Wirxli Flimflam committed suicide in the name of the famous avatar arts celebrity SAVEME OH on February 14, 2010 at the Diabolous Artspace, Second Life.
Wirxli was a co-founder of the performance art group, Second Front and a composer for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.
This memorial blog is maintained by Jeremy Owen Turner.
Here is video-documentation from my WEARABLE NEWS NETWORKs [WNN] performance from January...check it out!
....I have not forgotten about blogging everything else that has happened around me in Second Life lately. Chances are, I will catch up with my back-(b)log of documented activities sometime after wednesday once RL has settled down a bit.
I have been on an academic hiatus for a little while now and...er... oh wait, I am still in academia in RL...sigh!
Anyways, RL is still so time-consuming that I virtualy have no time to blog about all of my recent activities in SL lately but the rumours are true - I have resumed some level of in-world activity lately.
A little over 24-hours ago, for example, I had a solo performance at the ARENA Festival in Italy.
For this performance called "WEARABLE NEWS NETWORKs (WNN)", I had the avatar audience wear some video-clothes that displayed some breaking news feeds about Gaza and then as CNN's iReporter, I interviewed a few select avatars about what their impressions/opinions were about the news content that they were currenly wearing...
Well, I would love to chat with you on this blog but seriously, I have way too much real life work to contend with at the moment so once again - this blog might be seriously delayed for many more days to come...sigh!
Hey, at least this post is better than no new posts at all...right? ;-)
Stay tuned for more stories about my recent activities in Second Life...
This opening night video footage is by the Curator of the Museo del Metaverso, Roxelo Babenco. This opening was so fabulous, I wish all RL opening nights could be as surreally sublime and aesthetically pleasing as this! Seriously, you just HAVE to check this video out! I can watch this over and over and over! This is one of the most fantastic documents I have EVER witnessed!
Gazira Babeli is an artist who lives and works in the virtual world of Second Life, where she was born on 31 March 2006. Like all inhabitants of virtual worlds she is an identity construction known as an avatar, but unlike them, she does not acknowledge the presence of a “human” controlling her. In this short space of time she has earned attention and respect with her provocative performances which explore the issues of the body, space and identity in virtual worlds. Babeli acts like a virus, unleashing earthquakes and showers of icons extrapolated from pop culture, or spreading epidemics which deform the bodies of other residents of Second Life. “Gaz” has become a multivalent term, and a household name in her virtual world. The aura of mystery that surrounds her has engendered a kind of legend, which quickly moved beyond the confines of Second Life.
Gazira Babeli is a “virtual” artist, but her work is “real”. She explores the body, space, identity. She compares her oeuvre with art history. She talks about us. She is closer than we think, with our multiple identities, our way of representing ourselves, our lives in front of the screen. To those who ask her if there is a point in living in a virtual world, she mockingly responds: “What about you? How’s life in Microsoft Office?”. Seen in this light her work acquires meaning and efficacy even outside the world which generated it, as her numerous appearances in shows and festivals demonstrates. Now, in this solo exhibition at the Fabio Paris Art Gallery, the artist presents a selection of works that reflect the two fundamental poles of her oeuvre: her world and her identity as a virtual artist. Babeli lives in a simulated world, a realistic, 3D universe generated by castles of computing code, yet “inhabited” and experienced on a daily basis by millions of people. Her work explores the conventions and contradictions of this world, addressing concepts like time, space and the body by simply manipulating language. Her work is ‘performance’ in the purest sense of the term: language which generates action. Bodies change shape and come alive; giant towers collapse and then rise from their ashes once more; mysterious forces and objects take possession of us. But Babeli’s main work is Gazira herself, and the knowing manipulation of her legend, as shown in the video triptych Saint Gaz' Stylite and the movie Gaz' of the Desert (March 2007), the first high definition film entirely shot in a virtual world. Babeli mixes hagiography and slapstick, surrealism and country music, to tell the story of her life behind the screen, midway between isolation and sociality, asceticism and temptation.
Gazira Babeli has taken part in festivals and exhibitions in Italy (Peam 2006 - The Diamond, Pescara 2006; V07, Venice) and abroad (Deaf 2007, Rotterdam 2007); and with the collective Second Front she took part in Performa 07 (New York). A year from her birth, the retrospective Gazira Babeli: [Collateral Damage] (10 April - 31 May 2007), put on in Second Life in a museum-sized venue, represented a definitive confirmation. In the space of two months the show attracted more than one thousand visitors. Her work has also elicited the attention of publications like El Pais, La Stampa, Liberazione, Exibart, Der Spiegel and Kunstzeitung. Gazira Babeli is her first solo exhibition in the “real” world. http://gazirababeli.com
The exhibition will also see the publication of a book, Gazira Babeli (edited by Domenico Quaranta, with essays by Mario Gerosa, Patrick Lichty and Alan Sondheim).
And.... Here is the other press release for the show...
