Art in Second Life 2022 (19) Stillborn by Lex Machine

18 Feb 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 “Stillborn“, 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 – and now “Stillborn” is his first installation of 2022.

Impressions of “Stillborn” by Lex Machine (1) – overview pictures

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. As the title implies “Stillborn” is not happy art, a visit makes you thinking.  I use to zoom out first when I visit an installation or sim to get an overview and a first impression. If you look at “Stillborn” zoomed out what catches your eye first are bones, parts of a huge skeleton maybe of an dinosaur. The bones lay on and levitate above the island.
On a second view you notice the levitating bird cages and some oversized figures, one sitting on the island and a black and a white figure in the water at the shore.

Impressions of “Stillborn” by Lex Machine (2) – close to the landing point

Where you land is a colourful flowerbed, a real contrast to figures and the mood “Stillborn” radiates. There are 2 dollcases with oversized dolls. Their eyes are glowing like crazy. Next to one of the dollcases sits another oversized female with glowing crazy eyes. She has some syringes in her body. Then there is this faceless figure between the two dollcases which is wrapped in chains … and finally right beind the dollcases is a head without a skullcap and the head bearthes out bones.

Wlaking more towards inside you see several kneeling figures who try to protect themselves maybe in order not to be hit by one of the bones, the are squatted down like babies. And they have multiple heads are hands growing out of their bodies, abnormalities which can be found at stillborns.

Impressions of “Stillborn” by Lex Machine (3)

A bit apart from the stillborns you find a crying oversized figure sitting on the island. You can literally feel the pain the person is experiencing. She sits between the above mentioned birdcages, in which are birdlike beings with a clock between the wings, a symbol for the time flying by so quickly?

As usual the symbolism of Lex Machine’s installation “Stillborn” is hard to grasp. I once met Lex when I visited “Numb” (read here). Lex was a soldier and lost brothers in arms to suicide. In the end more veterans commit suicide than are killed in action. They have memories of things that used to kill people and the pictures drive them nuts. Far too often the only cure given are drugs … with the known results. At least some elements on “Stillborn” do remind me of this background, like the figure in chains, the female getting drugs, the head without a skullcap. It might be that Lex is expressing the pain about a stillborn, an event that is very hard to get over, something you don’t wish for anyone. I don’t know it.  And how do the two figures kneeling at the shore fit into this picture?
What I know is that the composition of art objects is again very effectful and impressing.

Impressions of “Stillborn” by Lex Machine (4)

I checked a few artists and builders of the objects collected and arranged at “Stillborn“, not of all: ЈiPe (jipe loon), Stabitha (what88 zond), Crai Conundrum, Eric Bloodrose, aki69, wassaabii, NESS (donotgivemyself), MedievalFantasy, Rogue Falconer and Galathir Darkstone, who made the dinosaur skeleton. Some of the names sounded familiar and I came across them on other installations of Lex. Some were new though.

Thank you Lex for another installation that made me thinking.

Landmark to “Stillborn” by Lex Machine
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eve%20Bayou/15/134/22

Art in Second Life 2022 (12) Infinite by Sophie de Saint Phalle

02 Feb 2022 Leave a comment

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

I got an invitation to visit “Infinite” by Sophie de Saint Phalle (perpetua1010), her newest exhibtion shwm at her own SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Center. The exhibition opened January 31st, I visited just before the offical opening.

“Infinite” is not at the main platform of the SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Center. If you happen to land there you need to take one ot the Teleport pads to get to the Desert Gallery, just 250m above. The setting of “Infinite” is quite impressive. It is an open arrangement of blocks and domes in different earth and sand colours, perfectly fitting to the desert around it.

“Infinite” poster / First impressions of “Infinite” by Sophie de Saint Phalle at SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Center – Desert Gallery

In the center of the exhibtion is a sculpture named “Lespugue” by ЈίΡε (jipe.loon) and a few opportunities to sit and meet, not far away is the dj desk and the area for the opening event of “Infinite“.

