RothKo 76,226,21

RothKo 76,226,21

Thursday, July 24, 2014

The Night: An Interview with Giovanna Cerise and Kicca Igaly


For the first time, the Italian artists Giovanna Cerise and Kicca Igaly work togeter in exibition, sharing the same theme, The Night. We interviewed both of them so visitor can have a deeper understanding of their work and how they developed their concepts for the art show at Artemis.



Karlos - You have a background as an artist in RL. Have you attended an art school in RL?
Giovanna - I have not attended an art school in RL. I, however, among other things, studied music and I graduated from the Conservatory in classical guitar. For a long time the music was my main activity. This of course greatly influences the way I work, my perceptions and my visions. Probably what I'm doing now is a continuation and an evolution of what has been done before, changing only the means.

Karlos - Are there artists in RL who have influenced your work? Is there any thinker who may have influenced aesthetic vision, RL and SL?
Giovanna - When I started playing with prims in SL I really had no idea what I was doing and where t would take me. I realized that I really like is experimenting. This trend has been more and more accentuated. My work is an ongoing research to combine the concepts with the emotion through form. I can not say which artists have influenced my work, consciously or unconsciously, I admire a lot of them. Lately I've discovered, thanks to a friend, Anish Kapoor, and I was literally fascinated. In SL there are many artists that have interesting ideas and an engaging work.

Karlos - Do you think the emotion emerges with more power at night than in the day?
Giovanna - I'm convinced of this. The night brings out everything from deep inside, good and evil. Each thing is amplified by the senses. The small details which we neglect consciously or unconsciously during day because it disrupts our daily lives, it presents itself arrogantly. Only the blinding light of the desert can give a similar feeling.

Karlos - There is an idea of Carl Jung and and Jungians like James Hillman, who called this trip at night over the sea.This idea is that in the darkest hours we explore more profoundly our feelings.
Giovanna - Yes, in fact I think he is right. In the dark all the things crop up in a very essential manner, as I have done in my work, everything becomes a mirage, a coming and going at the same time. The boundary between what actually exists and what does not exist disappears, from digging deep we go out always somehow reborn.

Karlos - The night is also the place of dreams-.
Giovanna - The night is the stuff of dreams for excellence, especially of impossible dreams.

Karlos - Maybe it is not the place of reason, but feeling and non rational.
Giovanna - Yes, it is a place of emotion and of what we consider irrational. Our education often makes us put aside the irrational, consider it a bad thing and especially dangerous.

Karlos - On the other hand, we live in a society where the focus is the reason.
Giovanna - That’s because we seek constant reassurance through rationality. It s better not dare and go no further. We often seeks the easy way out, one that does not strain the mind, which does not create disturbances. We are seeking an everlasting serenity. In the night, however, the unknown becomes the place of tension, exploration, where rationality is completely put aside. But few people go off the beaten track. and the most worrying thing is that often the new generation that should lead the way for the new was already born old.

Karlos - You said earlier in our conversation that "The night brings everything out of your depth, good and bad. Only the light blinding desert can give a similar feeling. Could this be art for you? A sort of awareness different from that we usually feel in everyday life?
Giovanna - I think our way of being and the way we perceive always come out even in everyday life. If we are used to search inside ourselves, to look into our emotions and our feelings, to be aware also of our drives, we always do it, although often unconsciously. The night and the desert make possible the realization of the emotional vision.

Karlos - The notecard we present at Artemis speaks of the event horizon and light cones.Could you explain how these theoretical concepts are related to your work?
Giovanna - The event horizon is predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. According to physicists the event horizon is an imaginary surface that surrounds each black hole. It's the limit, beyond which, it is no longer possible to go back. In the work presented at the night Artemis is conceived as an event horizon. The space is dilated and is ever changing, never equal to itself. Going beyond the limits everything disappears and nothing is the same as it was before. Light and shadow are key in creating this game and create a constant tension. The figures are motionless waiting projected in this change of perspective. They live their event horizon.

Karlos - Why did you choose the theme for this exhibition The Night?
Kicca - I proposed this theme and it was accepted with enthusiasm. Of course, besides me, it also has inspired Giovanna. I liked the freedom of expression that this gives us, the artists: the imagination can run free on many aspects of the night.

