Exhibition Critique - Second Life Gallery

For my first exhibition critique, I decided to venture into Second Life and search through the many galleries that are exhibited through an art class at California State University.  The first few minutes were a little tough, trying to maneuver my avatar around the space and figuring out how to effectively use my avatar to see the virtual world.  Eventually I got situated and was able to successfully walk my character around the space and explore the virtual world around me.

I walked my avatar through many of the different galleries in the virtual CSULB, which was a very different experience from a typical art gallery.  As I walked, the music changed from place to place, and some galleries you could only access through a portal door while others you could walk your avatar to from a starting point.  My favorite gallery that I came across was an underwater exhibit that was created by Ali Smith.  She is a painter, and decided to display her paintings through the virtual medium of Second Life.  Her paintings were displayed in transparent bubble-like spheres underwater, and most of her work was abstract.  Some of her work was completely chaotic, while other paintings were caricatures of dogs.  Toward the back of her exhibit were photographs of her with her dogs and of her actually creating the paintings. When you clicked on one of these photographs, you could get a short bio about Ali and her artwork.

This experience was like nothing I had ever seen before, because I had never been a part of immersing myself into a virtual world.  From my tour through Second Life, I found so many different interesting things that I found myself losing track of time and completely finding myself attentive to only the Second Life world.  I think the coolest aspect of this was that there are endless possibilities to what one can to with a gallery in Second Life.  For instance, Ali’s showcase was underwater in giant domes, and you had to really search it out before you could find it.

Of the many galleries I stumbled upon, I chose Ali’s because it seemed the most interesting to me.  However, it wasn’t so much her artwork that appealed to me, but the setting that her artwork was displayed in.  She used the virtual space well to portray her paintings, and any exhibit-goers would definitely feel a sense of connection to her pieces and to the exhibit itself as well.