Of Madpeas and hatters

I’ve been a little pressed for time recently, with both SL and RL conspiring against me, and in rushing to keep up with things like SL news and SL10BCC, I’ve managed to let a few things slip.

So here’s an attempt to redress the balance on two of them. I recently received nudges about two art exhibitions currently underway: the Madpea Art Festival and Art in Hats – Hats in Art.

MadPea Art Festival

The MadPea Art Festival kicked-off on June 15th and will run through until June 29th.

The first festival of its kind the MadPea crew have organised, the festival show-cases the work of 24 of SL’s top artists, and includes daily entertainment sessions throughout the event from some of SL’s top DJs, live performers and dancers.

The distinctly Tron-esque environment of the MadPea Art Festival

Located in a very Tron-esque environment high above Salette, the festival is jointly sponsored by MadPea Productions, Branwen Arts, Cha Klaar and Sally Lavender, and features art ranging from sculpture to painting to immersive pieces to the abstract and even the erotic.

Participating artists include: Solkide Auer, Giovanna Cerise, Safi Farspire, Fuschia Nightfire, ArtWolf  Eternal, Rhea Vintner, Ginger Lorakeet , Yaiza Galicia, DavidWeiner Resident, Anrod Meads, Graham Collinson, Harter Fall, Rebeca Bashly, Fae Varriale,  Moeuhane Sandalwood, Daruma, Jessicabelmer, Kylie Sabra, AniWitt, Rag Randt, MadPeas, voidheart mistwalker, Morlita Quan, FirleFanz Roxley and Noke Yuitza.

The MadPea Art Festival

Full details of the event, including the entertainment schedule, can be found on the MadPea website.

Art in Arts – Hats in Art

A new exhibition at Veekay Navarathna’s Art India Gallery started on June 17th and runs through until July 28th. Sponsored by AVENUE magazine, it focuses on hats as both a fashion statement and an art statement, bringing together hats from well-known couture designers and SL designers to present images of the hats being worn in a way which tells a story about the hat itself.

Art in Hats – Hats in Art

Participating designers and artists include: LB DREAM FASHION,  Annie Klavinham, Annough Lykin, BaObA, Betty Tureaud, BSD Design Studio, “B&W” – Hats ＆ Accessories, Burk Bode, CapCat Ragu, cold Frog, Couture Chapeau, Dantelicia Ethaniel, Eve Kazan, Grim Bros., Hatters n’Hell, Haveit neox,  Horus Dover aka Noke Yuitza, Kynne Llewellyn, LODE HEADWEAR, Maloe Vansant, MEB, Meilo Minotaur, Melusina Parkin, nexuno Thespian,  Nur Moo, Paris METRO, Renee Parkes, RO™, Romy Nayar, Sabine Mortensen, Steven Venkman, Syra Hyun, Wizardoz Chrome, The Mad Hattery, WuWai Chun, Zibska.

Art in Hats – Hats in Art

Visitor Contest

Visitors to the exhibition are invited to take a basic, full permissions basic cloche hat, which they can then decorate howsoever they please and take a photo of it (on its own or being worn. Snaps should be passed to Quan Lavender, Art India’s Curator, who will display them in the arrivals area of the exhibition. Visitors to the exhibition will be invited to vote on the displayed submissions, and the first three winners (as decided by 50/50 vote from visitors and a panel of judges), will be awarded the following prizes:

• 1st prize: L$3000 voucher to AVENUE Models Academy
• 2nd prize: L$2000 voucher to AVENUE Models Academy
• 3rd prize: L$1000 voucher to AVENUE Models Academy

All three winners will also receive a selection of hats featured in the exhibition.

With thanks to Quan Lavender.

UWA Centenary Challenge: win a share of L$20,000

Entries recently closed for the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) 3D Art Challenge, which was open to artists from February 1st through May 30th 2013.

Entitled “Reflections”, the Art Challenge  was run in tribute to the 2013 Centenary of the University of Western Australia, as UWA reflects on its 100 years of existence and ponders the question of what the next 100 years will bring. The 2012 Art Challenge was also run in tribute to the Centenary. 2012 is 100 years since the first staff were hired at UWA and 2013 is 100 years since the first students started studying at UWA.

Artists were challenged to come up with a piece of 3D art which fits the theme of the challenge, and to do so using no more than 150 prims (LI 150). In all 64 artists from around the world accepted the challenge, and their works are now on display for all to see on one of the UWA’s regions.

Judging is underway by a panel of invited judges, and the winners will be announced in August 2013, at a special event which will include the winners of the 2013 UWA Machinima Challenge, which is also being held on the same theme.

However, between now and midnight SLT on July 10th, SL residents have a chance to vote on the 64 entries  – and in doing so, win a share of L$20,000 and some real-life rewards in the process!

