This week we fly to Berlin for the opening reception at the Austrian Embassy, the exhibit to follow at TowerVisions Gallery in RL and simultaneously in SL. There are six artists in the show; five from Europe, and one from Santa Barbara, California, an avatar named Chrome Underwood.  Uhh, that would be me. My master had his shot at an art career in Manhattan a few years back and blew it; now I’m picking up where he left off, and – according to him – I’m already doing a lot better than he ever did.

As for the work, it might help to insert a quote from the opening paragraph of my artist statement: “…. my goal was to move beyond my previous work – that is, digitally-sampled, multi-layered paintings – and work solely and exclusively with the visual tools and effects available within the virtual world of Second Life.” So, I’ve left behind the high concept, abstract-expressionist approach and started, virtually, from scratch. I decided to explore the most human element within Second Life – the one group of pixels that provides the most creative and visible expression of individual identity – the avatar. In a virtual world, I’ve returned to the human figure. See Juliette in Black, below.

I will do my best to put up a few posts while we’re there, but, hey, no guarantees;  like many stars, I’ll have to face a grueling schedule; receptions, interviews, dinners, paparazzi, all that stuff. But I’ll give it a shot.

Author’s note, added at 2:29pm: Many people have asked me how this exhibition in Berlin came about, so I thought I’d provide a brief explanation. Last October, a number of my digital paintings were on exhibit at a gallery in Second Life, and about a week after the show opened, I received an instant message from someone at the gallery who asked if I would be willing to come inworld and discuss my work with him.

I teleported over there and met a fellow named Vision Planer, who is actually a prominent architect in Berlin and an active advocate of Second Life and the arts. He said he was very impressed with the work and asked me if I would like to participate in an exhibition in Berlin in January, 2009. I agreed rather off-handedly, I must admit, because I thought he was talking about Second Life. He picked up on that immediately and added, No, no; this will be held at the Austrian Embassy in Berlin, Germany. The Real World. Naturally, my attitude about the show changed rather quickly. Avatars can smile, you know.

Author’s Note, added at 8:50am on Tuesday, January 27: I received the official announcement of the event by email this morning – in German – and decided to include it here, below, in all its google-translated splendor. Enjoy, and ponder its mysteries.

Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin

Ladies and gentlemen,

We want our event on 30 January 2009 in our house to your attention.
…………..
Reading – Dorothee Hartinger, Philipp Hauß – “In the head the World”

Dorothee Hartinger, born in Regensburg, in the Otto-Falckenberg School in Munich, was from 1999 to 2001 by Peter Stone for his monumental Faust invited staging and 2001 for her “Gretchen” with the German critics prize for theater awards. Since 2002, it is ensemble member at the Burgtheater and belongs to the new generation of young Viennese tradition house. This term also applies to Philip, born in 1980 Hauß, which is already at a young age moved to Vienna to attend the prestigious Max-Reinhardt-Seminar to study.

The artists come with support and in connection with the “King Lear” guest of the Castle Theater at the festival spielzeiteuropa Europe to Berlin and read texts by Ingeborg Bachmann, Elfriede Jelinek and Thomas Bernhard.

The event is organized by the famous Austrian scientist Dr. Klaus theater Dermutz moderated.

Following the reading of Dorothee Hartinger and Philipp Hauß there is the opening of the exhibition “REAL 6 x – 66 x SL”

6 x REAL stands for 6 original images from 6 different artists, the Austrian Embassy on 30.01.2009 will be issued.
66 x denotes the SL both 11 works of relevant artists in parallel for a period of about 3 months in a “virtual” Bethanienturm issued.

In cooperation with DU Diederichs Projektmanagement AG & Co. KG GmbH develops planufaktur a visionary project in Berlin – on a site with old trees and the tower of the Bethanienkirche in Berlin-Weissensee, a prestigious residential and office buildings emerge. The Pitlach Milan, Shanghai, planned architectural concept for the development Tower Visions Bethanienturm was on the 3D Internet platform Second Life (SL) are already realized. This virtual building serves as a marketing and communications platform, as well as exhibition space for art.

On the day of the event will be the original works in the presence of artists in the context of a reading at the Gallery of the embassy. Additionally, people interested in the art world via the Internet, the images into three-dimensional walk-rooms of the “virtual” exhibition in Second Life (plush avenue south) free view.

Further information on project development can be found at:
www.planufaktur.de or www.du-diederichs.de
www.secondlife.com (free software download about 30 MB)

OK, last shot of one of these cubes, I promise. After selecting the final dozen pieces for the Berlin show, I realized while writing the artist statement that the actual idea of the cube and its meaning could not be fully explained in words, and that I needed a good wide angle shot to give the viewer a sense of what it looks and feels like inside one of these things.

So, I took this photo to accompany the work and, hopefully, fill in the blanks that might remain after reading all the written material and, I’m certain, even after viewing the work. This is a shot of me on my chopper inside the Rock Star cube; the original image entitled Rock/Star/Gravity.

The images being exhibited in Berlin and, simultaneously, in Second Life, can be viewed at my flickr gallery. Comments gratefully accepted.

The virtual world’s very first art cube, a space in which a single two-dimensional painting surrounds the viewer from every angle, has been installed at Locus Island, the new sim designed and built by the acclaimed Second Life Architect, DB Bailey. The art cube idea came about, as I mentioned in earlier posts, as a way of creating a background setting for a new body of work based on Second Life imagery for my upcoming show in Berlin. Having been a digital artist in RL for a number of years, and having spent the last few years wandering SL and writing about it, I wanted to have a transitional approach, a bridge if you will, to the new work. Thus, the cube. (see photos in previous post)

The new installation is in a key location just off the landing plaza, next door to Douglas Story‘s latest opus, FlowerBall. The cube will serve as a rotating gallery for my digital work, with a new painting installed every month or so; the current work entitled Cameo). DB built the entire sim over the past few months as an experiment in art and architecture, blending commerce and culture in a setting which at times defies the imagination, pushing the limits of the urban experience into a dazzling blend of elements ranging from classical to the surreal, and, at times, to places and spaces that have yet to have names or labels attached to them. We’ll leave that to the historians of the future.

Drop in and take a look at the new cube, and while you’re there, walk, fly, run, swim and whatever else you have to do to see the sights at Locus Island, using the slurl below. It’s a trip.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cetus%20Institute/115/130/31/