The Luminous Lens
Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton Rowan Derryth
The Luminous Lens Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
Published April, 2010 Design and Layout by PJ Trenton
Rowan Derryth
Table of Contents Foreword................................................................................................1 Acknowledgements..............................................................................2 Introduction...........................................................................................3 Ekphrasis: PJ Trenton........................................................................................4 Catalogue OF WORKS ChloroForms.......................................................................................10 Surfacing...............................................................................................10 Sentient Sketch...............................................................................................13 Apres Auvers..................................................................................................13 Nebulae 1.........................................................................................................14 Nebulae 2........................................................................................................14 Absinthe Haze................................................................................................17 Aperture...............................................................................................17 Cryogenian...........................................................................................18 Eocene Epoch.................................................................................................18 Wind`s Wellaway...........................................................................................21 Willowwood II................................................................................................21 Tangerine Dream...........................................................................................22 Appendix................................................................................................24
Foreword [by Tricia Aferdita]
I have had the privilege of counting PJ Trenton among my closest friends for more than three years now. In that time I have watched him grow as a photographer and as an artist, all the while admiring the way he thinks and how he sees the world, both real and virtual. He first began his professional career with incredible profile portraits. Here his skills and creativity grew with commissioned portraits as well as spontaneous portraits of friends and acquaintances. Having quite a few of both varieties in my inventory, I have always found the ones he created spontaneously to be his most breathtaking. He captures a moment; puts a depth into it, picks up an emotion, a look, a thought; in what would normally be a static avatar.
I did, however, continue to pester him to put on an exhibit of his creative work. Beyond the technical, scenic, entertaining and informative shoots for his work, he finds time to view our virtual realm with an artist’s eye. I have often been at the same SIM or event with him taking my own photographs, and when I see how differently he was viewing the same scene I was, I am astounded. On the following pages you will find just a fraction of what PJ has to offer the artistic and photographic world. Also included here is the Ekphrasis article written by Rowan Derryth for the Prim Perfect Blog, as well as brief essays accompanying the works. I thank Rowan, Prim Perfect, and in particular Saffia Widdershins for their support of this exhibit. I encourage you to wander through the pages slowly, look at the world through PJ’s lens and experience the shifting light, luminous colors, and creative vision of this collection.
As word got out, he moved from portraits to graphic design, creating posters, event and business signs, always exploring his own creativity as well as that which Second Life has to offer. All the while, of course, he declined to agree that he was being an artist. Many now know him through his work on Primgraph, Prim Perfect and “The Quest for the Golden Prim.” Having watched him shoot for the magazines and seeing Gallery Director and Curator Tricia Aferdita Gallery the final results I have no doubt he is enjoying himself.
Tricia Aferdita
Rowan Derryth
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Acknowledgements
I would like to extend my deepest thanks to Tricia Aferdita for making this exhibit and catalogue possible, and for generally being a shining light in service of the arts in SL; and to the indefatigable Saffia Widdershins for her unflagging support of my writing — I am thrilled to be part of the Prim Perfect team. A special thanks also to the fabulous Ceejay Writer for casting her expert editorial eye over the catalogue text. And of course, to PJ — how can I express my gratitude to you for being such a great mentor and friend on this strange and wonderful journey? I hope this text goes some way to doing that. Thank you for being such an inspiration in so many ways.
Rowan Derryth
The works you see in this exhibit are the culmination of my passion for photography and desire to create and share my artistic vision with those around me. More importantly, my work would mean little without the support, encouragement and validation of the great people I am proud to call my friends. A very heartfelt thanks to one in particular, Tricia Aferdita, who not only encouraged me to finish this exhibit but provided an incredible venue in which to feature it. Tricia’s enthusiasm for and support of my work means so much. She is a tireless supporter and promoter of the arts and is an inspiration to those who are fortunate enough to know and work with her. She is also a fabulous artist in her own right. This catalogue would certainly not have been possible without the enthusiasm, creativity, and eloquence of Rowan Derryth. Her appreciation of this collection of works and the excitement with which she talked of the need for an exhibition catalogue are why you read these words today. Through an extremely interesting experiment (see Ekphrasis: PJ Trenton, p.6), these works now have a much deeper meaning and their own stories as a result of Rowan’s eloquent keystrokes. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank intrepid publisher extraordinaire, Saffia Widdershins for her support of this exhibit and catalogue and for exposing me to the artistic and photographic potential of the wide world of Second Life.