The Desert Gallery extends in all four cardinal direction and each section has a seperate theme, two sections are in brown/bronze colour, two in sand/beige colours – and the exhibited art fits to these colours. Some sculptures are catching the visitor’s eye and attention, and they fit to Sophie’s main subjects and themes. “Faustino Bloom M” by Deo Faustino (deofaustino) shows a human who s drwn down by a big stone – a reminder of Sophie’s central theme “Escape”, the other named “Venus von Willendorf” by ЈίΡε (jipe.loon) stands for Sophie’s erotic art.

Impressions of “Infinite” by Sophie de Saint Phalle / “Faustino Bloom M” by Deo Faustino (deofaustino)

The brown/bronze sections show pictures most probably made of sand, terracotta, bones or ash that barely contrast with background, they show fossiles or are simply abstract.

Impressions of “Infinite” by Sophie de Saint Phalle (1)

The other brown/bronze section shows also a face (or what you see in it) and a full body. I like the view trough the central scuplture on the exhibition.

One of the beige/sand section has some ligther abstract pictures, in the other you see pictures like in the brown/bronze section, just contrasting to the background – and that makes a real difference!
I saw some of the pictures already before in Sophie de Saint Phalle’s exhibition Terra Australis in 2020 (read here). Sophie spent some time in Australia and she could watch the Aboriginals painting. The pictures were created at Sophie’s home though and not in Australia. As Sophie told me, they all are quite large in reality. The technique is also inspired by how the Aboriginals paint using sand, plaster, natural glue, pigments, terracotta, bones, pulverized charcoal and other natural colours. The motifs sprang from Sophie’s imagination, many of them remind me personally of fossils.

Impressions of “Infinite” by Sophie de Saint Phalle (2)

Sophie de Saint Phalle (perpetua1010) is a Austrian RL painter and book author. She mainly paints nude from models and abstract art. She loves to experiment with different kinds of paint and lithography. Her favourite materials are sand, plaster, glue, terracotta, stones, bones, ash, charcoal, natural pigments and more.
Sophie has made several book illustrations and was for many years political cartoonist for a well known satire magazine. She lived and worked in the United States, Australia, Rome and Monaco. Sophie de Saint Phalle (perpetua1010) has an own gallery, The “SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Centre”.

The Desert Gallery itself is very artful and offeres great views. I took quite some pictures – a perfect mixture of architecture, nature, art and fantasy.

Impressions of “Infinite” by Sophie de Saint Phalle / different views at the Desert Gallery

Thank you for another great exhibition, Sophie. I enjoyed my visit and the great set-up of the Desert Gallery.

direct Landmark to SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Center – Desert Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ocean%20Island/147/185/1256
Landmark to SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Center
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ocean%20Island/185/92/1002

Art in Second Life 2020 (67) La Maison d’Aneli Oct/Nov

22 Oct 2020 Leave a comment

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

On Wednesday, October 21st, a new exhibtion was opened at La Maison d’Aneli. It features the art of Hermes Kondor, chapichapo Delvalle, Gabriel Redrose, Renoir Adder, Moya Patrick, Carelyna, Magda Schmidtzau and Jipe Loon.

As usual I didn’t wait until the opening and I couldn’t attend the opening event due to my other obligations in RL and SL. Hence I peeked in again early.

I started my visit with the skybox of Magda Schmidtzau. Due to the concept with the skyboxes, the artists can choose how to present their art and they do it quite differently. Magda Schmidtzau, or Maddy, choosed a gallery space in dark tomes with some red light and spotlights on her pictures. The gallery has several rooms and levels. Maddy’s pictures are quite erotic and deal with the female body in different poses and with different background.

Magda is in Second Life since 2009 and is passioante about photography. She tries out different ways of processing her pictures and “tries to convey the magic that she sees”. I did see already some of her exhibtions in Second Life and her work is always intriguing.

Chapichapo Delvalle is a French artist, connected to Patrick Moya (moya janus), in Second Life since 11 years and has done a lot of different things in SL, learned to build and learned a bit about scripting and supports people in sandboxes. Currently Chapichapo is supporting Partrick Moya (moya janus) as director of the Moyaland tourist office.

A La Maison d’Aneli Chapichapo’s skybox is made of several rooms and levels that are connected by tubes and stairs. All walls, floors, and ceilings are covered with fractals, you kind of see a gallery within a Kaleidoscope. The first pictures you see are party RL pictures and party abstract pictures in front of a wall texture covered with Eiffel towers. In the main room with the fractal textures covering the walls you see ever changing moving colourful spirals and kaleidoscopes as eye catchers within the walls. Chapichapo also added some 3D objects, that are also animated. Overall, a very particular and outstanding exhibtion room.
You can see more of chapichapo Delvalle’s work on flickr here.

