Giovanna Cerise -- Then and Now

Not long after I opened Split Screen, perhaps in spring 2011, Giovanna Cerise contacted me asking to build there. She had a show at a gallery, so I took a look. Most of the work was smallish and in the very contained abstract style one sees frequently in SL; it's a genre that generally leaves me cold. As a result I didn't think she was quite ready to get "out of the box" in the way Split Screen installations had to be. Nevertheless I sensed something promising there, and so I invited her to check in with me later -- and about a year later she did. Her work had developed enormously by then, and I was happy to host her at Split Screen. The result was Synesthesia, which showed in August and September 2012.

Synesthesia by Giovanna Cerise, at Split Screen 2012

A retrospective of Giovanna's work is now showing at Gay Island Resort. The earliest piece dates from 2009; the most recent is a miniaturized fragment from her sim-sized installation Chaos, Kosmos, which was at LEA in November and December (evidently it's now gone). The retrospective is well worth visiting. The gallery which houses it is fairly small, and because she obtained more opportunities to build installations as she progressed, the collection is dominated by her earlier art. There didn't seem to be a notecard discussing or listing the works, unfortunately, but the pieces themselves have dates in their description so it's possible to get an overview of her development. Along with the many abstract pieces in the works from 2009 through 2011 (some rather mathematical, others more expressive) are a few figurative items, plus the amusingly murderous Act final!. But a distinct shift occurs 2012-13, when her work rapidly became more sophisticated artistically, intellectually, and expressively. In these more recent pieces, representation becomes foremost and abstraction often serves it, as we see in Man (Apr 2013), a bust composed of simple white cubes, and Broken Time (Jan 2013) -- one of the best of her small works -- which seems to capture a somewhat abstracted hourglass that is simultaneously solid and in the midst of exploding.

Habanera (2009)	Act final! (Sept 2010)
Sirio (June 2010) & The Hidden Purity (Apr 2011)	Interference (Jan 2011)
Omaggio a Monica Vitti (Dec 2012)	Broken Time (Jan 2013)
Man (Apr 2013)	Diamond (Oct 2013)

(Click photos to enlarge)

This brings us to the present, Chaos, Kosmos. Unfortunately I was unable to blog it when it was showing -- in fact, I haven't had time to blog at all for the past several months. Thematically, the installation concerned the emergence of rationality out of disorder, and creativity out of formlessness. The installation again conjoined the abstract with the representational, though leaning more toward the representational. Some elements, such as the flowcharts and flattened running figures, are abstract representations of real life. Giovanna has also built large installations with a largely abstract, mathematical orientation; although the clarity of mathematics is clearly an important element for her, I often feel these works are rather static (contrast with the dynamism of Broken Time). Chaos, Kosmos conjoined these possibilities in various ways. It had several levels, not all of them pictured below. At ground level, she brought the static to monumental proportions, yet human figures are running and the flowcharts seemed to present a very orderly procession toward confusion and catastrophe. The enormous whirlwind on one of the upper levels (third row down, on the right) gave a breathtaking sense of chaos; it was almost a shock to cam out and find how technically uncomplicated it was. The version in the retrospective is microscopic in comparison -- to get a dim sense of the impact, I recommend floating inside and going into mouselook. And at a third location, amid the slowly rising and falling pages, Giovanna implemented a solitary lighting effect (see the bottom row) that I don't recall her using before, but was strikingly beautiful in its simplicity.

Chaos, Kosmos (click photos to enlarge)

Giovanna has entered the ranks of Second Life's major artists, and now is a good opportunity to view the road she followed.

SLURL to the retrospective: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GAY%20ISLAND%20Resort/147/152/1503
Note, the sim is rated Adult.