*GAZIRA BABELI*
Saturday, march 15, 18.00 pm
Fabio Paris Art Gallery via Alessandro Monti 13 - 25121 Brescia tel. 030 3756139 - Skype: fabioparisbs www.fabioparisartgallery.com From march 15, to april 30 15.00-19.00 pm everyday except holidays
Second Life, Locusolus simulator 9 AM SLT Party<->Crasher<->Party Second (Real) Audience vs. Real (Second) Audience Anti-Invitation (No Invitation Needed) Crash the party! Crash your car! Crash the Sim! All Live! Eat! Drink! Barf! Love! Hate! Sleep! Dance! Do Art! Think! Fight!
Ok, I know you really only wanted to check out this blog to look at the photos from the opening day/night to see if your avatar appeared in one of the pix...it is all about "see and be seen" anyways so....here you go...lets hope/pray, you were visible enough to blogged about at Gaz's show...
Worship the Golden Gaz! Here I am with Gaz impersonator, Violette LeShelle. I must say though that she was not the only impersonator that evening. Not to be outdone at the opening, I realized that I also had to fit in to some degree and at least wear an official Gaz hat for solidarity ;-) I think the official golden Gaz bust set the tone for the whole evening and for her place in virtual history. Overall, I would say that Gaz has reached the point of absolute deification which is perfectly fine in my books since Second Front is also along for the ride ;-)
This is the closest I was able to get with showing the entire audience that managed to attend Gaz's show at its peak. Gaz herself guestimated that about 65 people were stuffed into this Black Cube Aquarium. Well, at least it was white inside enough for all the conversative art critics...heheheheheheh ;-) I am glad that Olga took pictures of the gallery cube itself because I had no idea what kind of space I was hanging out in...I was so strung out from the art strung onto the walls to notice...WHOA!
This pic shows the a special camera angle that I took that illustates the intermediary space between gallery-space and ummmmmm.... "art"-space....I mean, life is art and art is life especially in Second Life, right? SIGH! Well, on Locusolus the whole area is self-consciously arts-infested and that is a good thing, right? On another note, I hope you like the coloured orbs that people were playing with inside the gallery. All I had to bring to this event was my token Toyota Scion...ooops! I did not mean to make a product placement...if only I could invoice Toyota for this...SIGH! Yes it is true that my avatar was nodding off throughout the exhibition. This had nothing to do with my interest in the show, for the record. In fact, it even had nothing whatsoever to do with drug use (honest)!!! Rather, my RL duties happened to siphon off my attention span at the same time the peak of this opening occurred... TRIPLE SIGH! Oh, I should also mention that another Second Front colleague was in attendance and this was none other than Bibbe Oh...Yaaay!
Here is a side view of the gallery crowd and (yes, of course) my Scion. Also featured in this gratuitious group photo is the curator Domenico Quaranta's new look and Olga's own Gaz impersonation.
Here are some great examples of Gaz's trademark deformed avatars that Second Front used for the Spawn of the Surreal Performance a year ago. I loved the highly detailed pictures that Gaz had produced. The detail was so high, we could just about see our own reflections and Great Art, of course is entirely based on the degree to which we can gaze at our own glamourous reflections, right? I also loved the gold SLeaf detailing on Gaz's bust statue... I guess Gaz has truly entered the lapdance of luxury this time and has rezzed at least one brass ring...woo hooo! I am truly happy for her as everyone knows in SL, wealth = total happiness :-)
Here is a picture of myself with Man Michinaga who is also a colleague with me in Second Front. Man is in his/her trademark incarnation of Ciccolina. Behind us, you can see more reflective paintings that Gaz had made. I love the Goth poses! The whole show was truly amazing...I was in awe of all of the images and this is coming from someone who usually only cares about Performance Art.
Here I am with a deformed incarnation of Odyssey's curator, Sugar Seville as well as another Second Front colleague Fau Ferdinand who sported her own golden avvie. Also included in this scene is a piece of holographic sirloin steak...well, it is a hologram of some kind of meat offering...hmmmm.... Maybe it was the meat-confusion or perhaps the proliferation of biohazard signs but Sugar Seville seemed to remark, "I cant see anything with this mega prim twirling around".
Once again, we have a richly detailed (but necessarily gilded) group portrait with the understated and unrezzed Gazira Babeli herself with our favourite videographer nearby - Evo Szuyuan.
Congrats to Gaz on yet another mindblowing and overflowing retrospective show!
Here is a rear-view behind the seats of the movie screening. You can see the screen peeking through the seats here. Sugar was sitting high up in the nosebleed section - probably to score the best view of the vast Desert :-) Also, if you have a look at the chat-history, you will notice that co-star Beavis Palowakski had made an appearance to support the film's opening...yaaaay! Clap clap clap clap! You can see Beavis underneath the seats...
Hey performance art and in-world movie fans!
I barely made it in time to watch the beginning of Gazira Babeli's in-world premiere of her surrealist mini-epic Gaz of the Desert (2007) but I could not stick around long enough to watch the entire 23 minutes...I am so sorry folks! I just had too much RL to take care of this Sunday afternoon..sigh!
I wish I could have faffed around long enough to have watched my cameo appearance in Gaz's film...sigh! Well, at least I have seen a private screening of this film before so I know it is quite amazing and worth watching! I plan to watch it again when I have some more free time to re-enter SL and check it out :-)
Here is a pic of me taken about 8 hours ago (it was daytime in SL even though it was nighttime in RL). I had rezzed one of 0100101110101101.org's Beuys Oaks outside my PR office on Odyssey Island...
