the “experts”. For them, the story and time line are important. But I also try to build for people who know nothing about the history of the world I have created. So I build in layers: the top layer is for people who know nothing of my work and they enjoy the story on its own; the next layer is the story and then concepts within the story and the final layers are where the story fits into the time line.” (quote from Bryn Oh)

For sure I belong to those knowing nothing….

Impressions of “Lobby Cam” by Bryn Oh (1)

Bryn’s many installations are all connected with each other. Her artwork in Second Life is one long narrative which began in 2009. Each new work is a chapter in this story. They follow a timeline, yet they were not published in this order. Actually “Lobby Cam” is at the start of the timeline.
Bryn’s art is about virtual worlds and her art is showcased in virtual worlds. Bryn’s work is about AI, about a future world where reality and virtuality have melted into each other, where you can’t distinct the two anymore. It brings up questions like implanted memories and the difficulty to decide what is real.
Bryn’s art is interactive and her installations in virtual environments are made to experience them, to become part of it. You can still visit her installations “Hand” and “Brittle Epoch“. And when you begin you will get drawn deeper and deeper as you immerse into Bryn’s world. But you can also see her art on other media, you can watch videos of Bryn Oh’s installations on youtube, for example her installation “Hand” is on youtube.
You can find so much of about Bryn and her art on the internet that I simply got lost and was quite unsure how to put my many impressions and thoughts into words. You will have to do that yourself, I will just provide a few links from where you can start your own journey (see links below).

Landing at “Lobby Cam” by Bryn Oh

But back to “Lobby Cam”. You don’t need to know anything about the timeline and Bryn’s narrative for a visit ot “Lobby Cam”. For those interested, the timeline is shown at the landing point of “Lobby Cam”. Upon landing you should make sure that you “Use shared environment” and set advanced lighting on in your viewer. Furtheron you should enable shadows from moon and projectors on to get the full experience. Then you have to click the “click here” sign to enable experience tools which will add a diary book (hud) to your top right. It will appear large on your screen, click the icon in the top right to minimize it.
Start your visit by walking towards the painting and enter the narrative. Click on everything and you will find various interactive elements and secrets, as well as you will find pages from a torn up diary on the ground. These pages with advance the story in the diary hud (you have to maximize it again of course).

Impressions of “Lobby Cam” by Bryn Oh (2)

The story takes place in the present during the pandemic. The main character is a middle aged man living in the middle of nowhere in a remote converted grain silo. He watches a girl, who he calls Fern, through a security camera surveilling the lobby of an appartment building.

While exploring you can also find elements to write a letter. If you find the envelope, pen and ink, paper and stamp and all the pages you will have the ingredients to write a letter from the main character to Fern. If you click the red mailbox on the train platform you can send this message directly to Bryn by email. Bryn will respondto all letters sent as Fern would reply to your message. This will end the story depending on what you write.
Bryn added: “In the past I have done something similar requiring me to reply to several hundred letters and each I do without using a form letter… it is very time consuming but I feel it is important.”

Impressions of “Lobby Cam” by Bryn Oh (2)

Born in Toronto, Bryn attended the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and studied Fine Art Drawing and painting, receiving the George A Reid award for painting. Subsequent to that attended the Toronto School of Art as well as Seneca College studying computer animation. After completion becoming represented by XEXE gallery in Toronto later known as KWT Contemporary. Oil paintings are collected internationally. In 2007 Bryn became interested in creating immersive environments in virtual reality spaces as a new media artist known as Bryn Oh. Since then Bryn’s work has featured in magazines such as Vogue magazine, in movies and in galleries and museums worldwide.

Impressions of “Lobby Cam” by Bryn Oh (3)

Bryn Oh’s Lobby Cam received a national arts grant from the Canada Council for the Arts which is special to her as her previous grants were from the Ontario Arts Council and this is her first nationally awarded grant. It is important for her career as an artist, but also it legitimizes virtual art in the minds of some curators from large institutions who are not familiar with Second Life. The grant supports the building of Lobby Cam in the virtual world of Second Life as well as building it in Unreal Engine (which is in progress for several more months). Lobby Cam has taken five months to build and all elements are created by Bryn Oh.