All you have to do to participate, is visit the UWA exhibition of the 64 pieces, and a select your personal top 10 in order of preference. Send your entries either by e-mail (jayjayaustralia@hotmail.com) or list them on a notecard and send it in-world to Jayjay Zifanwe (please make sure you put your name on the title of the notecard with the words REFLECTIONS UWA Centenary 3D Audience Event).

The five entries which most closely match the juried top ten will each receive the following L$ prizes:

• 1st Prize (mostly closely matching the judges’ top 10): L$ 7,000 and an invitation to be on the judging panel for the next UWA grand art challenge.
• 2nd Prize: L$ 5,000
• 3rd Prize: L$ 4,000
• 4th Prize: L$ 2,500
• 5th Prize: L$1,500

In addition, aLL five winners will receive in the mail a special pack that includes a copy of the book, ’100 Treasures of UWA’ which was produced for UWA’s Centenary.

For full details on the audience participation judging, please make sure you read the UWA blog article, which includes links to both the start of the exhibition tour, and directly to each of the 64 entries in the competition.

Related Links

• REFLECTIONS: UWA Centenary 3D Art Challenge – Audience Participation Event (Win a Share of L$20K) – UWA blog
• Exhibition SLurl (Rated: General)

More than an illusion…

The world seen through a child’s eye, is a world full of wonders. A world where imagination reveals many paths. The world seen within the eye of an adult can sometimes be scary and make us want to hide and close the eyes. Still we are, even if grown in age, children of this world … A journey about ‘Reality and Illusions’. A visual discussion where you might explore sometimes beauty and sometimes the strange and odd.

This is the description Joanna Corith gives to her new collaborative project at Flocke, which she has developed with Pale Illusion. It’s a region that is bound to grab my attention, as it features water, so I was pleased to get the nudge from Baz D. to go take a look.

Flocke

Flocke is a place which can be explored as an art installation and simply as a place to visit. As an art installation, the introductory notecard for the region (tucked neatly aware in a little signboard .. somewhere … ) reads, “We’d like to invite you to a little visual journey of a discussion we have about ‘REALITY’ and ‘ILLUSION’ and hope you’ll have fun to explore our thoughts, questions and perhaps conclusions we will make.”

As a place to visit, Flocke offers places to dance with a friend, or to sit and contemplate things (or one another) and a little open-air movie theatre.

Flocke

Given recent world events, with tornadoes and floods making the headlines, the region’s design is also somewhat evocative and thought-provoking, with shattered houses suspended in the air, flooded ruins on the ground and even a ravaged houseboat.  As such, I admit I found my mind wandering in directions other than the nature of reality and illusion, despite the region’s designed being framed by Albert Einstein’s famous quote, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one”. I also found the inclusion of the little rafts with floating candles on one side of the region particularly poignant as a result.

That I was reminded of recent real life tragedies is not to condemn the build in any way. Far from it; that Flocke is so evocative on a number of different levels is to me a demonstration of the visual power of this open, almost minimal design. So I look at my own thoughts while visiting as reflective of the fact that we cannot avoid carrying matters from the real world into our second lives, and can thus find those matters resonating with us in the most unexpected of ways.

Flocke

Often, when I visit a region, I tend to tweak my windlight settings, even if the region owner has set a complementary setting of their own. It’s not necessarily that I don’t like the selected windlight; it’s more a case that I like to have a twiddle and a play and present things in a (hopefully) interesting way in my snaps which still allowing anyone who may visit off the back of these pieces the broadest measure of discovery & the opportunity to perhaps tweak and place with their own windlight options.

Flocke, however, is one of the exceptions to this approach. The use of the Bristol pre-set with the region is simply perfect, and gives the region all the atmosphere it needs, so all the pictures here are presented “as-is”, so to speak, although I admit to twiddling with GIMP a little with a couple to get the desired monochrome results on the Flickr slideshow.

Flocke

This may be an open and minimalist region in terms of landscaping, but you should keep your eyes peeled; there are some very interesting, subtle, charming and whimsical touches to be found as your wander around.  For those wishing simply to relax, try the little movie theatre in the corner of the region or perhaps spend a little time sitting on the raft.

I spent a good two hours in Flocke with a roaming camera, poking, nosing and snapping – and the truth is, I could happily have spent another two doing exactly the same.  Sadly, the needs of a rumbly tummy and the matter of sustenance proved to be increasingly distracting, despite my attempts to convince myself otherwise by repeating another famous quote on the matter of illusions: “Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.”

Rest assured, however, I’ll be returning to Flocke. It’s that kind of place. Hopefully, I might see you there …

Related Links

• Flocke SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• SL destinations in this blog

(view slideshow full-screen)

Touring da Vinci’s World

I recently previewed Sniper Siemen’s new LEA exhibit, Da Vinci’s World. If you’ve not already visited, I really do urge you to do so: the exhibit runs through until the 21st July and is a fabulous piece.

In the meantime, I put together a little video from snaps I took when preparing my original article – please hit the YouTube cogwheel and up the quality to 720p for best results.

Related Links

• Da Vinci’s World SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• Enter da Vinci’s World