Farewell to Gracie Kendel's "Ce n'est pas une peinture"

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Sunday February 24th, noted artist Gracie Kendel held a farewell party for her three-dimensional art exhibition "Ce n'est pas une peinture." Known as Kristine Schomaker in real life, had created the artwork after hearing comments that artists in Second Life were simply uploading photographs of their work and not using the Grid's ability to fuller potentials to display art and decided to "play with the concept." The name translates to "This is not a painting."

For some months, the exhibition was in LEA 15 for anyone to come by and either look at from the teleport spot, or jump right in it. Unlike other examples of modern art, one could float around and experience the colors, and background music, from the inside.

Eventually, it came time for the exhibition to close. On the weekend before it, Gracie invited her friends to drop by for one last party for the place. And at 11AM SL time a number of residents dropped by. Some were decked out in some artistic-looking avatars themselves. It was a fun time for both the artist and her friends.

Asking her about her future plans, Gracie answered, "Well working on some more RL/SL plans," mentioning she needed to finish her current project: mannequins used as canvases for modern art. … I am creating 16 in RL but also creating 16 avatars in SL with painted skins that I will project in RL. So it will be another mixed reality thing (smile)." Would that be the only thing? Gracie herself wasn't sure, "who knows, maybe something else will come up ... you never know. (laughter)."

On Feb 28th came this announcement from Gracie:

LAST DAY to enjoy Ce n'est pas une peinture. It has been an amazing 6 months but it is time for it to end. Please come and enjoy the sim while you can  this one last day. I will be letting it all fall tomorrow morning slt :)) Have a wonderful day!!! Thank you so much for your support :))

And so, "This is not a painting" was now a part of Second Life history, gone with the nether. But one can still see the artwork in pictures and videos, such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2NQ69A4DQM&feature=youtu.be .

Gracie Kendel is perhaps best known for her 1000 Avatar Project, which made news in 2011. One can read more about her and her works at http://kristineschomaker.net/ .

Bixyl Shuftan

Gracie Kendel's "Ce n’est pas une peinture"

Gracie Kendel, the artist known for her "1000 Avatar Project" has come up with another art exhibition. The name of it is "Ce n’est pas une peinture," which translates to "This is not a painting."

In her article in iRez, Gracie mentioned that some art critics in Second Life feel two dimensional art on the Grid is too plain, "They don't believe people should upload photos of their physical art … they believe that people should use Second Life as its own platform. While I don't agree with this line of thinking, I did decide to play with the concept." So she came up with the idea "to deconstruct one of my paintings/collages into a full sim installation that avatars can walk and fly through and get lost in. … I want to expand on the idea of blowing apart a painting to evaluate and experience each layer separately as a whole."

In her blog, Gracie described herself as creating the place "using chance and spontaneity" while listening to a music stream playing jazz and classical music. The iRez article described herself as  having taken five days off her job, and doing little but work on the project, "Right now I am almost in a trance-like work state." Ziki Questi gave the number of prims as 1400

Getting to the location at the LEA 15 sim, I was invited to click on a glowing ball titled "Float." Doing so, I was transported to the middle of the artwork, slowly floating  and tumbling along in the middle of the sea of splashes of colors. It was … different.

"Ce n’est pas une peinture" was the scene of Gracie's sixth rezzday party, on Monday October 1st. At 7PM, a number of avatars dropped down to the bottom of the sim to wish the birthday girl well. Gracie herself was in an avatar skin that resembled the splashes of colors of her new project. Gwen Carillon provided the music for the party. A variety of people showed up, from fellow artist Bryn Oh, to someone from Virtual Ability Island, to a couple combateers from a Second Life combat sim army, "WOW, Bryn, great look." "Happy Rez Day Gracie!!!!! we love you!" "How's Gracie gonna test poseballs here?" "It's Gracie....she'll find a way."

Eventually, everyone had to go is and her separate ways. But the painting you can float around in will be around for a while at LEA 15 (63, 114, 533).

Sources: iRez, Ziki Questi, Gracie Kendel


*Update* A Youtube was made of the exhibit by Nina Camplin, which can be seen Here.

Bixyl Shuftan