PJ Trenton
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The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
Introduction [by Rowan Derryth]
Today I want to discourse to the public about a strange man, a man so powerful and decided in his originality that it is sufficient unto itself and does not even seek approval. Charles Baudelaire, ‘Le Peintre de la Vie Modern’ (The Painter of Modern Life), 1863
With the above words, the poet, critic, and artistic decadent Charles Baudelaire began his essay on the painter Constantine Guys, whom he selected to represent what he felt an artist should be in the mid-nineteenth century: the painter of modern life. Guys stood in almost allegorically for several of Baudelaire’s more radical friends, including the painters Delacroix and Manet; and the photographic pioneer Nadar. To Baudelaire, the painter of modern life was not strictly an artist, but a ‘man of the world’, a flâneur, a stroller or a saunterer who immerses himself in the world — and specifically in the city — in order to fully experience it. He writes: For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world — such are a few of the slightest pleasures of those independent, passionate, impartial natures which the tongue can but clumsily define.
It occurs to me that PJ Trenton is very much a flâneur, immersing himself in the grid, while recording the world through his own lens, in both the technical and metaphorical sense. Anyone who has been with him as he photographs, or even attended the same event or party, can attest to the way in which he is at the centre of the activity, enjoying it with wit and charm; while he is also hidden, drifting into silence as he frames and documents the world around him. Sometimes we even see him in his photographs, whether it be on the cover of Prim Perfect magazine or hidden in the flora of an abstract work; but it is never ‘PJ’ we see in
Rowan Derryth
these images, but rather the flâneur immersed in the scene which he is recording, perhaps more aptly described again in Baudelaire’s words: Finally he hurls himself headlong into the midst of the throng, in pursuit of an unknown, half-glimpsed countenance that has, on an instant, bewitched him. Curiosity has become a fatal, irresistible passion!
The wondrous images that comprise the exhibit ‘The Luminous Lens,’ originally at the Tricia Aferdita Gallery, may represent a departure from Trenton’s commercial work, however they certainly retain that immersive, ‘bewitched’ quality. I certainly was bewitched when I first saw them. And then, as described in the ‘Ekphrasis’ article I wrote on Trenton for the Prim Perfect blog (reprinted on the following pages), I was given the unique opportunity to perform a true ekphrasis by giving these stunning works titles, and further honoured to have the artist like and adopt them. I am grateful to both PJ and Tricia for allowing me to work on such a fascinating project. Thus what follows is a catalogue of the works in the show, solely the creations of the artist; and accompanying text, which I must view as a collaboration — my own interpretive musings on each piece, which inspired the titles I was privileged to create. For this text, PJ took me to the locations of each image, where they yet existed, to further consider each title’s suitability to the images. I encourage readers to use the slurls included here to visit these wonderful spots to further appreciate PJ’s creative vision, and perhaps take a few images of their own. With one or two exceptions, I did not know any of the locations photographed when I devised the titles, but rather crafted them based on what I saw before me. The titles certainly may not reflect what every viewer sees, and are by no means meant to define the images; but rather perhaps offer yet another lens through which to view their luminosity.
