Mindscape

By Gemma Cleanslate

One of the offshoots from the VWBPE that I finally got to see will still be in the world of Second Life so you will be able to take a look at this marvelous display of the creative mind of artists at work.

Asmita Duranjaya, a well known artist and owner of InterstellART  put out a call to artists to create  for  a collaboration to be called, “ 'MindScape', and it will be related to brain research and to all, what can refer to the human mind, how to develop, inspire and care for or manipulate it. 15 artists will create either a 2D or a 3D work referring to the topic by adding his or her idea, be it more realistic-physical or more mental or philosophical abstract. I provide on my sim the environment for presenting the artwork and am also one of the active artists. The 3D area is a moon landscape, where the 50-prim-installations are presented."

Fifteen artists answered the call with both 3d and 2d displaying their own inner vision of the brain activity and care. At the entrance to the 3d part of the installation one can pick up a notecard that introduces all the artists and their biographies . You can also find a tp to the 2d gallery there and when you arrive tour the 2d exhibit and also take a look at all the past works of Asmita which are on that level .

I toured the entire 3d exhibition at her InterstellART  with Asmita and several other visitors on the day for VWBPE members and friends . It is so eclectic in the expressions represented, but so interesting to see the brain research and care that each could see as necessary to brain health and happiness. 

I had to go back to take a second and third look at each to try to discover what they see. It is like poetry , so individual in thought. These pieces are not static but most of them moving .

Up at the 2d art gallery  on another visit I toured the lovely display of the many artists who participated in that part of the exhibit . Memories , dreams , thoughts, good and perhaps bad are depicted in the portraits there.

 Stories may be congured up  in one’s own mind when viewing all the exhibits . It is definitely worth several visits to experience what each artist may have been thinking when working on their own part of it all. Asmita told me that the exhibit will remain in place for several more months so take your time there. It may be good therapy in these days to meditate on the pieces . I am not an artist, but am an audience of appreciation of  the creativity of those who are. That is why I love to visit installations such as this.  To begin the tour enter here . 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/185/142/3685

Gemma Cleanslate

Environmental Art Delivers a Sobering Message at Ecoscape

Environmental Art Delivers a Sobering Message at Ecoscape

by Klaus Bereznyak

EcoScape opened March the 3rd in a dedicated setting at Asmita Duryanjaya's InterstellART sim. Environmental Art installations from 8 Second-Life artists treat a variety of issues from the threat of biosphere collapse to human survival strategies in a polluted future scenario. The exhibits are impactful and informative and well worth experiencing up close.

One of the contributing artists, Elle Thorkveld explained to me how she'd been inspired with the seed of an idea while participating in an online class in Environmental Humanities. She highlighted a rare interview with the artist Gustav Metzger in AnOther magazine which talked of a need for artists to speak up about the issues the earth is facing.

"I mentioned an environmental art exhibit as a possibility for a different venue to Asmita Duranjaya. She liked the idea and offered to host it at her interstellART sim.  I would like to credit Asmita for all the great work she has done refining the concept, curating, organizing and creating installations herself for the exhibit. I have done much less in comparison.

Beyond the initial idea and some support, my contributions have been limited to creating an installation."

In spite of it being a difficult topic and far from cheerful, the project has been well received. It attracted a full sim for the opening event, and the level of interest has been encouraging.

The exhibits are stationed in a desert environment. Visitors can use teleport stations to get around or walk over the dunes on foot. There is information available in notecards at each station as well as in a dedicated information area, where a book about the show and some comfy chairs are free to pick up and take home.

Asmita, in a notecard, outlines the overarching intent of the exhibition:

"As artists we can neither influence necessary political decisions (except of voting for the parties and politicians, who care), nor reverse some negative developments of the industrial growth.
But we can warn, issue a statement beside trying our best in personal life to behave ecologically responsible."

I asked Elle what she thought artists can do about environmental problems:

"I think that they can raise awareness of the problems through presenting aspects in their work.  Artists have the freedom to look at issues in imaginative ways which I think can raise the public's consciousness of issues. They might even offer new solutions."

