Art in Second Life 2020 (60) The Crystal Dragon by Cat Boucher

27 Sep 2020 1 Comment

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

On Saturday, August 29th, I had some time at night unexpectedly. I usually don’t go to live performances at night as I’m busy with my SL family. I went to visit HEA-Gallery. Cat Boucher had an installation there at the HEA Performance Platform, which could be reached by a teleporter.

The Crystal Dragon by Cat Boucher – program / I attended Ryo Sogame

At the platform Hannington endowment for the arts & cool cat’s art music circus presented live performances of music artists. And the platform, the event space was designed by Cat Boucher.

Cat arranged a colourful ensemble of objects around the stage, big light objects looking a bit like mushrooms, glowing flower beds, giant ice menhirs and crystals … all in different colours, yet the main colours were greens and blues.
The platform was huge and the event was visited well, there were around 30 people and I knew at least 10 people, artists who’s work artists I had seen before.

Impressions of The Crystal Dragon by Cat Boucher from Saturday, August 29th (1) – upper right is SoJuKaNoU (Ryo Maynard), lower right is Cat Boucher

Cat Boucher is in SL since 2007. Like myself she was immediately fascinated by the creativity I saw here. Cat started to support live musicians and other artists and built a music circus to hold my events/concerts, a circus without animals but with clowns. She learned to build and to create objects in SL.

Impressions of The Crystal Dragon by Cat Boucher from Saturday, August 29th (2)

The event on that Saturday night was to the music of SoJuKaNoU (Ryo Maynard), a mixture of psycadelic and chill out music with some vocals. SoJuKaNoU (Ryo Maynard) is from Japan and a music geek. Listening to the music you can feel his passion.
The whole stage was flooded with different particles, fitting to the music. I took a lot of pictures. These events are noot static and everybody gets different views – and it is gone again. The whole installation is gone again. What remains are memories and the picture and the good feeling watching art provides.

Impressions of The Crystal Dragon by Cat Boucher from Saturday, August 29th (3)

As the event is over and can’t be reproduced, there’s no landmark, where you could go to see the event yourself. There’s just the hint to watch out for events like this for example at HEA-Gallery.

HEA Gallery is owned by Hannington Xeltentat and was built by Tansee, who also runs the gallery. Thank you Hannington for providing the space and thank you Tansee for enabling the live performances on Cat Boucher stage “The Crytal Dragon”. I enjoyed the show.

Hannington Endowment for The ARTS
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/129/128/3503

Art in Second Life 2020 (55) little boxes by Etamae

08 Sep 2020 Leave a comment

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

The Hannington Endowment for The ARTS (HEA-Gallery) features a new art work of Etamae called little boxes. I have seen a lot of Etamae’s work since I came across her first in 2019 when I visited the Elevat Femdom Lounge & Spa (read here). This year I saw her art at La Maison d’Aneli (read here), I saw Eta’s Feed Your Fetish Gallery (read here), I visited her Extempore Gallery and Lounge (read here) and just lately I saw her pictures at the Plaza Art Gallery (read here). Of course I had also to see her newest work.

“little boxes” is not what I would have expected from Etamae. It is based on a song of Malvina Reynolds (August 23, 1900 – March 17, 1978), who was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her songwriting, particularly the songs “Little Boxes” and “What Have They Done to the Rain.” (source wikipedia)
You can hear the song “Little Boxes” on youtube here.

Impressions of Etamae’s installation “little boxes” at HEA-Gallery, Hive 2 (1)

The installation visualizes the song, the text is written on walls and when you click there you listen to the according stanza. The world of little boxes is colourful just as the little boxes in the song: pink, green, blue and yellow. Every part of the song has its visualisation at the installation. It is funny, almost a bit childish and full of irony. Everything is neat and perfect. That combined with the thoughts that Etamae gives us at the entrance makes “little boxes” a particular experience, something to think about:

Impressions of Etamae’s installation “little boxes” at HEA-Gallery, Hive 2 (2)

“As a clear opposition to conformity the “little boxes” song frowns uopn the idea of suburbia, talking about more than just the houses but also about the way a great many people lige their lifes.
Conform, own the ideal house, have the right amount of beautiful children, in.fact, embrace the middle class attitudes fully and strive to he just like your neighbours, but remember, the boxes might be different colour, but inside? Well, they are all just the same.
All around us are institutions that frown upon the creators, the free thinkers, all through the ages it has been easier to conform than not, we put ourselves in boxes as good as any respected system and although “little boxes” challenged convention and conformity of the era that it was composed in that does not mean that it has no established meaning today.“

Impressions of Etamae’s installation “little boxes” at HEA-Gallery, Hive 2 (3)

Etamae is from the UK and began transforming her pictures from the things she has seen and loved in Second Life into something else, in digital art in 2018. Etamae is not defined by just one style or area of art, she plays with different patterns and tries herself out in a broader spectrum of art. The current exhibtion at HEA-Gallery proves her attitude to try out different forms of art. She got help from friends to get the necessary building and scripting knowledge – and created something new. Thank you Etamae!

Impressions of Etamae’s installation “little boxes” at HEA-Gallery, Hive 2 (4)

Don’t forget to grab a notecard with more information about the installation “little boxes” and about Etamae at the entrance of the exhibition. The exhibtion shall be open until October 15th, 2020.

HEA Gallery is owned by Hannington Xeltentat and was built by Tansee, who also runs the gallery. Thank you Hannington for providing the space and thank you Tansee from enabling the Etamae’s “little boxes“. I truely enjoyed – and it made me think.

Landmark to little boxes by Etame
at Hannington Endowment for The ARTS
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/129/128/3503
Etamae’s FLickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/157802675@N08/?
Malvina Reynolds “Little Boxes” on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2lGkEU4Xs