A really outstanding (art) experience in Second Life! Thank you Bryn.

Landmark to Bryn Oh’s “Lobby Cam”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Immersivist/16/23/23
Promo “Lobby Cam” on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rQrAv45d4c
Inara Pey’s blogpsot “Hand and the art of Bryn Oh in her own words”
https://modemworld.me/2020/04/27/hand-and-the-art-of-bryn-oh-in-her-own-words/
Landmark to “Hand” by Bryn Oh (gateway)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bryn%20Oh/44/211/22
Bryn Oh’s “Hand” on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYPCB2N2U58
Landmark to “The Brittle Epoch” by Bryn Oh
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Immersiva/17/108/24
Bryn Oh’s blog
http://brynoh.blogspot.com/
Support Bryn Oh on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/brynoh

Art in Second Life 2022 (2) Onceagain Art Gallery

05 Jan 2022 Leave a comment

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

Following Rig Torok’s blog I came across “Onceagain Art Gallery” and visited it on January 2nd. Onceagain Art Gallery is owned by onceagain (Manoji Yachvili). In the landmark profile you find a short description:
“Hello! This is a small art gallery dedicated to women where exhibitions of various kinds will be exhibited on a regular basis.
If you want to be part of it, send a note to Manoji Yachvili with your references and a link where I can see your work.“

onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) is in Second Life for more than 14 years. She “likes photography, art, landscapes, animals, visiting strange places, most of these things she also does in RL”. You find more of her also on her flickr account.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (1) – Main building and exhibition “Kaleidoscope”

Her Onceagain Art Gallery consists of several parts. The main building, where you land, features Onceagain’s own art and some pieces of her art collection. Right at the entrance you find a teleporter board that leads you to other buildings featuring “Private Collection” (Onceagain’s art collection), “Personal Exhibit” (another larger exhibtion of Onceagain) and “Artist of the month”. The latter did teleport me to an empty skybox, hence I assume there’s just no artist featured at this particular time of the year. On the ground level you can also see 3D sculptures and art objects embedded in a nice garden.

My visit started at the main building. On the ground floor is an exhibtion titled “Kaleidoscope”. Onceagain wrote about it:
“Thinking of the joy I felt as a child when I laid my eyes on the kaleidoscope and with a simple gesture of rotation thanks to those fragemnts of coloured glass I created a new world, precise, clean, an endless array of colourful emotions and grace.
In out life time each one of us must take their pieces and put them back together again to be able to look at his own inner world.
In the life time of this society fragments of an uncertain reality, often confused, rich but fragile, where past, present and future seem to overlap in mposed velocity, the persuit of bauty in a game of fragmetns of light allows me to expand the senses, give peace to the mind, feed my eyes to the vision of tomorrow.
This is the thought that has noursihed my creativity for this project: the need to catch a glimpse of a possible hope for the revival of beauty in this world, the desire to look with brght eyes of adult reality and with enlightened eyes of a child its possible future.“

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (2) – Exhibition “Kaleidoscope” – collected art on the 2nd floor

The pictures all consist of 2 pictures, on the left side a RL picture of something messed up, broken, trist and on the right side the picture of a kaleidoscope structure, where the structure repeats elements of the picture on the right. It conjured a smile on my face when I saw the similarities and I can understand what Onceagain wants to express. Well done!

Upstairs are some pieces of Onceagain’s art collection, in particular some objects of Mistero Hifeng. And there’s one room featuring Onceagain’s horse pictures. But these are not just horse pictures, Onceagain processed them and compared them with pictures of renowned RL artists. She wrote about them:
“We all have images archived, even at an unconscious level, models which we refer to because any work aof art is an act of communication involving a user, someone who enters into conversation with what is being shown.
Thus on reseeing a photo of my mare, I naturally associated it with a picture I began composing this project. Whenever an image reminding me of an artist came my way, I would set it aside, lke a jigsaw piece intent on arranging the end result, a part of which is here on display; thus, creating a personal dialogue with the works present in one’s memory by means of photographs.“

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (3) – Exhibition “horse pictures” on the 2nd floor

Again the direct comparison is intriguing!

