Oberon Onmura knocks me over and blows me away

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Blame the summer heat, my haste in recent months, or simply my incomprehension and obtuseness, but I didn't appreciate what others saw in Oberon Onmura's Second Life® work. I was also quite unhappy with Oberon a few months ago when the New York artist left a large gray scripted building plop atop the works of others on the Brooklyn is Watching gallery floor, thereby inhibiting my ability to enjoy everyone else's pieces. While this was not good form, it did have the effect of branding the name "Oberon Onmura" on my brain. It was going to take a lot to turn me around.

And a lot has happened: Two striking and, I feel, important highly kinetic and interactive installations.

The first appears to have been assembled in a flash. Plaza or "Uneven Floor" is rezzed for just a short while on the new Brooklyn is Watching floor (teleport directly from here). Oberon describes it thusly: "A quick piece converted from the 'Storm Cells' scripts, It's a plaza where the pavers rise and fall, and change color from white to gray to black. Also, they randomly rez chairs which are physical objects that often fall or get disrupted by the changing design of the plaza."



The Tunguska Event (teleport directly from here) simply bowled me over. Oberon has harnessed Second Life's winds and physics to portray his vision of a powerful explosion that occurred near Russia's Tunguska River on June 30, 1908.


To get the overhead effect, sit on one of the red "cushions" at the arrival area or on one of the four corners of the installation, and then hit "escape" a couple of times to enable Oberon's special viewer. It helps to maximize your draw distance and particle effects, too

It is believed that an air burst caused by a large meteoroid or comet fragment about 5–10 kilometres (3–6 miles) above the Earth's surface, estimated to have the energy equivalent of 1,000 times the Hiroshima bomb, knocked over approximately 80 million trees spanning 2,150 square kilometres (830 square miles).

Curated by Zachh Cale, who will perform a piano piece he has composed especially for the public opening at 2pm SLT, Sunday, September 20th, the installation was sponsored by Project Z Gallery.

Self-hypnosis and Bryn Oh's "Steamgarden"

The moment I saw this video, I thought of Bryn Oh and her clockwork sculptures. The next moment, I found myself gazing in a semi-hypnotic state. And the next moment, I thought surely I had self-hypnotized myself. Having trouble getting to sleep? Want to command yourself to do something you've been procrastinating on? Watch this!


As seen on Gizmodo via Brad Litwin via Boing Boing

But back to Bryn... Her "Steamgarden" installation at the Garden of NPIRL Delights (teleport directly from here), is inspired by the third panel of the triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Bosch - depicting Hell - and represents her view on the industrial dehumanization of society. As Bryn put it, "the intention was to create a mood of disquiet and anxiety mixed with elements of beauty."

In Real Life, Bryn is a professional oil painter living in Toronto, Canada.

In Second Life®, she has already made quite a name for herself, exhibiting her thoughtful creations throughout the grid. Her work still shows up (and delights the finders) in sandboxes, but you can see her current installations at the Museum of Natural History (teleport directly from here), the Swedish Resource Centre, Primtings (teleport directly from here), The Great Exhibition, SLMoCA (teleport directly from here), and of course, the Garden of NPIRL Delights.

She is also a resident artist at Caerleon Island (teleport directly from here), an important artist collective featuring the works of many other artists I admire, in addition to several of Bryn's important pieces and a fantastic underground installation she created.

Just look at the detail on the plaque of clockwork sculpture. The tiny bug is animated!



The "motor" of the clockwork piece is fired by the hard work of several insects.



Inside, a music box... You can open and close the wings.


Overview of Bryn Oh's "Steamgarden"