Artist #9

Comet Morigi

Viewing Islands, from the Gallery by and Arcitect

Comet Morigi is a Japanese female second life artist. She threats her avatar as she does herself with precise realism. Her avatar has been known to even gesture while talking. This piece is a small section from a gallery called "Viewing Islands, from the Gallery by an Architect". I think this piece is really cool just by looking at the picture it makes you think like wow mountains, islands, and pretty much all of these beautiful landscapes are being displayed on a wall.
I wonder if there is a separate meaning behind the title for the piece. What does it mean. Does it mean don't stay inside and look at great pieces of art that nature has created from a tv screen or from a computer monitor, go and view it or does it mean something completely different? If it means the first ironic thing would be that the artist is choosing to live her life through a computer monitor right now. Makes you think.

Artist #8

Mariko Mori
Wave UFO

By far the coolest looking thing ever. If concept cars were ever looking for a building block on wear to start on making a flying car/rv this should be it. I'd buy one most definitely. This artist goes by Mariko Mori. This art piece is called Wave UFO it is a sculptural object and viewer participatory installation that epitomizes Mariko Mori's ongoing exploration of the relationship between the individual and an interconnected cosmos. On the outside it's shaped like a drop of water and appears to hover off of the ground. Inside you are presented to a video that is mainly based upon the participants that are within the UFO. It uses our brainwaves to create imagery.
This is a first that I've ever heard this done and only wish I could go see it to see what is actually being shown on the projection screens. Like is it mood or what? I would like to participate is all that I do know. Interesting the artist is trying to combine otherworldly concepts, as in she wants us to connect with different ways of thinking.

Artist #7

Gracie Kendal

7th artist is Gracie Kendal, she is a second life artist and uses her work to put herself back together. She's overweight and uses her second life avatar to give herself a second life. Her art is based on spontaneity and change. In this piece its her real self and her second life counterpart posing in similar manners You can really get the since that she is enjoying herself loving her life now. I wonder if she felt the same way before she created Gracie Kendal.

"…I have found it difficult to be comfortable in my own skin. My sense of self has become dislodged and torn apart. Through Gracie I have begun to put myself back together.

By reading this qoute she wrote it's hard to tell. Was she an overweight artist who found comfort and herself within secondlife or is she just an artist looking for a new media to present work within. She threats Gracie as if she is real as if she is herself. Most interesting is one picture she has on her site.

In the real world you can't wish and make something happen but you can in second-life. So I think if you ask the question is Gracie Kendal real. I say no she's not. She is an alter-ego, but definitely not real.

Artist Research

 

     Vaneeesa Blaylock is an interesting and mysterious individual. Born April 25th 1969 at Georgetown University Hospital. Her mother was a diplomat in the Reagan Administration. Graduated high school in 1987. She spent her 1987-1988 academic year at UCSD where she studied with Alan Kaprow. In 1988 she was recruited by The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts she agreed to go and spent. She graduated 1991 with a degree in choreography. She did graduate work at Koninklijk Conservatorium (Conservatory of the Hague). Which she felt out of place but was kept in good spirits by her music professor Louis Andriessen. She would go on to graduate with a MFA in New Media Studies in 1998.

     

     

     Vaneeesa Blaylock is an performance artist within second life, her work deals with ideas of identity and individuality. She was officially born again April 11, 2009 in Little Andalucia. When I see her work im not sure what I feel or what to think. I don't know whether to say "oh this is great" or "it's been done". Going over her portfolio which took forever to find I was able to find some art work that was really easy to comment on..  This is her third art piece on Second-life called       

  "Veinticinco Mujeres"

     This is "woman" naked, not "nude". Not as "god made her" but as she has chosen to exist in second life. I found this piece interesting since it is pretty much just a bunch of naked women standing. But it's women standing naturally how they want to be viewed. Not as the overweight divorced loser degenerate that everyone calls them. Just as they feel inside just as how they want to look. But then it got me thinking why are there only women. There's so many more people, so many more species on second-life why focus on one gender. 