I took the teleport board and visited the “Private Collection” which is in a separate building. You could also walk through the garden to get there and see the outdoor art objects on your way. I visited just shortly, the list of artists she collected is quite long and I know and worte about some of them: Bryn Oh, Caly Applewhyte, DixMix Source, Eupalinos Ugajin, Lika Cameo and many others.

Finally there’s another exhibtion of Onceagain in a gallery up in the skies named “NOMORE”, reached with the teleport to “Personal Exhibit”. It is really a quite personal exhibition and covers a theme, i was not aware of at all. Onceagain wrote:
“NOMORE interlaces the story of the serious illness of the palm trees, caused by the red weevil, among the inexitent and sick relationship with my father and the joyful synergy experienced by me with this kind of trees during the childhood spent in the “Boulevard Palm” in Nervi, a distrct of Genova, the which I’m particular fond of.
NOMORE was born slowly, it evolves as thought mature, white the experence is lived. With the passage of time, I’ve collectd refrelctions, informations, old photographs, creating my iconic graphic elements, assembled in this project with a contemporary and complete overview“

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (4) Onceagain’s exhibition “NOMORE”

Onceagain Art Gallery provides a unique art experience in Second Life. It combines art objects created in and for Second Life in the garden area and the art collection with exhibition space featuring onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s own art. Onceagain succeeds to explain and describe her thoughts when she sees a RL photograph and what pictures this photograph brings up in her mind. The direct comparison is intriguing. Thank you for your art, Onceagain!

Onceagain Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Peaceful%20Mountains/210/82/24
Rig Torok’s blogpost about “Onceagain Art Gallery”
http://rigtorok.blogspot.com/2022/01/peaceful-mountains-2022.html
onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69389809@N03/

Art in Second Life 2021 (122) The Cold Moon by Dixmix Source

21 Dec 2021 Leave a comment

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

On Saturday, December 18th, the next new exhibtion at DixMix Gallery was opened in room “Abby” – “The Cold Moon” by Dixmix Source himself.

The theme of the exhibtion is quite obvious the moon and consequently a moon levitates in the entrance to the room.
The exhibtion features 11 pictures around the moon theme. Dixmix wrote a short text about the exhibition. The text can be found in one corner of the exhibtion room:

“Since we started the “Moon parties Sound and Vision” with Aki, I was thinking to make a sweries of pictures of the Earth’s only natural satellite.
One day I dragged my loneliness in pixel in Bryn Oh’s new “Immersiva”
So inspiring.
As far as I can remember Bryn has always built mysterious, dark and unique installations on SL.
Today I have the pleasure to share with you here, my interpretation of the day of the full moon in December, called in some cultures “the cold moon” this new and last exhibition“

Impressions of “The Cold Moon” by Dixmix Source @ DixMix Gallery (1) – “We are under the same sky, looking at the same moon” (upper right) / “When the wolves are silent only the moon howls” (lower right)

I asked Dixmix about the “Moon parties Sound and Vision” and he told me that he hosts these particles and music parties together with Aki (Akiko Kiyori) and he even provided a video of a party so that I could get an idea of these events. It seems that I have my “Aki”- weeks as I just recently saw “Clay & Seed” (read here) and “The Incal and the 4 Mazes” (read here) at Aki’s sims.
And Bryn Oh and her sim “Immersiva” are well known in the Second Life art scene.

The eleven pictures are fine artwork each. The pictures extend into the frames and all show the moon. DixMix named each picture and provides his thoughts with the name. The pictures all convey the melancholic atmosphere, that most of us experience when we look at the moon, particularly around this time of the year.