Some of the stations make use of the virtual environment to immerse the viewer in alternative visions of the future.

June Clavenham's "Overpopulation" features a city burned out and ruined, embedded with interactive media stations and leading to a brightly painted garden that could represent a better future.

Our choice is also emphasised in Duna Gant's "You Decide" and Alosio Congrejo's "To Be or Not to Be."

The diversity of approaches artists have taken to the subject is worth appreciating, both in their choice of issues and the techniques used to create their installations.

Melodie Heart has collaborated with Erico Lecker in creating "Armageddon in the Biosphere" to highlight the frightening consequences of the destruction of insect life through pollution, habitat changes, overuse of pesticides, and global warming.

It must have been challenging for artists to zoom in from all the possible environmental issues they could underline.

Elle Thorkveld's contribution, "No Ark in Sight", calls our attention to rising oceal levels and the plight of polar bears with imagery that melts together arctic scenes and open ocean, demonstrating the transition. She explained why she chose the bears:

"I like bears in general and I think polar bears, being so specifically adapted to an environment that is being dramatically impacted by climate change are sort of a canary in the coal mine for all animals and the mass extinction going on. They are beautiful animals, it is very sad."

The beauty of trees and the artists' evident love for them is poignantly presented by Lalie Sorbet on an island with cutout organic forms and by Asmita Duryanjaya in her tree-hugging trail.

Asmita's trail invites the visitor to ponder a series of quotes in a short pilgrimage and homage to trees, then to go and hug a tree in RL.

Overlooking the exhibit, Asmita has also composited an inspiring build with a focus on survival strategies, using mesh creations by Silas Merlin. It asks what kinds of alternative technologies humans might need to survive after a catastrophe.

All the contributring artists have more permanent exhibiting areas on the main part of the InterstellART sim, which can be reached by teleport from the landing area.

This exhibition is a bold foray into the ways virtual art can be used to inform, confront and offer some answers while emphasizing the worrying state of the planet. The challenge of using a virtual world to create a uniquely immersive branch of environmental art has been creatively entertained by the participants, and Asmita has done a great work in initiating and assembling the experience for Second life avatars. The exhibit remains open for visiting, and it has only been possible to mention a few of the details.

It seems fitting to end with an afterthought that Elle Thorkveld offered in our discussion:

"We have a focus on finding new life in the solar system, as a great search, yet we are participating in mass extinction of thousands of living species right here on our own planet. It is ironic and rather sad, we humans are strange creatures.  I think simply shifting our attitudes towards other species, to respect them and see that they too have a right to exist, live and raise their families, to be treated with kindness, would help greatly.  As Asmita said in her installation, Hug a tree."

Links:
Gustav Metzger: "We Must Become Idealists or Die" -  http://www.anothermag.com/design-living/8123/gustav-metzger-we-must-become-idealists-or-die
About the Environmental Art Movement - https://www.theartstory.org/movement-environmental-art.htm
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/159/112/2996

Klaus Bereznyak

Unmissable Art for January

By Klaus Bereznyak

Every month is probably a good one for art addicts in Second Life; there's always something going on. For those who want to keep a finger on the pulse and don't mind several group messages a day, groups like "Culture and Fun" keep up well with new exhibits opening and other arty events. It can also be difficult knowing where to start, and the ones shouting the loudest are not always the most satisfying to encounter. Of course, personal taste varies and, while I enjoy finding things that make me sit up and take notice, I am no art critic. For what it's worth, here are just three of my 'unmissables' for this month.

Paula Cloudpainter: "Clouds Meeting Water" at Visions of Beauty

The Visions of Beauty art complex is a good place to start exploring the variety of artists in Second Life. The two buildings contain multiple levels of galleries with different artists in residence and a turnover of exhibitions.

The latest exhibition from Paula Cloudpainter opened earlier this month and features beautiful, light canvases of sky and land.

 

The pictures are arranged on the open roof of the building, with the sky making a perfect backdrop, so they seem to blend into the distance. Paula's bio states, "My canvases are about transitions. How light changes… how moods change…how the universe moves. Sometimes subtle… other times dramatic… change is happening all around us every moment of every day. My artwork speaks to that idea. Clouds provide a perfect vehicle for that expression."