I saw already some of Patrick Moya (moja janus)’s art. I came across him in 2017 when I visited his Moya Land  (read Simploring 2017 (56) Moya). At La Maison d’Aneli his room is kind of a big library. The walls are completely used a storage for Partick’s art. Some of these are only textures, in some others there’re objects stored – and all are in Patrick’s unique style. The feeling of being in a library room is enhanced by some 3D shelfs and objects like the ladder or the desk in the center of the room.
Of course there’s a lot to discover at the walls. I think you could easily spend hours in here!

Patrick Moya (born 1955 in Troyes, France), is a French artist. He is a part of the artistic movement “Ecole de Nice”. Moya has been at the forefront since the 1970s of straddling the latest forms of media and technology to benefit art rather than rendering it extinct.
(excerpt from wikipedia).
He is an early pioneer of video art and is active with his art in Second Life since 2007 in addition to his work in the physical world. The barriers between the two worlds do blur in his artistic work. Moya Patrick (moya janus) has also a website http://moyapatrick.com/ with tons of information about his work and about Moya in Second Life. Unfortunately it is in French only.

Renoir Adder’s gallery room at La Maison d’Aneli is a square room held in black and blue with the pictures at the four walls. He makes classic paintings that are uploaded into Second Life. Some of his paintings remind of van Gogh others of monet and again others don’t fit into any scheme.

Renoir is Italien, he’s an experienced musician and played the rhythm guitar. He worked in Luxemburg, Belgium, Holland and France, where he attended a course at the ecole d’art, before he return to Italy. He began painting without ever stopping … and we can see some of his paintings now here.

Jipe Loon lives in France, was a student in art school, then found his passion for stone sculptures. Jipe is in Second Life for more than 13 years and now sculpts irtually using tool like ZBrush, Cinema4D, DAZ 3D, Blender, or SubstancePainter. Jipe sells his creations on the marketplace. I came across some of his figures already before in the frame of my simploring tours. I also saw some more when I visited the Extempore Gallery and Lounge (read here).

In the center of Jipe’s skybox at La Maison d’Aneli is a museum in the shape of a pyramid. You should switch advanced lighting on and activate shadows from sun/moon and projectors. The pyramide museum is guarded by an egypt, a really tall statue. You can sit on the palm of the guardian and will dance on it. The museum is great. There are several sculpture inside, presentated like they would be in a real museum. In the center is a group of 3 females playing with a chain. What is special is the effect of the light coming down from the top of the pyramid and highlighting the different sculptures. Very well done!
What is funny is the advice at the entry about wearing a mask in these times (in Second Life?). The revenue from the maskswill support the arts. In the museum you also see a model of the virus.

Hermes Kondor is from Portugal. He’s a photographer and photojournalist. Hermes has 40 years of professional photography experience. He dealt with the hard reality of real life photography working for a daily newspapers, and as a photographer and photo-edtior in several magazines. He also worked as a teacher of photography and photojournalism.

Hermes is in second Life for almost 13 years. His pictures can also been seen at his own gallery, the Kondor Photo Gallery, and at his flickr account.
What Hermes really likes most is street photography and the exhibtion at La Maison d’Aneli is all about it. It is also about Hermes’ passion for dogs. The work was also exhibited in the Colorfoto Photo Gallery, in Lisbon, in April 2018, and a book was published about it. A special edition of the book, created for Second Life, will is available during the exhibition, as a gift to all visitors.

Carelyna is in Second Life for almost 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.

Her square gallery room is filled with pictures, mainly held in yellow and orange tones. That these pictures were taken in Second Life can’t be seen on a first glance if at all. They are artful and impressive.

Gabrienna Scott Redrose (Gabriel Redrose) is in Second Life for over 10 years. She models and you can see a lot of her at her flickr page here. In the accompanying notecard of the exhibtion she writes about herself “Hi I’m Gabs, the Artist and Owner of Redrose Art. I’m an aspiring Model and Artist on Second Life.. I live in SL as a Bat-Girl avi, It ‘s been pretty fantastic i must say. I meet awesome people everyday and have made several close friends over the years.”
It is the first time that I see anything of her in Second Life.