Impressions of “The Cold Moon” by Dixmix Source @ DixMix Gallery (2) – “Silent Night” and “The moon can’t breathe but can take my breath away”

Dixmix Source is in Second Life for more than 15 years. So far I know him as owner and curator of the DixMix Gallery and as a dj. I get regular invitations to the parties at DixMix Gallery (I could never attend so far as I’m always busy at those times).
Dixmix is a Belgian artist, a photographer, a director, a musician and more. You can see more of his pictures on his flickr page. And of course, Dixmix owns and curates the DixMix Gallery. Violet Boa cares about the PR. When I looked up Dixmix Source’s profile for writing this post, I came across an interview that DixMix had with Violet Boa and it reveals a lot more about him. Read the interview in Virtuality.

Thank you Dixmix!
Following the usual exhibition scheme at DixMix gallery the exhibtion should stay open until January 15th, 2022.

Landmark to DixMix Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/46/213/22
“Moon parties Sound and Vision” – video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOyKm-EZutY
Dixmix Source’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10mix/
Violet Boa’s interview with Dixmix in Virtuality
https://www.virtuality.blog/interview-with-dixmix-source/

Art in Second Life 2021 (86) “Nero” by Lex Machine

13 Sep 2021 Leave a comment

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

I have covered Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova)’s art installation already several time and just lately I saw the intallation “Numb” (read here). Lex told me that he also just had finished another installation at SLEA and gave me the direct landmark to it. The installation is called “Nero” and shall be open for the public until end of September.

Impressions of “Nero” by Lex Machine – overview / view at the landing point / theather and guitarist

“Nero” is an artfully arranged installation with objects from other artists and builders. Lex’s artful way to arrange the objects, to combine them, place them into different contexts and backgrounds and to build a relation between them is his particular style (which I like a lot). As for as I found out for “Nero” Lex used art and obejcts from: Rena (guraa), Rebeca Bashly, omronAK (anthonymorfy), Brotherchic (xxalexmodelxx), Chunker Chip Cookie (Jamie Rozenberg), Tah (Tahiti Rae), Alir Flow, Ness (donotgivemyself), Gwen von Aurora (Sweetgwendoline Bailey), Ganja Brune, Bryn Oh, Nams (Nama Gearz), Jogi Schultz (yogijo), Wassa (wassaabii) and Arken Soothsayer. Wow, what a long list and I’m not sure if I got them all.

I made a bird eye’s view of “Nero” and gave most objects a name. At the central landing at SLEA you can grab a notecard about “Nero” and about Lex Machine. In this notecard Lex wrote about “Nero“:
“With this arrangement I tried to tell an open ended story of 4 different perspectives: The world with evidence of it’s end standing in front of it and the reaction of being happy to just wiggle the rest of it’s sand to the bottom of the hour glass, it’s dependency upon the virtual realms of sedation and all those oh so cool different masks it lets us all wear, the dichotomy of religion….it’s nurturing nature it’s other dark sides of fear and control, and some sign of hope behind it all. At the center is something more personal…the core of what causes this brain to move in these directions. To know more of those, you will have to ask me personally. I play those truths closer to my own chest.”

Remark: The hour glasses are around the guitarist who plays in front of the theater.

Impressions of “Nero” by Lex Machine (1)

Lex Machine asked to play with the environment settings for getting different impressions of “Nero“. I didn’t do that for this isntallation but you can get quite dark or quite sunny and happy pictures when you do, it’s up to you only – so try it!

In his art installations Lex tries to come to terms with his experiences as a combat soldier, with all the misery and hardship, with the violence and with the pictures that are literally burned into his memory. Art helps him (and maybe others) to express his thoughts and to rebuild his life. I personally am always touched and intrigued by his work.

Impressions of “Nero” by Lex Machine (2)

Thank you Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova) for another great installation. Thank you to Tansee and all others involved for curating SLEA. I did enjoy my visit.

Direct landmark to “Nero” at SLEA Region 4 NE
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLEA4/131/130/23
Landmark to Second Life Endowment for the Arts SLEA
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLEA7/23/26/55
Lex Machine (archetype11 Nova)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sorrythatnameisinuse/

Art in Second Life 2021 (7) Bermuda Locket

24 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

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

I came across “Bermuda Locket” when I scrolled trough scoop.it SL Destinations . The entry led to a blogpost from Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: Bermuda Locket“. Actually Bermuda Locket is the newest installation of Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova).
Archetype11 Nova was formerly known as Schmexysbuddy Resident and created the Hotel California sims, which I visited in 2019 (read here and here). I saw Lex Machine’s installation “Isolation’s Passengers” last year (read here).

