Art in Second Life 2023 (7) Memory Gongs at The Hannington Arts Foundation

27 Jan 2023 Leave a comment

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

I got an invitation from Therese Carfagno. She sent a message and told me that she had teamed up with two friends, Sweet Susanowa and Violaine (Anadonne), and that the three teamed up and installed a permanent exhibition in a big gallery at The Hannington Arts Foundation. The gallery is named: Memory Gongs.

Actually Memory Gongs consists of three galleries that are built in several connected buildings. One is called The First Life Gallery, the other The Second Life Gallery and the third The Erotic Gallery. When you zoom out you can recognize the three different galleries. Each gallery has a different base colour outside as well as inside. The landing is at the entrance to all three galleries.

Impressions of Memory Gongs (1) Gallery overview

The gallery was built by Sweet Susanowa. All three artists have pictures in all galleries. I started my visit with The First Life Gallery. The featured pictures there are RL pictures and paintings of all kinds uploaded into Second Life. They reach from abstract to monochrome photographs

Impressions of Memory Gongs (2) The First Life Gallery

I know all three artists, Therese Carfagno, Sweet Susanowa and Violaine (Anadonne) from my visits to La Maison d’Aneli, which has closed it’s doors end of last year. And now the three made their own gallery.

Violaine is in Second Life since 2016. She contributed at La Maison d’Aneli in November 2018 (read here), in January 2020 (read here), in April 2021 (read here) and in September 2022 (read here).
I saw Sweet Susanowa’s art at La Maison d’Aneli back in July 2019 (read here), in May 2020 (read here) and in December 2021 (read here). Sweet joined Second Life 14 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 Second Life Gallery features pictures that are based on photographs taken within Second Life as the name already implies. The show the braod variety of art that can be created based an SL pictures. For me that is still facinating after all the years I have spent in SL already. I don’t get tired of it.

Impressions of Memory Gongs (3) The Second Life Gallery

Therese Carfagno is also an artist who I know from La Maison d’Aneli. She had exhibitions there in June 2021 (read here) and in May 2022 (read here). Therese came to Second Life in February 2007. Soon she got a job as a journalist, and met the most interesting artists in SL. Seeing so much creativity inspired her to start taking pictures herself. Therese thinks that taking pictures helps to look at the world a little closer – and there are so many wonders to see in SL:
“I have no interest in calling myself an artist. I take snapshots. If I’m happy with the picture because of the motive, the colours, the people in it, or anything, I upload it to Flickr or exhibit it somewhere. That’s it. And if someone else like what I do, that’s even better.”
You can see Therese Carfagno’s pictures also on her flickr account.

Memory Gongs is a really large gallery and you can spend hours there. My quick visit took already more than an hour and I didn’t see all, nor did I look at many details. The pictures have all names, that you can see when you hoover with your mouse over them. The titles may provide a little insight in the artists thoughts about their work.
What I missed were notcards about the artists. And you can’t see easily who of the three artists made which picture. Maybe that is intended, I don’t know. I personally would appreciate to see the artists names.

Finally I visited The Erotic Gallery. I think I won’t have to describe what kind of pictures are featured there *winks*.

Impressions of Memory Gongs (4) The Erotic Gallery

Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF) is owned by Hannington Xeltentat. Thank you Hannington for providing the space for the art and for enabling Memory Gongs.
Thank you Therese Carfagno, Sweet Susanowa and Violaine (Anadonne) for your art.

Landmark to Memory Gongs
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/116/135/3333
Therese Carfagno’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carfagno
Landmark to Hannington Arts Foundation (HAF)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xeltentat%20Enterprises/128/129/3501

Art in Second Life 2021 (114) La Maison d’Aneli December 2021

02 Dec 2021 3 Comments

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

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

Art in Second Life 2020 (28) La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020

21 May 2020 Leave a comment

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

Wednesday, May 20th, Aneli Abeyante opened a new joined exhibtion of 7 artists: Sophie Maire Sinclair (Perpetua1010), Slatan Dryke, Desy Magic, ilyra Chardin, Sweet Susanowa, Djehuti-Anpu (Thoth Jantzen) and Nok Kirax.
With this new exhibition Aneli also changed (once again) the concept of her gallery “La Maison d’Aneli“. The main hall is now on the ground level in a large industrial or storage hall. From here doors with teleporting functionality lead to skyboxes, one box (50x50x30 meter) for each artist with an allowance of 300 prims. This way the artists are quite free how they showcast their work and there’s no destraction from others rooms or art. I admit, that I like this concept a lot.