Paula has been working on these pictures since early 2017, using a variety of mediums, digital and 'real'. She tells me all of her artworks start as watercolors, oil paintings and drawings created in RL. When she brings them inworld, she enjoys the possibilities of there being "no gravity" in SL, so elements can float in the air without wires, or be given a stronger three dimensional aspect. She takes her sketchbooks everywhere and intends to continue "exploring the motifs and possibilities of cloudscapes and landscapes".

"The three square watercolors are from my sketchbooks, where I often make notes about the scene directly on the painting. These sketches often serve as inspiration and reference for larger canvases."

 

Paula tells me that some of the pictures have stories behind them. "Empty World," A canvas that stands out with the depth of its blues, depicting the world as if from space, was inspired by a song by Second Life musician David Csizer. David then picked out a picture he liked from the selection and wrote a song about it. The two pictures are side by side. Paula is infectiously enthusiastic about how artists in different areas (music, literature, painting) can inspire each other. She is working on a longer series of paintings, all expressing songs by Second Life musicians. 

"I love to share my inner vision of how i see the world and all of the beauty and intricacies around us. From how a cloud formation moves to how light and color dance on the ocean. I love to show viewers a part of the world they might not have otherwise noticed."

Also worth visiting is the adjoining gallery, filled with Paula's figure paintings, including a picture called "Elephant Strut", which was inspired by one of VooDoo Shilton's songs.

Both exhibits will be in place into the summer, and Paula is planning to have an opening of new watercolors and drawings in June.

Pearl Grey; "Berries" at Montara Bridgeworks Gallery

Montara Bridgeworks is an independent gallery, like many maintained on the grid by their owners, for the love of art. These are often tucked away, full of character, and a real pleasure to discover. Pearl Grey runs this exhibition space with a slow rotation of solo shows from various artists, and it's nice to see her own work in this latest exhibit. "Berries" opened in November and runs until the end of January, so you'll need to be quick to catch it.

 

The visitor notecard offers a poem and describes the exhibition as a 2D digital art meditation incorporating virtual photography. It is the whole effect of the picture series in this setting that is to be enjoyed.

There's a strong thematic element to the work: big canvasses with a bold, earthen palette, depictions of architecture or landscapes and figures, brushed and rounded into softer organic shapes. The natural light and shadow on the two floors of the gallery contributes an atmospheric setting that makes the whole exhibition an immersion, and the furniture invites lingering.

 

I have been back a few times to sit here, letting the theme of "Berries" work itself in - it was time well spent.

Sanjeewa Kumara and Sujeewa Kumari at InterstellART

Asmita Duranjaya's sim-spanning art complex, InterstellART, is dotted with galleries dedicated to the work of single artists, representing a fascinating crossection of styles and approaches. There are galleries above and below, joined by skywalks and gantries and navigated via a system of teleports that I find easier to use than trying to fly about.

 

This exhibition at the SanSujee Gallery represents the work of two real-life artists from Sri Lanka that Asmita has obtained permission to show inworld. The 20 works on display demonstrate the very distinctive work of this couple alongside one another: Sanjeewa's radiant and colorful paintings counterbalancing Sujeewa's stonewashed, earthier work. Both invite the visitor to contemplate mythological symbolism with a surrealist, dreamlike quality.

Informative notecards on each artist can be obtained by clicking on the sign at the entrance to the gallery. They describe how both artists have used traditional imagery from their own and other cultures in their work, creating something that feels accessible from both eastern and western perspectives. Both artists have had formal training in their homeland and abroad in the Netherlands. 

I found the huge canvasses immediately appealing for their colors, shapes and composition, and recognised the common language of dreams in the content of the pictures.

This exhibition has been running since October 2017 and is still open and well worth visiting.

SLURLS:

Paula Cloudpainter: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Whinlatter/137/49/79

Pearl Grey: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Montara/50/189/702

Two Sri Lankan Artists: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/167/46/1053

 

Klaus Bereznyak