Karlos - Why did you choose the "most real" part of the show, considering that it is more related to “reality”?
Kicca - Very few of my works are pure abstractions, most of them have a tangible symbolism, even when produced with few signs, such as the ghosts and the same physical characters in the scene.

Karlos - You have never worked with Giovanna before, despite both being Italians and know each other. Why did you decide to work together now?
Kicca - This is the first time II work with Giovanna and it was a very positive experience, and I would be happy to repeat it. Giovanna is a fantastic artist and a lovable person. Duna has proposed to work together and at first I was puzzled because our styles are quite different. Then, however, the result has been proved right.

Karlos - Which conclusions did you get from this collaboration? Did you like it?
Kicca - This collaboration has led to the creation and presentation to the public of two works that represent different points of view on the same subject, which can stimulate the imagination of the visitor. I enjoyed seeing the final effect of the combination of these achievements.

Karlos - Do you Intend to collaborate with other artists in the future?
Kicca - For an artist, it is generally more difficult to work as a team because in addition of producing its own part of the work, the work must harmonize itself with the others. I like to work alone apart from a few exceptions. One is Nessuno Myoo. We have started in SL virtually at the same time and the harmony that is created in recent years makes collaboration easy.

Karlos - can you tell where you are from in RL?
Kicca - I'm Italian, I was born and live in Milan.

Karlos - Do you have a background as artist in RL? Have you attended an art school in RL?
Kicca - Yes, In RL I painted on ceramics and oil on canvas. My paintings are exhibited in RL also in my photo gallery of Second Life. But I did not go to art school.

Karlos - Are there artists that you like or have influenced you work in SL?
Kicca - The artistic influence of the works that in the time I met on my way in RL is undeniable. The art, if it works, it has an absolute power over the imagination and creativity and infects everyone, even me. In painting I like the Impressionists and the Macchiaioli and I am fascinated by the Metaphysical School. Regarding sculpture I find that the style often locks the artist RL in repetitive patterns. SL instead leaves me free to deal with different techniques and styles, while retaining my personal taste.

Karlos - What do you like most in SL with regard to the art?
Kicca - In the first place, sculpture, but I also appreciate very much the creative photography.

Karlos - Which types of media and techniques do you use in SL?
Kicca - I work almost exclusively with the native prim. It is always fascinating to find new forms from basic prim and couple them into complex structures. I don’t use scripts very often and focus my attention on the texture which, in part, I produced myself.

Karlos - Sometimes you work it reminds me of mannequins painted by de Chirico. Do you like this Italian painter?
Kicca - De Chirico fascinates me, but I do have him as a model. Although my work has been influenced by the Metaphysical School, it is not my major inspiration.

Karlos - A few years ago, I saw a work for you that might be related to The Night, since we can relate night and shadow. In that case, it was a shadow of a man covering a little girl, symbolizing evil approaching its prey. This is a recurring motif in movies, and it can be seen in films such as Murnau's Nosferatu and Fritz Lang's M, two old German masters. Do you believe that your work is affected in any way by the cinema or literature?
Kicca - Yes, in some work, like the one you mentioned, you can see these influences. After all, there are images that persist long in the collective imagination.

Karlos - Again, comparing these two works, we can see a deep care for the human being, especially those in need. It could be a reason pervades at least a part of your job?
Kicca - I have a particular focus on the human being and many of my works have themes that have a strong focus on human figures. This work, The Night, is an obvious example, but many other topics touched me deeply felt and sometimes highly critical towards extremes of human behavior.

Karlos - You and Giovanna seem to share the idea that at night people reveal their true nature.
Why do you think this? And for some people, SL has the same effect. Do you agree that in SL people also reveal their true nature? And is it possible to establish a link between night and SL?
Kicca - The only thing, in my opinion, that links night to SL is the fact that, for most of us, SL is an activity that takes place at night . At night we are alone with themselves, in most cases, and there are no masks that can relieve us of what we see. In SL everything isl a mask, even if someone decides not to use it, we must remember that the avatar never represents us exactly as we are. Someone exaggerates in some respects, as a caricature, others seek improvement, still others look for the total abstraction from themselves. Behaviors are affected by these choices and new relationships are built with what we have decided to show themselves to others.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Two Italian artists explore the theme of night

At the new exhbition at Artemis, two Italian artists work together for the first time exploring the theme of night. Below you can see some photos of the show and the description of their works by the artists themselves.