At La Maison d’Aneli her skybox is filled with pcitures and 3D objects. One wall is used to promote her own brand “Redrose Art”. The 3D objects don’t have a common style, hence they are hard to desrcibe. I personally liked the matchstick figures below of the Redrose Art sign. 3 walls are used to present Gabrienna’s pictures, which are colourful and abstract. Overall an intriguing exhibition with a lot to see.

The current exhibition stays opened at least until November 10th.
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

Art in Second Life 2020 (27) Extempore Gallery and Lounge

18 May 2020 4 Comments

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

After my blogpost about the April exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli (read here) I had contact with one of the artists who were featured in this exhibition – Etamae.
Etamae is from the UK and began taking photographs and then turning those photographs into digital art in 2018.
Her first passion was erotic art and I had come across Etamae in 2019 the first time when I visited her exhibtion “Dominance and Submission” at Elevate Femdom (see here).

And more of etamae’s erotic art can be seen at Eta’s Feed Your Fetish Gallery which is “a little edgy, somewhat sensual centered about the erotic and the BDSM lifestyle” and hence does fit to my personal passion. On Monday, April 27th, I visited Eta’s Feed Your Fetish Gallery (see my blogpost here).

Besides owning Eta’s Feed Your Fetish Gallery Etamae owns two other galleries and I visited one of them on Thursday April 30th: The Extempore Gallery and Lounge.

Extempore Gallery and Lounge – impressions of etamae’s own art

At the Extempore Gallery and Lounge Etamae showcases pictures taken in Second Life and manipulated in particular by recolouring and adding light effects to them as well as some animated permantently changing pictures. 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.

At the Extempore Gallery and Lounge Etamae not only showcases her own art but provides the space also to other artists. At the time of my visit the gallery featured also the art from: CybeleMoon (hana.hoobinoo), Patrick Moya, Sophie Marie Sinclair (perpetua1010), Aneli Abeyante, Jipe Loon, Patrick Ireland (PatrickofIreland), Harry Cover (impossibleisnotfrench) and Safar Fiertze.

Extempore Gallery and Lounge – impressions of Patrick Moya’s art

I saw already some of Patrick Moya (moja janus)’s art. I came across him in 2017 when I visited his Moya Land (read Simploring 2017 (56) Moya).
Patrick Moya (born 1955 in Troyes, France), is a French artist. He is a part of the artistic movement “Ecole de Nice”. Moya has been at the forefront since the 1970s of straddling the latest forms of media and technology to benefit art rather than rendering it extinct.
(excerpt from wikipedia).
He is an early pioneer of video art and is active with his art in Second Life since 2007 in addition to his work in the physical world. The barriers between the two worlds do blur in his artistic work. Moya Patrick (moya janus) has also a website http://moyapatrick.com/ with tons of information about his work and about Moya in Second Life. Unfortunately it is in French only.
At the Extempore Gallery and Lounge we see examples and drafts of at Moya label in many different variations. I’m not sure, but somehow it felt familiar, I might have seen some ot the exhibits already before

Extempore Gallery and Lounge – impressions of CybeleMoon (hana.hoobinoo)’s art

I also came across CybeleMoon or Hana Hoobinoo already a few times, the last time when I visited “The Itakos Project and Art Gallery“ (read here). Cybele’s picture always have a fantasy background and often show portraits or people in a peaceful, mostly hazy fantasy world. Her pictures seem to tell a story, that you have to make up yourself.

Extempore Gallery and Lounge – impressions of Sophie Marie Sinclair (perpetua1010)’s art

“Sophie Marie Sinclair is a RL painter and book author. She mainly paints nude from models and abstract art. She loves to experiment with different kind of paint and lithography. She has made several book illustrations and was for many years political cartoonist for a well known satire magazine. She lived and worked in the Unites States, Australia, Rome and Monaco.
At Extempore Gallery and Lounge you can see some of her “Inpirations in Red”, powerful paintings in red with a fantastic 3D-effect.“

Extempore Gallery and Lounge – impressions of Aneli Abeyante and Jipe Loon’s art

Aneli Abeyante, who runs La Maison d’Aneli, creates objects in 2D and 3D, colourful, steadily moving, and with particular light effects. Aneli writes about herself:
“I love geometry and mathematics. So after much practice, I managed to clear structures and shapes. In reality I practice painting, I do not have precise style but I always seek harmonization.”
Some of the Aneli’s work exhibited at Extempore Gallery and Lounge was already shown at La Maison d’Aneli in January/February 2020 (see my blogpost here). You see geometrical shapes with one dominating colour. Most of the displays as constantly changing.