...ok, finally night had caught up to my time zone in RL. It is all kind of weird because I am in the same time zone as Second Life and I still suffer from virtual jet-lag!
Hey Performance Art, Conceptual Art, Earthworks Art, and Beuys fans!
Basically, Eva and Franco Mattes are offering a free copy of their Beuys Oak and Cosmos Island Stone combo to any avatar wishing to rez their inventoried item onto their own property (sim). Once planted, one of the Mattes will drop by to take a pic of the tree for photo-documentation purposes. The project will end once they have managed to convince enough avatars to plant a total of 7,000 oaks. In SL time, this should take them about 2 more weeks :-)
Naturally, I planted my own donated oak just outside my PR office. Within minutes of planting, Pei Twang dropped by to take a pic of me beside my new oak. I hope to see her photo-documentation very soon.
Ok, now it is time to show my remaining 2 pictures from last night's homegrown planting session...
Here is an aerial view showing both my new Oak and Stone combo as well as my PR office. On the right, you can see Pei Twang photo-documenting the event for their project's official website.
....and here is another aerial view taken in the evening...
Chi5 Shenzhou sent me a TP (TelePort) to Ars Virtua and the audience as well as the critics and artists were already milling about while gathering their energy and nerves waiting for the retro-performance-bonanza to begin...
For this day (evening in Italian time), Franco and Eva focused on remediating the classics of performance art. If you scroll down the blog a bit, you will realize that they remediated a previous performance remediation by myself and Great Escape... How Postmodern is that! heheheheheh ;-)
...as you can see, I have a very historical screenshot here as this was taken at the exact moment in the chat-history where Franco and Evo announced the beginning of their first remediated performance... In fact, I had arrived there so promptly to take a screenshot of them announcing the performances, my pants barely had any time to render...sigh! While my pants were rendering, I read the notecard that they sent me very quickly and knew it was going to be one of the classic performances by Chris Burden but I was caught off guard as I was not expecting the specific performance to actually be...
Anyway, once the shot-wound had sufficiently healed, we are all herded into this tiny makeshift white-cube trailer deeper inside Ars Virtua's main gallery lobby for their version of Vito Acconci's Seedbed. This was also a performance that Great Escape and myself had considered to re-perform in Second Life...I think for this one, we were simply grossed out to actually try this one on for size...even in pixellated version, Acconci's Seedbed piece is extremely creepy! It no longer surprises me that his middle name is "Hannibal" ;-) We did not even have the guts to ask the rest of our performance art group, Second Front about it! As far as we were concerned, it was going to be "Silence of the Seeds"...In retrospect, I wish we performed that one now... many of the audience members for our performers already consider us to be a bunch of art-wankers after all ;-) ;-)
Speaking of wanking, I have replaced the top-secret content of my screen-captured friends-list window with a little bit of foreshadowing for their 3rd performance that was guaranteed to get my rocks off! Being an "avant-garde" type myself, I must possess the quantum ability to visualize the future, as there was definitely some erotic vision in my mind that made me want to join Franco under the Seedbed ;-) ;-)
But, in the meantime....
...we were escorted out of the white-cube trailer for about 5 minutes and were eventually led outside of the gallery itself... You gotta love 1970s art - artists from that time always found ways to eventually bring out of that stuffy gallery and into some fresh air! ;-)
You will notice Second Front's co-member, Gazira Babeli sitting on the curator'sdesk. She was busy taking upskirt shots of some of the more vulnerable audience members of the "Seedbed" performance. In a sense then, Gazira was also remediating the remediation ;-) Speaking of "Seedbed", have you also noticed that both of the original performance are from 1972? Hmmm...Were all 3 of the performances from this year? I guess this year was the peak period for 1970s performance art? Hmmmmm, I had better ask Franklin Furnace about this.
So, now you want to know what was getting me all hot and bothered during "Seedbed", right? If you were paying attention to that tiny photoshopped modification in my Friends' window, you will recognize the next image...
...yes! Finally! I had now had a chance to get some action after getting all aroused from the virtual Seedbed! Wooooo Hooooooo! Of course, this was all done in the name of "art" so I had the full creative license to make a complete pervert out of myself ;-) ;-) This 3rd and final piece was a happening (probably ca. 1972) by Valerie Export and Peter Weibel. Franco even had Wiebel's loudspeaker remediated to a tee...
Eva Mattes herself had a partially rendered "cardboard" prim box and allowed people to peer through her "box" and fondle her perfectly crafted boobies! Since I knew that Linden Life requires blatant displays of capitalist exchange to get anything done in the world the way you want it done, I bribed Eva in L$5 installments to try and budge into the long line that was preventing me from getting direct access to her cyber-hooters.
I knew this was a time-limited offer and the last thing I wanted was to get only as much direct exposure as an art critic! Time is money, after all! So, I finally managed to get into her "test und tapp kino" just in time! I then refused to let go of her cinematic lucky-dip until she paid me back my L$5.... Sigh! My devious plan almost worked!!!