     This one is called Prism, pretty basic no identity here just a prism might as well call the piece rainbow though minus the fact that it has more colors in it. When viewing her art I don't really see anything aspiring or different all I see is "ohh I wonder how you do that in second-life". There isn't really much of a bio about her anywhere or if she's even a her. All I have is a portfolio of her artworks that contains about 19 pieces. http://vaneeesa.com/portfolio/

     

Artist #6

Tony Oursler
Vampiric Battle

      Tony Oursler my final artist of the week is a video artist who does work similar to Gary Hill and Bill Viola. The art piece I am going to discuss now is going to be Tony Oursler "Vampiric Battle" Now before you jump ahead of me and say something about Twilight or True Blood or anything like that, stop yourself because it's not. Vampiric Battle is a metaphor for the battle we all do with ourselves to stay young stay beautiful. Vampires as we know technically don't age. We are all in a battle with ourselves to stay young. We use different things to stay young like botox, makeup, plastic surgery, expensive creams, etc. It's all an illusion of youth and fertility and the innate desire to attract a mate.

     We open the video seeing 5 different faces hearing voiceovers from all of them some saying "that's attractive, don't you think that's attractive?" we then see a lady who's going through the procedure of getting marked up by a doctor before she goes under the knife for plastic surgery. We all have to be honest with ourselves and try not to hide what we are by using makeup or different things to try to "lie" to society and just embrace what we already have. In other words "BE YOURSELF!"

Artist #5

Joan Jonas
Vertical Roll

     Joan Jonas is a video artist, she sort of reminds me of Nam June Paik except she usually stays with the feminism as a subject for her works. The art piece that I am going to talk about today is going to be Vertical Roll by Joan Jonas. I must be honest this video is not aesthetically pleasing or easy to listen to, but it is truly a work of art. The video and audio within the piece all play a significant roll within the piece. Which is why you end up with a mechanical feeling while watching the piece.
     Vertical Roll is a very interesting piece indeed and from what I understand just by watching it it is suppose to be a visual of how men actually view women in society. In a few sequences Jonas is shot naked wearing two different masks. The masks have a done-up type look to them, with these fake smiles. Like many of the women in our culture, who will not leave their bedroom without "putting on their faces". The sequence where Jonas is dressed in a dancers' costume, which has a dominatrix look to it, the viewer gets to stare at various parts of her body as the camera zooms in to her torso, her lower back, chest, etc. The shots get repeated through the use of the vertical roll, emphasizing a male's fantasy of what a woman should look like. Jonas is not only wearing a skimpy outfit but she also happens to be a particularly thin woman; weight is just another issue consistently presented to women day in and day out in today's society. At the end of the tape, the viewer gets this eerie stare from Jonas herself; the face naked of any make-up as well as emotionless. The viewer gets the feeling that it is the woman finally getting to stare at and inspect the man. Only to have her head smashed by the vertical roll out of frame to just reveal a white back/empty frame.

Artist #4

Bryn Oh
Mayfly

     Bryn Oh is a second life artist, he sketches out his work and then goes onto second life to recreate what he had already drawn to make beautiful works of art. The art piece I'm going to discuss this time around is going to be The Mayfly. The Mayfly is probably the 3rd piece I saw from him is the best one that I actually connected with. The Mayfly's life is quite poetic if you think about it hard enough. They live as larvae in the mud for about one year to grow as an adult to have the life span of only 30 minutes to 1 day. They are often reborn without mouths as they are just not needed since they have such a short lifespan. It's almost tragic to give them the ability to fly for such a short time.
     Watching the video your presented a swamp you get to witness mayfly's being reborn to fly only to live a short time to die. You are also given a very beautiful word by word play of what is actually going on in poetic fashion of course. At the end of the video the last mayfly dies just as night demands. Crazy to see this all done on second life. What I also found intriguing about the video was that night is not present throughout the whole video but as it gets later in later in the day night gets closer as if death is near to take them away.