Rowan Derryth
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Ekphrasis: PJ Trenton [by Rowan Derryth]
I’ve heard PJ Trenton referred to as ‘the National Geographic photographer of SL’ (and although perhaps less dangerous here, I have heard tales of him being hit by planes, and ‘bombed’, while on location). Anyone who had seen his stunning images in Prim Perfect PJ Trenton by Rowan Derryth Magazine, the Primgraph, or on Designing Worlds, can easily see how he gets this reputation. Not to mention that he is the artist who brings the popular comic ‘The Quest for the Golden Prim’ to life. But if you think his talent surfaces in merely the representative, then think again. In fact, ’surfaces’ is just the word I would use to describe the works in his new show ‘The Luminous Lens’ that just opened at the Tricia Aferdita Gallery in Avalon. These abstract photographs are large surfaces of luminosity which seem to have more in common with paintings than traditional photographs. Trenton explores some of the most vivid locations in SL, then manages to transform them, through his lens, into studies in light, colour, and texture that puts the Impressionists to shame. The Mosque at Al Andalus by PJ Trenton
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Reprinted with the permission of Prim Perfect [http://primperfectblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/ekphrasis-pj-trenton/]
An avid photographer in RL, Trenton began playing with the SL camera not long after joining over three years ago. Like many others, he got his start rezzing his RL works, but soon wanted to explore what could be done in SL. An early work from Trenton’s ‘Urban Squall’ series. “The first exhibit I ever did I called ‘Urban Squall‘. These were all black and white images shot in a handful of grungy urban environments.” He smiles, reminiscing, “I decorated the gallery to match the exhibit, with a run down taxi, for example.” He seems amused by his early experiment, but I can’t help but note that even in his early days, he was carefully considering the ways in which he could document the visual narrative of the spaces he explored. Trenton has also been a gallery owner and graphic designer since his early days, and currently owns Exposure Gallery (managed by the arts community force of nature herself, Tricia Aferdita) and Render Design in Avalon. But these days Trenton is kept unbelievably busy by his work for the aforementioned Prim Perfect Publications. To get an idea of what the whirlwind life of an in-demand photographer was like, as well as what inspires him, he took me on a tour of some of his favourite places. “Shooting for the magazines helped me understand what one could do here artistically, but more importantly I realized that what I really am here is a historian,” he muses as we survey the dystopian landscape of Insilico, a perfect place to ponder the ephemeral transience of
The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
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Whether one likes or dislikes something is pretty much irrelevant…the importance is in the seeing.
Second Life. “I’m documenting, and in some cases preserving the memory of places which no longer exist. Because I shoot for the magazines, I take a LOT of photos. I like the idea that these places are somehow archived.”
pj trenton
people… to be out with my friends and take their picture and give it to them as total surprise…. I think that is where the greatest reward is. People don’t expect it, and I love the reactions.” He smiled and slipped me a photograph.
As I gazed appreciatively at the unexpected gift, he continued, “I think what it boils down to is that everything I shoot, I shoot for my friends, whether it is to accompany assignments written for the magazines, or to hang as an exhibition in a friend’s gallery. I’m not sure it really One of the denizens of Insilico as captured by matters what the subject is, but that the end result is something I’m While wandering the stunning Trenton. I recommend seeing the whole series. proud to share. I mean, people put their faith in me, so I think it is very important to deliver on that. I suppose that is why I struggle with community of Winterfell the idea that I am an ‘artist’ here, and not just a designer/photojourI asked him whether he felt that SL has affected his RL work. He explained that because he is a photographer, he saw himself using the nalist. I don’t see it as my career, it isn’t all I do, unlike so many of my SL camera in the same way he might use his RL one. However, this was friends who are full-time working artists.” not without its difficulties. “You have to understand the limitations here and find a way to push it and make it work for you. I think the Looking at the image in my hand, and having seen his work for this new images in this show really achieve that… and you can actually create exhibition, I was extremely amused to hear how he struggled with images that are much more like a painting than a photo… I think that is the notion that he was an ‘artist’. Trenton has a natural eye for the really neat thing about this show, that I have to explain to people composition and tonality that I would happily put on par with a host of that these are photographs, not paintings.” expert photographers, from Ansel Adams to Annie Liebovitz to Minor White. These new abstract works show his mastery with his lens, We finally visited the incred- that he can arrange the mundane into fields of colour and light that ible AM Radio sims, including capture the beauty and strangeness of our virtual world. The Far Away, and I wondered, as I itched to take out Being something of a shutterbug myself, we ended up spending more my own camera and start time in photographic contemplation during our travels than in discussion. shooting in the golden light, So we decided to retire for a rather delectable coffee in the Café des what of his various subjects Artistes in Paris 1900, where our meandering chat on his work, art in he liked to shoot the most. general, and criticism, had us considering an interesting experiment. The author gazes at the artist at work, unaware that she “Impromptu shots of is the subject of his own photographic gaze.
