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The Real Me!
13 Artists' Self-Portaits
June 15-27, 2008
Man-a-hatta Gallery

If avatars are works of art, then what is a self portrait of an avatar?

This is not the run-of-the-mill glamour photography we are used to seeing in avatar portraits.


Above:  LawnDart Crutiss as himself at Man-a-hatta Gallery


Above: !!Jeanni Kaleidoscope by Jeanni Nishi

Each artist in this exhibition has brought their methodology and aesthetic to present a work which expresses not just an image of their avatar, but also represents what their avatar is about as an artist. A few of the works I saw are static sculptures, but there were no one-prim images. Many of the works are in motion or are interactive.The photo above of !!Jeanni Kaleidoscope by Jeanni Nishi is a 3-D object in constant motion, so what is shown here just captures a moment in the cycle. 

Selavy Oh's conceptual sculpture is a rectangular object the size of the artist's avatar that moves when the artist does, whether present or not. 


Above: Monarch 1 0f 3 by Misprint Thursday

An abstract form with two spheres that look like eyes is also in perpetual motion. Titled Monarch 1 0f 3 (above), it represents Misprint Thursday. A nude by PleaseWakeMeUp Idler is broken into a group of semi-transparent prims that are in motion, and depending on your position the image fragments and recreates itself cyclically (below):

 
Above: PleaseWakeMeUp Idler's nude self portrait is in motion, occasionally aligned.


Above:Oberon Self-portrait 3 v.22 by Oberon Onmura

Man-a-hatta Gallery owner Oberon Onmura is an artist as well, and  includes his own self-portraits in this show. Oberon Self-portrait 3 v.22  is a set of nine waving flexi-prims with fragments of images that keep wiggling.

©200

9 Richard Minsky