Bermuda Locket is a collaborative build of Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova), Anastasia Falcor (Anastasia Nova), Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka) and Sheraton Falcor (Sheraton Voom). In the landmark description Lex writes: “As you enter into my curse, our dreams reverse and the demons burst…“

Bermuda Locket – overview and orientation map

Bermuda Locket consists of two islands. On one hand it is a lovely beach themed sim with two residentials houses, a beach hut, a boat house, two motor yachts and a sport boat and places to wind down and dream. On the other hand it is a collection of 3D-art, the visualisation of dreams, of temporary thoughts, be it nightmare or beauty or surreal.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (1) – around the landing point

The presented art is quite dominating as most of the objects are very large. The landing is opposed to a broken lighthouse (which I came across already a few times in different sims) by the feet of a large laying female sculpture. You see two other oversized female sculptures kneeling and sitting nearby and strange fishes fly over your head. A surreal scenery. The fishes were created by aki69, most of the oversized sculptures at Bermuda Locket are from wassaabii.

When you look around you see many oversized sculptures. There are 2 beach houses, a traditional on one island and a modern beach house with boat house and beach hut on the other island. I first visited the traditional beach house. On my way to it I encountered an armada of “Wasp Angels” created by Bryn Oh. Close to the house is an intriguing sculpture created by CioTToLiNa Xue surrounded by flying shadowy females. At the beach are several cars sticked with their front into the sand. The cars are the work of Rena (guraa). And finally the ensemble of surreal art is completed by sculptures of Rebeca Bashly.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (2) – around the traditional beach house: Bryn Oh’s Wasp Angels / CioTToLiNa Xue sculpture / wassaabii’s and Rebeca Bashly’s sculptures and Rena (guraa)’s cars

The tradiditional beach house is furnished quite with style and with love for the detail – and nothing reminds of the surreal world which is outside.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (3) – in and outside of the tradional beach house / Rena (guraa)’s cars

The beach house on the second island is modern. Together with the boat house, the beach hut, and the 2 big motoryachts it radiates luxury. The furniture inside is similar to the furniture in the traditional house, again very stylish! I sat down outside on a swing and enjoyed the surreal scenery.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (4) – in and outside of the modern beach house

In the corner of the second island you see a couple of horses (also created by wassaabii). On the beach lies anothter oversized female. Closeby I noticed a raft and sat down for a break.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (5) – wassaabii’s sculptures, the raft, the beach hut and wassaabii’s horses

Bermuda Locket is an outstanding art sim. I rarely saw that many oversized sculptures and it is strange to see how they dominate the scenery. The mind (at least mine) isn’t able to differentiate between the lovely beach islands and the oversized surreal 3D art. Again Lex Machine created an outstanding composition of art and the featured homes of MZ Creations by Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka). And because of the dominance of art I categorized my visit under “Art” rather than under “Simploring”.

Thank you Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova), Anastasia Falcor (Anastasia Nova), Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka) and Sheraton Falcor (Sheraton Voom). I enjoyed my art-simploring-tour.

Landmark to Bermuda Locket
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Solveig/93/135/21
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: Bermuda Locket”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/01/simtipp-bermuda-locket.html

Diary 2020 (66) May 6th/7th Getting deeper again

20 May 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Diary Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I met with Mistress Jenny for one hour in the afternoon on Wednesday, May 6th, and it became an intensive hour for me. I had changed into shorts, a white blouse and overknee boots but I had to take off the blouse again and Mistress put me into the armbinder venus corset. Then we went to Heavy Bondage club and talked about the roleplay the night before. Mistress had enjoyed it, hence it might go on.
But I could also sense that Mistress was in a dominant mood and she destroyed all doubt about it. I had to wear my Ehesklavin tag again and she kept me restricted at Heavy Bondage Club. She also ordered me to take off the overknee boots and to wear ballet boots. One of Mistress’ rules is that slaves either wear no shoes at all or ballet boots and I am her married slave. And she made it very clear that I will regret it if I don’t comply to it during the red light.
The hour went over quickly and we returned to the loft skybox, where Mistress Jenny stored me in the glass cage at the wall close to her throne. I was already getting deep into subspace again.