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020 – the new gallery concept, you start your visit in a large industrial and enter skyboxes by teleporter doors

I visited the new joined exhibtion several times before the opening event which I couldn’t attend due to my other activities in Second Life. My visit started with ilyra Chardin’s box where she installed a little Mediterrean town under the current restrictions. She titeled her installation with “The New Normal – The Date”.
The setting is quite lovely, I could almost smell the sea and the Mediterrean air and flair. But no tourists on the streets and no inhabitants. You have to look up to the windows and balconies and even there are not many. I saw one man playing a banjo and singing and I also saw “The Date”, two people sitting at dinner on two adjacent balconies.
“ilyra Chardin is an artist and designer, whose work has been featured in numerous installations and exhibits across the grid. Her art work crosses media and styles, spanning from real life and digital to SL art.  First and foremost, Ilyra is a story teller.” (taken from the accompanying notecard)

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020: ilyra Chardin – “The New Normal – The Date”

Nok Kirax is in Second Life since 2007 and has dome a lot of different things in SL for example building and landscaping. His current passion is photography. He mainls makes portraits with a non coloured background (black or white) which forces the viewer to focus on the face. The portraits are quite expressive and the eyes and every wrinkles tell a story. You begin to think about the person behind the face, what is the story, which fear do they have, which passion?

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020: Nok Kirax

Sophie Marie Sinclair (Perpetua1010)’s box at La Maison d’Aneli is a mixture between a showcase for her pictures, her art and a mystic, hazy fantasy place. Set to “midnight” the pictures illuminate the scene and it needs a second view to realize that the pictures depict human bodies, mostly female bodies and all colours of different yellow tones. The pictures develop a totally different impression in this environment than just seen on a black or white screen.
“Sophie Marie Sinclair is a RL painter, cartoonist, book author and ghostwriter for well known comedians.. 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.” (taken mostly from the accompanying notecard)
Sophie Marie Sinclair (Perpetua1010) has her own gallery the “SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Centre“, which I visited recently. The blogpost about that visit is up to be published in a few days.

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020: Sophie Marie Sinclair (Perpetua1010)

“doyouSL builder/artist Thoth Jantzen (aka “TJ”, “Djehuti-Anpu”) specializes in creating massively immersive multi-media environments and sculpture.  Using video as “paint”, he creates builds with structures that allow the media to “paint” itself on them in interesting, often beautiful ways, with changing patterns emerging as a result as the video plays out over time. His work’s been displayed at numerous SL events and galleries, and some in RL as well.” (taken from the accompanying notecard)
The see Thoth’s installation at La Maison d’Aneli you should make sure to set your viewer to the proposed settings. You sit down in one of the colourful pods and you screen is filled with permanent changing forms and colours. You hear psychadelic music and (at least I) felt like being on a drug trip. Most probably because I never was on any drug trip, that is how I think it would be. Your mind begins to wander as you follow how the forms and colours develop on your screen and you get calm and relexed drifting into another world. A very well made show, that did impress me. Unfortunately a picture can just grab a still from a moment and you can’t see the motion, on the other hand every moment captured is kind of art itself.

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020: Thoth Jantzen

I saw Sweet Susanowa’s art the first time at another exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli back in July 2019. Sweet joined Second Life 12 years ago without thinking about any exhibition at a gallery. She is a photographer now in real life as well as in Second Life. At La Maison d’Aneli different examples of her work are displayed ranging from processed and artificially manipulated black and white portrait pictures, erotic art to coloured abstract art. Some of her picture look like snapshots, even double exposured and hazy and this impressions is enhanced by round corners. They capture the person supposedly unnoticed, a glimpse of everyday life and some are very erotic in my personal view.

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020: Sweet Susanowa

Desy Magic is in Second Life for almost 12 years. She is a passionate photographer and she has a unique and colourful style in which she processes her pictures and makes them real eye catchers. You can still see the original motif yet the abstract forms or objects added to her picture are a dominant element, intriguing.