The 3D figures that are showcase in the area of the staircase were created by Jipe Loon, erotic figures, truely exaggerated yet intriguing. Jipe is in Second Life for more than 12 years and he sells his creations on the marketplace. I came across some of his figures already before in the frame of my simploring tours, but I never saw more than one, yet at Extempore Gallery and Lounge you see a few of them.

Extempore Gallery and Lounge – impressions of Patrick Ireland (PatrickofIreland)’s art

When I visited “The Itakos Project and Art Gallery“ (read here) I saw an exhibition of Partick Ireland’s art but I couldn’t find any information about him. Patrick’s art, surrealism pure, is shown also at Extempore Gallery and Lounge, but there was a notecard with a bit more information, including his SL name PatrickofIreland:
“Originally in SL in 2008 and recently back after a hiatus of many years, Patrick found his passion for SL photography a little more than a year ago. In this short time, he has become a prolific SL photographer known for his detailed sets and desire to share the joy of his many interests, including surreal subjects, Asian art and philosophy, civic issues and, of course, love.“

Extempore Gallery and Lounge – impressions of Harry Cover (impossibleisnotfrench) and Safar Fiertze’s art

Harry Cover, also known as Impossibleisnotfrench, is from France. He started his second life by playing with prims, then sculpties and finally mesh (Blender). He’s passionate about photos and  graphic designer in RL (among others). One of his objects – Statue vis ecrou all inone – can also be found at my home *winks*. Harry also works with Serene Footman, who creates sims after real places, you’d usually never come across exploring the world as a tourist. He creates landmark buildings for Serene and I mentioned him several times already when I wrote about Serene Footman’s weired outstanding places.

Safar Fiertze has two installations at Extempore Gallery and Lounge. She’s in SL for almost 12 years and writes about herself: “I love labyrinths and labyrinthian minds. I like the artistic and innovative juxtaposition of words. I’ve discovered the joys of juxtaposing prims”
Baletka is an interactive story experience at Extempore Gallery and Lounge loosely inspired by an R.D. Laing case study. You can walk through the story and see Safar’s 3D art.
There’s a second installation of Safar Fiertze “Mechanical Apparition of Emergent Dream” where you can interact with bouncing balls, which reproduce themselves – intriguing.

My spontaneous visit to Extempore Gallery and Lounge became longer than I thought. I had fun seeing it and I enjoyed the art from artists who I came across before again. Thank you etamae for providing and curating your Gallery. I had only one more gallery from etamae to visit “Etamae’s gallery at Absolute Bliss” and I tried Saturday, May 2nd .. but it is gone or the Landmark I had was invalid,

Landmark to Extempore Gallery and Lounge
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blarn%20Isle/13/210/1502
Eta’s Feed Your Fetish Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Swanbridge/204/19/3216
Landmark to La Maison d’Aneli
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/36/55/3501
Landmark to Moya Land
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moya%20Land/53/95/36
Patrick Moya’s website
http://moyapatrick.com/
Landmark to “The Itakos Project and Art Gallery“
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ATL/177/192/1011

The Mistress Chair

04 May 2017 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

When we visited “La Joie Mauvaise. The Motel” (read here), I saw a very particular piece of furniture at the mansion there, a sculpture made of 3 naked slaves who form a chair. I asked Mistress Jenny to try it out and she did not just sit on the chair, she began to try out all couple poses with me. The chair itself is very extraordinairy and the couple poses are well made. I took a whole series of pictures and I admit that the poses did excite me. At the end of our visit I could convince Mistress Jenny to get this chair for our home. We placed one in our dungeon and one in our private skybox. The chair is sold by LOON (Jipe Loon) and called “Mistress Chair Fetish“.