May 6th: Mistress Jenny and Ehesklavin Diomita at Heavy Bondage Club and at our loft skybox

At night Mistress released me from the glass cage and made me lick her to earn getting off the armbinder corset. I must have done well because she unlocked it and allowed me to wear the blouse again. And she cares about my addiction and that I stay addicted to her. Thank you, Mistress.

We went home and found slave Gwendi, slave Flo and slave Luci playing greedy and we joined in. After the game we decided to go to Gravity’s Wednesday party at Caged Elegance. And slave slut cecy joined us there soon after we arrived. We had fun and I found time to talk to all of them a bit. That is the upside of dancing in Second Life. The music was great as always. We had a relaxed time and Gravity played until flotime.

May 6th: Mistress Jenny and Ehesklavin Diomita at our loft skybox / Dancing at Caged Elegance with slave Gwendi, slave Flo, slave Luci and slave slut cecy / in our skybox at home

After the slaves were off to bed, Mistress Jenny and I spent a few minutes at club Domme a Domme. We were both tired after the roleplay the night before had kept us up way too long and hence we went back home and called it a night.

Thursday, May 7th, Mistress Jenny and I met in the afternoon again for 45 minutes. We spent the time at Heavy Bondage Club mainly just chatting and catching up with our mutual news. We were that busy talking that I even forgot to take a picture, but there are many of those pictures in the blog already *winks*

I had an invitation from Cica Ghost to visit “Social Distancing by Bryn Oh and Cica Ghost” and I did in the afternoon. As the name already gives away it is an installation that deals with the current situation in our RL and it does so with a whimsical smile (read here about this installation).
In the early afternoon I made another simploring tour and visited Hotel del Salto, the new sim of Jade Koltai. It is once again a sim that was built after a real place and I enjoyed my visit a lot and I was impressed (read my simploring report here).

At night Mistress Jenny and I met slave Flo and slave gwendi at the greedy table and we joined their game. When we were finished Ann came by and we had a longer chat with her in a relaxed atmosphere. As the slaves were not much restricted it was an opportunity to do something totally different from our normal activities. I took Mistress Jenny and the slaves to “Social Distancing by Bryn Oh and Cica Ghost” first and later to Hotel del Salto. It was fun and Mistress and the slaves enjoyed doing something different.

May 7th: Mistress Jenny and Diomita at home with Ann, slave Flo and slave Gwendi / Mistress Jenny, Diomita, slave Flo and slave Gwendi visiting Hotel del Salto

It was not yet flotime when we returned and hence we went to Psi’s realm just to wind down a bit before slave Flo and slave Gwendi went to bed. Mistress Jenny and I went to Puerto Esclava for a few minutes and then went to bed ourselves.

May 7th: Mistress Jenny and Diomita at Psi’s realm with slave Flo and slave Gwendi / at Puerto Esclava

Art in Second Life 2020 (24) Social Distancing by Bryn Oh and Cica Ghost

09 May 2020 1 Comment

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

Yesterday I got an invitation from Cica Ghost who has opened her newest art work that she created together with Bryn Oh: Social Distancing. I went there right the next day, May 7th, 2020.

The landing is at Bryn Oh’s sim Immersiva in a box that is also the starting point when visiting Bryn Oh’s installation “Hand”. There’s a board for “Social Distancing” that leads to a platform, where you find Cica’s and Bryn’s installation “Social Distancing“.

Impressions of “Social Distancing by Cica Ghost and Bryn Oh” – around the Landing and meeting the Corona Monster

The theme of “Social Distancing” is of course the current situation most of us are suffering of right now, the Corona virus. But it is done in the typcial Cica way, conjuring a smile in everybody’s face nonetheless – at least in mine. The Cica houses have become small in comparision to humans. One person occupies one house and they keep distance from eachother. Homing pigeons carry the messages between the people. In the background you hear chimes and voices saying “hello”. The scene is installed in a dark forest, you wade mostly through knee deep water if you don’t use the paths that are made of stones. The houses are on hills at a clearing.