Rowan Derryth
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Only one thing had been bothering me since I saw the preview of Trenton’s show – the fact that he had given them the non-descriptive titles of Abstract 1, Abstract 2, etc. I asked him about this decision, to which he casually commented, “Titles of artworks are kind of neither here nor there.” While the off-handedness made me smile, it also raised my art historical hackles, as my brain ran through a million challenges to his statement. The conversation continued:
‘What is that?’ Then they look at the title and expect it to tell them what they are supposed to see. It is a signifier to the signified, to get all semantic on your ass. So… there is power in the name, I think. PJ: Isn’t that sort of what ekphrasis means? RD: (smiling ironically) Yes, I suppose the column title does come from my desire to discuss, describe and understand works. And literally, it means to proclaim or call an inanimate object by a name. To me, it makes analyzing a work more interesting.
PJ: I have told you that I often stand before a work and think…why did they name it that? I was actually at an exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada not long ago where every work in the show… all by the same artist… were all called ‘Untitled’.
He considered my words, then looked at me keenly, wondering aloud how I might title his new RD: Yes, it is common… what did you think of that? photographs. He was curious to see what I PJ: Personally, I liked it… It made me wonder if deep down these would name them, and artists wished to avoid putting preconceived notions on the viewer how that might help him by suggesting to them a title…clear or not. Here is my work…what to consider his work in Sentient Sketch [abstract 1], SL photo, 2010 do you think… or want it to be? Unless a work is very specific, like a broader context. And Haystacks; Sunflowers; Girl with a Pearl Earring; or the works of Canaletto. I admit I was thrilled to have the chance to spend some time thinking The conundrum for me comes from abstract works, like those of about these gorgeous works, so I accepted his challenge. After all, it Jackson Pollock. Personally I find naming works VERY difficult. isn’t every day that an artist actually gives a crap about an art critic’s opinion! RD: You are not the first artist by any means to struggle with this. In fact, I’ve known artists, both personally and historically, who prefer So I ventured to Tricia Aferdita’s Avalon Gallery, and began looking, and either to not name their works (hello, ‘Untitled’), or who want others to considering. What did these works say to me, what did I see? What name them. Because, in a way, you are right, the title doesn’t matter. did they reference? I made my list, with more than a little anxiety. The SURFACE matters, what people see and take for themselves. Then, rather than handing it over, we tested the experiment: could BUT, many people don’t really look... I mean, they look, they think he, with just the title, figure out which work I was naming? It was a fun
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The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
“
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Shooting for the magazines helped me understand what one could do here artistically, but more importantly I realized that what I really am here is a historian.
game, and he had about a 75% success rate. But ultimately, he liked what I came up with, and so I’ve been honoured to be able to give my own subtitles to his work. Here are a few samples of what I came up with, and why…
image referenced the medium.
pj trenton
I titled the poster piece, Abstract 1, Sentient Sketch, simply because of the sketchy quality of the vigorous line, and because it has a very strong vitality to it, as if it were alive. Also, I love alliteration, as may become clear.
