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| Image by Gem Preiz |
On board a spaceship circling a far distant
planet, the Captain stares out of the window of the craft at the unfamiliar
landscape beneath him. Soaring watchtowers hewn from jagged rocks thrust high
into the alien atmosphere overlooking abandoned landing platforms and bathed by
the light of the ships solar panels, he pensively writes into a logbook. The
opening page reveals that the year is 2115 and he has blasted away from a
dystopian Earth: a planet that is dying, desolate and ravaged by mankind. His
logbook reveals his deepest fears, his human frailties and an overwhelming
acceptance that life as he knew it might never be the same again.
This dark glimpse of what life could be like
in a not so distant future has been brought to present times within Second Life
at ‘Wrecks’ – an exhibition at LEA 26 created by SL artist, Gem Preiz. Wrecks
takes the viewer on a journey – both emotionally and visually – through a
series of logbook entries written on the exhibit’s starry walls and via the
colossal pictures of alien landscapes and structures that Gem produces outside
of SL using Mandelbulb 3D, a generator of 3D fractal objects and to complete
the out of this world experience, Gem has included a haunting soundtrack that
wouldn’t be out of place accompanying a movie such as The Martian or Gravity.
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| Image by Gem Preiz |
“The background of ‘Wrecks’ is a pessimistic
future of our planet,” admits Gem. “But I felt it would be interesting to give
a human and individual dimension to it, by creating a parallel between the risk
of giving up efforts to maintain our planet, and the runaway life of a man who
doesn’t want to face his own responsibility and future. Wrecks takes place in
100 years’ time and the fifteen fractal artworks tell of a journey into space
along with texts extracted from a logbook and personal mails written by the
captain of a spaceship which leaves the Earth. Overall, it gives a vision of
the future of our planet, which matches the destiny of the narrator. More
futuristic, not very funny, but… holding hope.”
The foreboding atmosphere at Wrecks is almost
tangible: from the moment you enter the exhibit through the doors of the
Orpheus craft, you are immersed in the life of the Captain and became compelled
to discover the outcome of his narrative. But it’s the fractal images that
really capture your attention due to their size, intricacy and beauty. “I cut
my fractals into plates that I stitch carefully so that the edges are almost
invisible,” Gem explains. “It enables me to bring 15 or 20 times more
information inworld than with a single texture. The images are much more precise,
and when you zoom, you get additional details instead of getting a blurred
image. That increases a lot the immersive feeling.”
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| Image by Gem Preiz |
Visiting Wrecks leaves a long lasting
impression on the viewer, and despite his shortcomings, you can’t help but hope
for a better destiny for the Captain – and planet Earth. As for his own future,
Gem says that he has plans for further artwork and exhibitions in SL that might
include “an extended range of digital images: not only
fractals. I am also curious about the new technology coming, with virtual
reality masks, to see how I could use it.” If you visit Wrecks, be sure to see
Gem’s other exhibition entitled ‘Vestiges’ too, because there is no one better
in SL art right now than Gem Preiz for showing us how the choices we make can
affect our present – and our future.
Wrecks and Vestiges run until the end of June
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