Surreal Cube

Opening today, Thursday, September 1 at 1 pm slt, is Surreal Cube, a project conceived and directed by Art Blue, and curated by Juliette SurrealDreaming, featuring artistic contributions from Gem Preiz, Mistero Hifeng, Molly Bloom, Hyde Hackl, Moewe Winkler and Venus Adored (who will provide a performance at the opening event), with support from Wizardoz Chrome and Ultraviolet Alter (who will provide music for the opening). The installation will be complemented by a presence at the real life 2016 Santorini Biennale via a video created by Wizardoz, and a mirror installation in OpenSim that will live on after the Second Life installation closes.

At its most basic, the sim presents an exhibition of more than two dozen delightful works by Molly such as Back to the Garden, pictured below, housed in a gallery space designed by Hyde, which in turn resides inside a large "egg," also designed by Hyde. Under the waters surrounding the gallery is an aquatic world with waving tentacles and speaking fish (detail, lowest image) created by Moewe. All of that in turn is enclosed a huge MetaCube designed by Gem Preiz, the texture of which features frequently-changing fractals (detail above), and the cube floats over a dark sea, surrounded by a parade of sculptures by Mistero (top image). If the array of locations sounds confusing, a quick visual tour is available, provided by sitting on the "Meta Harper" chair located near the stage area, and a teleport system is available throughout the sim at each location.

Conceptually, Surreal Cube stems from an elaborate science fiction story created by Art, which begins, "Mankind loses old knowledge — finally also the knowledge of keeping art alive was lost. A billionaire could no longer see that art works which have been created before the Cleft like the ones by Molly Bloom shall get lost and burned to ashes. He handed Art Blue over a blank cheque to create a space ship so the art might be safe in a different solar system. His name: SR Hadden. The name of the space ship: SURREAL CUBE." The complete and lengthy narrative is provided in full on the exhibition notecard. After October 15, when the Santorini Biennale comes to a close, the Molly Bloom gallery, the egg and Moewe's aquatic world will disappear from LEA20 (but will remain in the OpenSim version), and Juliette will select new content that will remain on display until the sim closes at the end of December.