I’ll mention one more here because I found the exchange intriguing when PJ and I played our title game. Apres Auvers was the Aperture [abstract 11]. SL photo, 2010 first I gave him to guess, and he answered correctly almost right off. I asked him how he knew, and he replied “Well, it seems a very specific title, exacting, and I think that image is very specific as well.” So he saw it as appropriate for a completely different reason than I chose it, which I very much liked.
However ChloroForms was the first title I came up with, and the only one I told PJ about, as we were hatching this scheme. I think he was a bit non-plussed, and said “You mean it will make people pass out?” Then I explained the capitol ‘F’, and that I thought of it because the green was like chlorophyll, but they were forms. “Clever,” was his response, which gave me hope.
My reason? The work for me so clearly reminded me of Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows, painted at Auvers.
Two others came to me very easily, and I think need no further explanation than that which my titles offer, other than in the case of the first, I’m a bit of a Victorian, and in the latter, I liked that the
All this Ekphrasis fun of mine aside, I have to Apres Auvers [abstract 13], SL photo, 2010 agree with Trenton: the importance is in the seeing. And you must see these works, for they are nothing short of stunning.
ChloroForms [abstract 12], SL photo, 2010
Rowan Derryth
Absinthe Haze [abstract 10], SL photo, 2010
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I saw at once that it was not precisely an artist, but rather a man of the world with whom I had to do. I ask you to understand the word artist in a very restricted sense, and man of the world in a very broad one. By the second I mean a man of the whole world, a man who understands the world and the mysterious and lawful reasons for all its uses; by the first, a specialist, a man wedded to his palette like the serf to the soil.
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~ Charles Baudelaire
The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
Catalogue of Works Rowan Derryth
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abstract 12
ChloroForms
FEAST [feast/20/23/13]
abstract 5
Surfacing
FEAST [feast/20/23/13]
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The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
When PJ first suggested that I come up with the titles for his works, I was looking at Abstract 12. Instantly, the word ‘chloroform’ came into my head. I won’t try to wax eloquent on how the mind works, but if I’ve learned anything as an art historian, it is to trust my instincts. I knew I wasn’t thinking of the toxic solution that is used in so many adventure stories, though I do like the notion, and there is a definite chemical feel to the colours in this piece. The green reminded me of chlorophyll, and my brain somehow connected that word with the rhythmic forms of the piece. I blurted ChloroForms out to PJ, who looked at me somewhat sceptically, making me think our experiment was a failure from the start. But I do love to play with language, and when I explained that I had been thinking that capitalizing the F would clarify the play on it, he approved, to my relief.
The colours of both of these works are somewhat inexplicable without considering digital manipulation, thus I was intrigued to discover where they were shot. “Walk into the water,” instructed PJ as we stood on a small beach at Forest Feast. From the surface looking down, it seemed like a perfectly charming but rather regular little coast. But once beneath the surface, one finds oneself walking through a field of phosphorescent plants, of which both ChloroForms and Surfacing are extreme close-ups. Further down this slope is an undersea garden, complete with a concert amphitheatre, giving this whole idea of surface yet another meaning, one directly related to the location: this wonder beneath an unassuming surface, which PJ has captured and, in turn, brought to the surface for us to view.
Like ChoroForms, the title for Abstract 5 also carries a double meaning. One of the things that struck me about all of the works in this show was how close to the surface they were; that although they all have a sense of depth, the abstraction creates a flatness which lends itself to the notion that these are not photographs, but paintings. Additionally, the way in which PJ diagonally composed the strange, blue field of flowers in this piece gives them a sense of lift, as if they are growing, rising to the surface. Thus I felt this work should be called Surfacing.
Rowan Derryth
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After taking on the title task, I started from the top with Abstract 1. This is one of my favourite pieces from the show, the frenetic line making me want to pick up a pencil and start to sketch. I began to think that, although I knew this was an image of a tree (unlike any I’d yet seen in SL), it was like a loose, contour sketch, but the energy of the line, alongside the bright green tone, gave it such vitality, making it a living thing. A Sentient Sketch. This piece was taken in a copse of trees at Aught, the neighbouring sim of the aforementioned Feast (both owned by Miki Morigi), just a short walk from the small beach. The abandoned buildings here lack the dystopic feel of places like Insilico, but rather signal reclamation by nature, as noted on the land description:
“People should accept the invasion of green. Because it is a correct recovery.”