Photos by Duna Gant 

Giovanna Cerise 
The event horizon 

The events and history are into the cone of light. And then the cone of shadow hides everything and there are no more events.  Everything ceases, when the event horizon appears .
The night becomes the moment in which you can create an event horizon. Everything seems so different. In it superfluous disappears and only the essentials appears. What the light hides emerges and the particular becomes light in the night.

Kicca Igaly
 The Night

The night ... mysterious ... protective ... disturbing ... accomplice ...
I see the night as a moment that reveals how we really are.
Each of us reacts in its own way to the ghosts that haunt him, or the
lack of them. Those who see in the night a quiet moment to meditate and
think, while others fear the arrival because it returned with the
torment of memories.
There is a man lying on the bench ... a homeless man, gray like the
bench on which he sleeps, because his shy nature leads him to become
invisible to the eyes of passers-by, he and the bench seem to be made of
the same material. Him like the others has its own ghost with which to
contend, between wakefulness and sleep.
There is the man of the lamp post ... waiting for someone? It's a kind
light-hearted, almost cocky, but maybe its just an attitude, as for
wanting to exorcise the ghost that looms behind him, him carries inside.
And there are those who have given up the fight for life, almost like a
self-punishment (or liberation), for not being able to face the
difficulties. Him remains a mere shadow of its existence and the cry of
anger of his failure remain written on the wall.
And meanwhile the water flows............



Sunday, July 13, 2014

The night in the vision of two Italian SL artists

Two Italian artists with a significant art history in Second Life present for the first time ever an exhibition where Gioanna Cerise and Kicca Igaly share the same time: the night.

See below the videos created by Dahir Sapphire and Gregory Kappler, where we have a glimpse of their vision for a theme that has been explored by artists, thinkers and mystics for thousands of years.
 



Monday, June 30, 2014

Dust from Stars, a video by Janjii Rugani

The Brazilian RL and SL artist Janjii Rugani has published a new video on the Dust from Stars installation by Wan Laryukov that we share with you.




Poeira das Estrelas Exhibit opening from Janjii Rugani on Vimeo.

A Small Interview with Holala Alter

A Small Interview with Holala Alter about  his exhibition Another World, Another Art.

Duna Gant: I met Holala years ago. He called me because a common friend talked to him about Artemis Gallery as a serious project in SL. Since then I have followed closely his activities in SL. He is known for his interest on virtual art as collector and his support to the exhibitions of many artists in galleries or sims. I have found out through Facebook his artist side. His conceptual videos his posts have interested me so much that I proposed him to make his first show in SL. After this, he has  gone beyond the role of just being an “art espectator and lover” to the one of creator.

Karlos. In the first place, i would like you to talk about art in RL. Do you have any kind of work as artist or collector in RL? Could you quote some of the artists that catch your attention in RL?

Holala: I come from RL art . Art is my vocation since adolescence, although when I was a small child I always entertained myself making my own toys. After acquiring a theoretical academic background and my independence from the family I have dedicated myself to the practice of art, especially painting, but also I do installation, design, video and music. I feel comfortable before any challenge related to art, both theoretical and practical. I am seduced by good art, regardless of periods and styles. I like art because it is the first invention of man and it marks the final step of the nature towards its intellectual self-sufficiency, and because it thrills us without we know why. To quote very popular artists, I like Leonardo and Warhol; Rembrandt and La Monte Young.

Karlos:  In SL, besides collecting art, you also work as artist, having exhibited at Artemis Gallery and at the Virtual Biennale in Cerveira in Portugal. Which media or techniques did you use?

