Dreams on the 10th Dimension

All is like a dream

Star Ravenhurst's new grid Tenth Dimension is home to her art gallery Le Beau Retrouvé, and there's a big new show scheduled for September 29. 

You're still just about in time to participate. If you make art this could be your chance to exhibit alongside the likes of Tina Bey, Xenon Darrow, Remmy Ravenhurst (no relation), Savannah Joy, Forest Azure, Arcfury and a huge multimedia install by Cherry Manga  and Nico Kailani. The deadline to submit art is September 23, although the sooner you do it, the better it is for Star's nerves! Organizing art shows can be onerous, so why does Star do it?

Star Ravenhurst: It can be difficult to get into a gallery in the real world and most artists never get that opportunity. In fact, they are lucky if anyone beyond their family, friends, or instructors ever sees their work. Having my own grid, I can now give them more opportunities to showcase their work in virtual.

If you're a regular dipper-in to this blog, you may remember reading about Le Beau Retrouvé here although bear in mind, the location of the gallery has changed since then (just part of the way opensim is always in flux and keeping it interesting), and perhaps you caught the episode of Inworld Review where Star spoke about the gallery, among her many other projects. 

Star Ravenhurst:  What does the gallery mean to me? I am an artist in RL and have formal education in Fine Arts, Graphic Arts, Art History, and Design. During college, I worked for an art gallery and learned a lot during my time with them and also took classes in Marketing and Professional Practices to help me learn the business side of art. I do not have the funds in RL to open my own gallery, but in virtual, everything is possible. I have seized the chance to create an art gallery that is welcoming and supportive of new artists as well as established artists. 

Black and white portraits by Forest Azure

The show opens on September 29 with a set by Rogue Parsons, followed by the jazz vocalization of the lovely Forest Azure who has a whole set of monochrome images in the exhibition. Here's her take on performance and virtual art. 

Forest Azure:  I like to sing in Opensim - and in Second Life, for that matter - because I love singing and because it is great to sing for people and see them having a good time.  And well, art .. creating things is very important in my life, to make something that did not exist before and Opensim offers great opportunities for that.

Star Ravenhurst:  As far as the main galley, it can be a challenge to arrange in a way that all the artists can feel that their art has a prime location. I encourage everyone who visits the gallery to walk around the buildings (there is now a new gallery on the grounds to house permanent pieces chosen from each exhibit) as well as walk around the grounds to see the sculpture. If you stand and cam, you miss too much. It is easier to be drawn into a painting, photograph, sculpture, etc. if you are standing in front of it and allow yourself to be immersed in the scene before you. Sometimes, the experience can touch your soul in a way you never imagined.

The Beau Retrouve parkland

The installation on Imagination Island is by Cherry Manga with a soundscape by Nico Kailani, will be online 24/7 for a month. It's one of two regions connected to the main gallery sim.

Named Paradoxical Sleep it is inspired, Cherry says, by lucid dreams, synesthetic feelings, and weird childhood visions, and was developed and extended using generative AI from this self-portrait sculpture called H2O.  

There's a classical Mediterranean feel to this piece, with the suggestion of a phrygian cap above that serene, timeless face, and everything set off by the use of gold and faded egyptian blue. Almost glimpsing Ozymandias. 

And by the way,  'synesthetic' is not a typo for 'synthetic'.  Synaesthesia is when your brain routes sensory information through multiple unrelated senses, for example, some people can 'taste' words, and others link colors to numbers and letters.

Cherry Manga:  With time, I became picky on the projects I accept to work on or not, because my RL is quite busy and I don't have always time and energy to be online creating. So, when Star asked me to join the project, I needed to see the space where I would have to exhibit first before answering yes or not to her. I  quite feared to be « trapped » between  4 walls, but how was I surprised when she offered me a full 2x2 var region, with full rights on it ! I felt like a very welcomed guest, and Star was really reactive each time I needed her, she immediately did everything fast. Then I had time to build alone peacefully with all the comfort we have in opensim.

Nico Kailani: I call making music my passionate pursuit. It’s more than a hobby, but I’ll never make money with it. And you will never hear it on the radio or played at clubs. It’s is more suited for a movie soundtrack or a modern dance group. And, in this case, as a soundscape for an art exhibit.

Paradoxical Sleep

Nico Kailani: This is how I got involved - Star was giving me a tour of her grid and mentioned that an art show was coming up. I asked her if the show could include the art of music. I shared a link to a playlist of 17 songs from the experimental side of my work. The songs are too strange for most people. But some find this style interesting, even cool. Star listened to the playlist and thought it could be used as part of Cherry’s upcoming work. Cherry agreed to have my music be part of her exhibit. I then narrowed the 17 songs to a core group of 7  

Cherry Manga:  One of Star's goals in her gallery project is to generate collaborations between creators, artists, so she stated that Nico and I will collaborate on this project, me with the visuals, and Nico with the soundscaping. Nico and I communicated with the helpful opensimworld.com messaging, and Nico made her track gradually evolve in time while she discovered my visuals.

Nico Kailani: Cherry has given me total freedom to make whatever music I want. I had chosen songs for a type of work Cherry has done in the past. But when I had a look at what she is doing for this show, I realized that I needed to do an original piece, and in a totally different style. It could be described as an ethnic-fusion neoclassical soundscape. It’s still a work in progress. Cherry has listened to the current version, and said it works really well for what she is creating.

Photo by Cherry Manga

Star Ravenhurst: Being able to work with Cherry Manga and Nico Kalani and allow them to create something magical on a 2x2 has been very enriching to me personally. I admire both of them immensely and to see them work so well together is a perfect example of how rewarding collaboration can be. 

Cherry Manga:   I find Star's approach very interesting because I didn't know Nico at all, so it's a risky bet to introduce two persons for a collaboration when they don't know each other. I have often collaborated in the past but mostly with persons I knew well, friends, and it's never easy. Luckily, it was smooth with Nico, anyway the key word was « freedom ».

Nico Kailani: The soundscape is named “I Have Not Been Dreaming (Unless I Am Dreaming Now)” I see creativity as the art of dreaming while awake. So doing this is like experiencing a meaningful dream. It’s not fun so much as fulfilling. Finally, I hope to voice this Buddhist view of dreaming, and include it in the music.

All is like a dream,

Like a bubble,

Like a shadow,

Like a dewdrop.

Bubbles burst.

Shadows flee from light.

Dewdrops vanish.

Dreams leave at dawn.

Dreaming the same dream,

We aim to awaken

To the ultimate,

Dreamless, dream.

Keep an eye on Social Media for updates on this exciting and varied new exhibition at Le Beau Retrouvé, and mark your calendar for September 29 !
HG Address: 

grid.tenthdimension.org:26002:Le Beau Retrouve

hop://grid.tenthdimension.org:26002/Le%20Beau%20Retrouve/163/220/22