soror Nishi at Split Screen during October

In a return to Second Life, soror Nishi has created "Boogaloo: A Visual Mash-up" at Split Screen. It will be on display until 31 Oct. It is a fantastical, swampy terrain inhabited by the colorful and almost iridescent trees, flowers and dragons for which she is well known.  Her work occupies both halves of Split Screen -- in a first for the installation space, she's the sole artist presenting this month.

I'm delighted to host soror at Split Screen for several reasons. In particular, lately she's been working primarily in InWorldz; in fact she's probably the SL art community's most vocal advocate for that virtual world, with its more extensive resources and options for prims, lower cost, reputedly more accessible support staff, and other advantages. Of course, she didn't completely stop working in SL -- last June she had a work which she recently re-rezzed -- but nevertheless it's an honor to bring her to a Second Life site.

soror doesn't suggest any particular daytime or windlight setting, but personally I prefer using midnight; the photos don't capture the feel of the immersion.

Incidentally, soror is an "artist of study" for the fall semester Art 110 course at California State University at Long Beach, along with Alizarin Goldflake, Betty Tureaud, and many other SL artists. Miso Susanowa was an artist of study there previously, and again this term.

I'm going to try something new soon. I had hoped to identify emerging artists who have the potential to "think big," but I haven't been very successful. In fact the only one so far is oona Eiren, and that happened because she was smart enough to ask me.  At the time she was just beginning to be recognized, and now, I'm happy to say, she's become well established.  (Asking me seems to be a good way to get into Split Screen, it's happened three times, including one upcoming artist. Then again, I've had to turn down a few people, but I'm keeping an eye on their work.)

In an effort to find more of these artists, I plan to send out requests for proposals to create an installation at Split Screen, most likely to be placed on a sky platform. This will involve a bit of guesswork, flexibility and negotiation, since I still intend to "commission" works from artists (in fact I've already lined up the next two pairs), and I will need to make decisions about when to present a work depending on prim availability. On the other hand sometimes requests for proposals will lead to an "interim" work that can be seen while other artists are building; I've previously had interim works by Misprint Thursday and Miso Susanowa (builds they submitted to the UWA contest), so this would extend the idea. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, go see "Boogaloo: A Visual Mash-up" at Split Screen. Burn2 will be too laggy anyway.