Impressions of “Social Distancing by Cica Ghost and Bryn Oh” – meeting the Corona Monster, the red canoe, the houses and the gatcha

And of course there are Corona viruses, the Corona Monsters. They are big and don’t look really nice, no wonder that the humans stay at home! Nonetheless the scene is not scary though. On the water you also find a read canoe, made for social distancing. You can purchase the items used for creating “Social Distancing” at a Gatcha for 80 L$, and if you’re lucky you get the canoe.

Anything else? Yes, I saw no Cica cat :-(. And try to sit in one of the two empty houses and become a part of the community.

Impressions of “Social Distancing by Cica Ghost and Bryn Oh” – some more impressions and Diomita as part of the community

I enjoyed my visit and I like how Cica and Bryn have transformed our current situation into Second Life. Thank you both for this piece of art.

Landmark to Social Distancing by Bryn Oh and Cica Ghost
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Immersiva/144/152/4002

Art in Secone Life 2020 (8) Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe

26 Feb 2020 1 Comment

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

I visited the Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe which displays art made by second life artists Norton Lykin, Nevereux, Bryn Oh and Mistero Hifeng. In the landmark description you find the following wisdom to accompany you during your visit to the gallery “Life is a story, choose wisely how you tell it“. Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe is owned by Norton Lykin. One room of the gallery features the art of Nevereux, the other rooms feature Norton’s own work. I found on statue from Bryn Oh and on of Mistero Hifeng.

I first came across Norton Lykin when I visited La Masion d’Aneli in November 2019 (Simploring 2019 (108) La Maison d’Aneli – November 2019). Norton is with over 12 years a SL veteran. He’s living in Denmark and took up his art activities after his retirement as a system programmer. He sees life as a journey “The ideas we have and the history we tell. Reality is not a scientific truth but as we understand it in every given moment.”
This journey of life is Norton’s theme. I saw one picture and text about it at the above mentioned exhibtion at La Maison d’Aneli and the same picture is a centerpiece of Norton’s Wonderland Art Gallery.

Fluxing Reality by Norton Lykin. The statue on the outer right is by Mistero Hifeng (Tutto il resto e’… gia’…Poesia), next to it is a statue from Byrn Oh called Vera Lynnbot (silent)

One room on the ground floor features the work of Nevereux, an artist who I came across twice so far. Firstly visiting doLLoureux at Daphne.Arts (read here) and secondly at La Maison d’Aneli (Simploring 2018 (97) Another joined exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli). His room at the Wonderland Gallery shows 2D and 3D art objects. Outstanding is a row of presentation boxes opened to present little art objects, from a simple glass of wine, a butterly, an earth globe (moving to Mars), a duck ….
On the other side is a 3D installation held in black consisting of globes, flowers and a fish. I won’t try to interpret, I just enjoyed the forms and colours and the row of presentation boxes conjured a smile in my face as some of them are funny.

Impressions Nevereux’ room at Wonderland Art Gallery

The main entrance hall and the second room on the groud floor as well as the entire 2nd floor presents Norton Lykin’s own art, showing pictures playing with colours and shadows, or little 3D scenes and some statues. At the stairway you find a large picture obviously taken at an installion of Theda Tammas named “the Womb” (I missed that).

Impressions Nevereux’ room at Wonderland Art Gallery (upper pictures) / a 3D scene by Norton Lykin and a picture “Theda Tammas the Womb”

On the second floor you also find the café, a nice place to relax or maybe to talk about the art you just saw.

Impression of Nortos Lykin’s Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe – the cafe (upper left), the gallery building (upper right), “Girl in mind prison” (lower left), “Triade” (lower right)

I enjoyed my visit to Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe. Thank you Norton for presenting your art along with the art of other second life artists!

Landmark to Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GEL%20Community%2027/102/132/22

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