info I contact
advertising
editorial schedule
acknowledgements
join the realtime email list
become a friend of realtime on facebook
follow realtime on twitter
donate

magazine  archive  features  rt profiler  realtimedance  mediaartarchive

contents

  

second front: online performance art

Christy Dena


Second Life, photo Lythe Witte (Christy Dena) Second Life, photo Lythe Witte (Christy Dena)
THIS SCREEN SHOT IS OF A SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE HELD IN THE ONLINE VIRTUAL WORLD SECOND LIFE (SL).

The event was the opening of an installation by SL resident JC Fremont, an artist and academic who goes by the name John Craig Freeman in real life. In Imaging Place SL: US/Mexico Border, Fremont explores the notion of political and artistic borders with a two-part installation that includes a large border fence. Second Front (www.slfront.blogspot.com), apparently the first dedicated performance art group in SL, were commissioned by Ars Virtua Gallery (www.arsvirtua.com) curator Rubaiyat Shatner to create a performance for the opening held January 5, 2007. Second Front actors, attired as virtual helicopters and inspectors, cast all the guests at the opening as illegal immigrants and proceeded to interrogate and harass them. The drama escalated when Second Front showered the border with barricades and set the place on fireā€”some people in power think the only solution to dealing with border crossers is to blow them up. CD

RealTime issue #77 Feb-March 2007 pg. 29

© Christy Dena; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]

Back to top