Holala: At Artemis, it was a multimedia exhibition, composed by videos and music. The videos were accompanied by a selection of images from my exploring in SL for my academic studies. There were photographs of projects of houses I developed under a theoretical question: "What is the use of a house for an avatar, according to their needs?" I also selected images related to my fieldwork in different sims, that had the unique characteristic of using some installation's layers as if they were graphic program filters. The art show was completed with images of  my avatar, articulating SL, reality and graphic programs. I gave it a significant title: "Art is a poison without antidote", which is my personal definition of art. On the other hand, in my participation at the Virtual Biennale of Cerveira in Portugal, I exhibited works using prim modeling. They were simple works but they required great patience. I used script and sounds, I also manipulated photographs taken in RL. I was speaking of language, its corruption and the weight of legal culture; the return to  primitivism that relates art to food, and the slavery which can lead to an artistic vocation, for example, the street musician.

Karlos What did push you to start a collection in SL and when did you start it?

On my visit to spaceXcape, in the fall of 2008, I found my future vocation in Second Life: collecting art. I was much impressed by works and authors reunited there, the installations that you could go through and also go from a dimension to another. A few months later this project disappeared, but I kept intact the desire that I put in march in 2009. During that year I visited many exhibitions and wrote down the name of artists and works that I wanted to acquire, that´s how all started.


Karlos. Your exhibition  in Sl is called Another World, Another Art. For you, is a virtual world different from the real one? If is that’s the case, what are the differences for you?

Holala: For me they are different. The metaverse is an experience of life in another dimension. It is living in a reality more real than reality itself, about a source code, in a different physics. The absence of matter, replaced by a mathematical programming, is the key difference. In addition, advanced virtual life or 3D is the culmination of several of the aspirations of man, as controlling the laws of nature, and the man transformed into a work of art, through the control of his appearance; that is, to be as you imagine and want to. I and the world are the same: images.


Karlos. How do the differences between real and virtual world impact SL art? Do you believe, likeyou said in one of your texts, that “the corruption of language caused from new electronic media will produce new genres”? Do this idea also apply to arts?

Holala: The identification between space and time (relativism) makes the art of the metaverse different, an issue expressed in its potential dynamism; with this I want to say that the work can unleash itself over time. The I of the spectator (through the avatar) is part of the work, with his presence, or touching it (by clicking), causing the work to unleash itself. Not touching should be forbidden in SL. At galleries and museums in RL, this is unthinkable. An art based on computer sentences has expanded the imagination. Certainly electronic media are changing everything: in art new approaches in the hands of a select vanguard are already taking place. Writing, controlled by the printing industry lobby, and the nation state, over which is based its own legitimacy, is a  slower process


Karlos. Which criteria do you use to select an art work in SL? Is there a main theme that leds you to select an artist or an artistic genre?

Holala: In the first place, the work must surprise me. Later I assess its SL specificity. Learning about the building tool and how scripts work allows me to delve into the value of the work. Taste in art is a very subjective matter. After the attraction that a certain work rises on me, an internal debate begins: What does it say? Which resources have the author used to provoke what attracts me? What is the key to his thinking? Facing an emotional situation that we could be described as outright, I value the relationship between writing and imagination when deciding a purchase. A collector must involve herself attending exhibitions and being at the forefront of what is happening. A firm commitment is essential. I learned very young that a collection can only be done if you bet when the phenomenon appears. A collection is impossible to carry out "a posteriori"; a collection can not be improvised from one day to another, it is expensive and key works are always going to be lacking. This  is true for SL and RL.


Karlos. Do you prefer a specific kind of art expression? Sculpture, photography, installation, mixed media, etc.?

Holala: Initially, installation and sculpture. I'm also interested in fractals, which is a widespread trend in SL. Later I have bet on photography, that is a genre that is being imposed itself as has happened in RL. Finally, I have to point out that with great effort I have preferred to make every possible effort to acquire works that I considered relevant in the history of the author, and likewise in the history of the art of Second Life.



Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Another World, Another Art, a video by Greg Kappler

If are not able to go visit Artemis Gallery to enjoy the works of several artists reunited by the SL collector Holala Alter, you still can appreciate the art pieces watching the video made by Greg Kappler.


Poem Reading at Artemis

Today, to celebrate the last day of Dust from Stars, an installation by the Portuguese artist Wan Laryukov, avies are going to get together to read poems inspired by her works.