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020: Desy Magic

Slatan Dryke is in Second Life since 2007. “In RL Slatan loves Art in every expression, but he is most fond of paintings and sculptures, following his classical education. Slatan is also a photographer in RL. In Second Life he’s a a perfectionist in taking his pictures, never missing a single detail. Slatan rarely uses an editor to modify his pictures, so he likes to say his works are “natural”. He also creates sculptures, which are often slight but become alive with a creative use of textures, lights and movements.” (excerpt taken from the accompanying notecard)
At La Maison d’Aneli he showcases a colourful installation in his box. The walls, the floor and the ceiling are textured in red, brown and blue tones. In the center you see round animated spirals made of faces, worms, mice and skeletons and on top of the spirals are two large bottled paperships. Furtheron there are some abstract tree-like textured objects in the room, The combination of the art objects is hard to Interpret, at least for me, yet the single objects are intriguing.

La Maison d’Aneli May/June 2020: Slatan Dryke

The current exhibition stays opened at least until June 20th.
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 (new, it’s on the ground level!)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/23/65/23
Landmark to Sophie Marie Sinclair (Perpetua1010)’s “SUBCUTAN Art Gallery and Multimedia Centre”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ocean%20Island/136/128/1002

Simploring 2019 (81) La noveau Maison d’Aneli – joined exhibition of six artists

19 Jul 2019 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , ,

La Maison d’Aneli recently moved and is now located at VeGeTaL PLaNeT, which is created and owned by Vroum Short. On Wedbesday, July 17th, Aneli Abeyante opened the first exhibition in the new rooms and I visited on Thursday, July 18th. My visit reminded me that VeGeTaL PLaNeT is still on my list of places to explore.

The exhibtion at La Maison d’Aneli presents the art of 4 artists, Sweet Susanowa, Patrick Moya, Winterwolf Talullah and Ule (uleria.caramel). In addition two more exhibtion spaces are used to present examples of Vroum Short’s art and of the art created by Aneli herself. The concept of the exhibitions and of the gallery remained the same. The new gallery is a bit more open and looks a bit more modern.

La Maison d’Aneli July 2019 – current exhibition poster / a view from the entrance (upper right) / vroum Short’s art (lower right)

Right close to the entrance is the space, that is dedicated to Sweet Susanowa. Sweet joined Second Life 11 years ago without thinking about any exhibition at a gallery. She is a photographer now in real life as well as in Second Life. At La Maison d’Aneli different examples of her work are displayed ranging from processed and artificially manipulated black and white portrait pictures, erotic art to coloured abstract art. There’s one blurry portrait of a photographer – that might be the artist herself.

La Maison d’Aneli July 2019 -Sweet Susanowa

Uleria Caramel is an artist from Finland who joined RL 9 years ago. She has had several exhibitions in Second Life already. For the exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli she used old abstract pictures that she created aged between 12 and 14 years old. She enhanced the colours and added some digital effects to them. She wrotes about the exhibited pictures: “I really don’t know what else to say about them… you as a person who sees them, can judge them. Thank you!” And that’s the nature of art, everybody sees it with a personal view form a personal perspective.

La Maison d’Aneli July 2019 -Uleria Caramel

Talullah Winterwolf is almost 10 years in Second Life. She was trained in Fashion Design in RL. The pieces exhibited at La Maison d’Aneli are layered images. Each piece tells a story, some are deeply autobiographical, others could be inspired by a chance snippet of conversation, a memory, a line in a song or book … each one contains an emotion Talullah was feeling strongly at the time.

La Maison d’Aneli July 2019 -Talullah Winterwolf

I saw already some of Patrick Moya’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 La Maison d’Aneli we see different pieces of his work, all of them clearly showing Patrick Moya’s style. Most of them are dealing with different ways of creating kind of a Moya brand displaying the name Moya.

La Maison d’Aneli July 2019 -Patrick Moya

Vroum Short is a French SL artist since 2007. As mentioned above she created VeGeTaL PLaNet, the new location of La Maison d’Aneli. VeGeTaL PLaNet is “a world where everything becomes possible and achievable where the barriers of reality fade away to let the imagination flood it with life. In her underwater exhibitions, living plant sculptures and luminous paintings, animated in 3D, mingle“. Vroum Short’s art, currently exhibited at La Maison d’Aneli shows moving abstract objects in 2D and 3D with particular light effect.
Aneli Abeyante’s art is exhibited in the room next to Vroum Short’s art. Aneli also 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.”

La Maison d’Aneli July 2019 – vroum Short (upper left and right) / Aneli Abeyante (middle and lower left)

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 Aneli for another great exhibition and thank you to all artists. The current Exhibition runs until end of August. Enjoy your visit, if you go there yourself.

Landmark to La Maison d”Aneli
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oak%20Park/101/136/3502