Diomita Maurer’s Blog

The 22 art space in Bellisseria, Second Life, is promoting an exhibition “Alice (mostly) Doesn’t Live Here” comprised of visual interpretations of selected Lewis Carroll poems running from April 01, 2022 through June 20, 2022.

Each artist chose one or two poems from a predefined list and created imagery based on their interpretation of the work. The works are composed by artists: Boudicca Amat, Trinity Yazimoto, Whiskey Monday, Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand.

Impressions of “Alice (mostly) Doesn’t Live Here” @ The 22 art space in Bellisseria – Boudicca Amat: “Miss May Forshall” and “Only try” / Trinity Yazimoto: “My Fairy” and “All in The Golden Afternoon”

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, illustrator, poet, mathematician, photographer, teacher, and inventor. His most notable works are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871). He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems Jabberwocky (1871) and The Hunting of the Snark (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense.

Carroll came from a family of high-church Anglicans, and developed a long relationship with Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life as a scholar and teacher. Alice Liddell, the daughter of Christ Church’s dean Henry Liddell, is widely identified as the original inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, though Carroll always denied this. Scholars are divided about whether his relationship with children included an erotic component.

An avid puzzler, Carroll created the word ladder puzzle (which he then called “Doublets”), which were published in his weekly column for Vanity Fair magazine between 1879 and 1881. In 1982, a memorial stone to Carroll was unveiled at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. There are societies in many parts of the world dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works. (source wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll)

Although Lewis Carroll may be best known for his Alice character in prose, in the selection of poetry for the exhibition Alice is rarely mentioned. She is hiding in plain sight in one of the images however.

The exhibition consists of 10 pictures. Each picture is dedicated to a poem/text, that you can read just below of the picture. The pictures and the poem are a unit, they fit together. The poem are mostly funny and made me smile, in particular together with the pictures, example given “Brother and Sister” which is the poem for Boudicca Amat’s “Only try”:

“SISTER, sister, go to bed!
Go and rest your weary head.”
Thus the prudent brother said.

“Do you want a battered hide,
Or scratches to your face applied?”
Thus his sister calm replied.

“Sister, do not raise my wrath.
I’d make you into mutton broth
As easily as kill a moth”

The sister raised her beaming eye
And looked on him indignantly
And sternly answered, “Only try!”

Off to the cook he quickly ran.
“Dear Cook, please lend a frying-pan
To me as quickly as you can.”

And wherefore should I lend it you?”
“The reason, Cook, is plain to view.
I wish to make an Irish stew.”

“What meat is in that stew to go?”
“My sister’ll be the contents!”
“Oh”
“You’ll lend the pan to me, Cook?”
“No!”

Moral: Never stew your sister.

Impressions of “Alice (mostly) Doesn’t Live Here” @ The 22 art space in Bellisseria – Whiskey Monday: “Rules And Regulations” / Ricco Saenz: “The Crocodile” and “My Fairy” / Randy Firebrand: “Hmm… A poem about a roast”, “Hmm… A poem about a poem” and “Hmm… a poem about a snappy dresser?”

There are 2 pictures for the poem “My Fairy” which is another example I’ll provide here:

I have a fairy by my side
Which says I must not sleep,
When once in pain I loudly cried
It said “You must not weep”
If, full of mirth, I smile and grin,
It says “You must not laugh”
When once I wished to drink some gin
It said “You must not quaff”.

When once a meal I wished to taste
It said “You must not bite”
When to the wars I went in haste
It said “You must not fight”.

“What may I do?” at length I cried,
Tired of the painful task.
The fairy quietly replied,
And said “You must not ask”.

Moral: “You mustn’t.”

I like the concept of illustrating Lewis Carroll’s poems. It shows what Boudicca Amat, Trinity Yazimoto, Whiskey Monday, Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand came to their mind when reading these poems. This way the spectator tries to combine the poem with the picture and reflects what the artist might have had in mind … or comes to a total different interpretation.

The 22 Art space is a gallery in Bellisseria, a continent with many Second Life prime members homes. The gallery is on one of these homes. It is owned and curated by Randy Firebrand and Ricco Saenz. The gallery’s name refers to the Modern Art Week in 1922 in Brazil, also known locally as “The 22 Week”.

Thank you Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand for enabling and presenting this exhibition. You guys have great ideas regarding art. I enjoyed my visit.

The 22 Art Space in Bellisseria
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grenouille/60/35/35