The tumbled buildings and downed power lines become sites for nature to thrive, and the copse grows dense around these, with grass so tall you lose yourself in it. The textures here are incredible, and this tree, a ‘CurlyTree’ by Alir Flow of Alirium Gardens, really does look like a sketch when one stands in front of it.
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Just next to this extraordinary tree is an ‘OrdinaryTree Glory’, which I was surprised to learn was the model for Abstract 13. This was the work I had titles Apres Auvers because it immediately reminded me of Van Gogh’s studies of wheat fields at Auvers-sur-Oise, France. However the tree I was looking at was not the golden yellow of PJ’s canvas, but rather a combination of dense olive and light greens. I wondered at this, as he had told me that his images were not worked in Photoshop, so I asked him about it. PJ smiled somewhat mysteriously, but his inclination to mentor won out, and he taught me how to play with the light settings in SL, something all great photographers here know well. For this image, he adjusted the gamma settings to create the crisp, dry tone of his final work. I realized then just how much he utilizes SL – and purely SL – as an artistic medium. Just as in RL photography one must study and master light and colour through the lens, PJ more than merely captures subjects with the SL camera, but truly understands and manipulates the technical settings to achieve his desired result.
The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
abstract 1
Sentient Sketch
AUGHT [Aught/215/185/33]
abstract 13
Apres Auvers
AUGHT [Aught/205/199/26]
Rowan Derryth
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abstract 6
Nebulae 1
EMBRYO [embryo/130/133/30]
abstract 7
Nebulae 2
EMBRYO [embryo/130/133/30]
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The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
Abstracts 6 and 7 were perhaps the easiest to name, and as such have the most generic titles. Simply put, when one stands back from the works, they look like cosmic nebulae, although a simple detailed inspection reveals that they are indeed fields of vibrant yet somehow shadowy flowers. So these became Nebulae 1 and Nebulae 2, the numbers applied because as I stood in the gallery I got some arbitrary sense of the cool image coming before the warm. I didn’t think there was too much more to say about these images than that… until PJ took me to their location. Embryo is a rather amazing art installation: a small island, with a field of luminescent wildflowers growing rather rampant around a gnarled tree, itself void of any leaves, but which seems to have found a new purpose in it’s womb-like shape. It grows protectively around a sculpture of a large human embryo floating inside its egg. The tree looks slightly threatening from the outside, keeping intruders away while being open enough for visitors to contemplate. One wants to get close to the entity inside, but try as you might… circle the tree, fly about and try to drop inside… an invisible force keeps you at bay. But there is such vitality to this small place. Perhaps more strangely, discarded café chairs are scattered about the perimeter, and three male torsos – dressers mannequins – stand like sentinels in front of the tree-womb. The overall affect is an ethereal space of invitation, contemplation, but also of closure, both in its warding of visitors and protection of its charge.
Rowan Derryth
In returning to my titles of Nebulae, I began thinking about these mysterious origins of life and the universe, and the way in which PJ’s images managed to convey that aspect visually to me without my knowing the original subject. While my mind’s eye is professionally trained to pick apart an analyze works, I can only work with what I’ve been given, and as I mentioned at the outset, I chose to name these pieces largely by instinct, by the connections made between image and thought. Through our journeys to the original sources, it became increasingly intriguing to see how often the connection between titleimage-source truly worked; however I credit that more to the clarity of PJ’s vision than to any acuity I might bring to the discussion. Ironically, I know that he would say that he doesn’t think in a calculating way when he works, but rather he follows his visual instinct; what is at work in his subconscious mind, all of us – PJ included – can only guess.
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While it is the urban environment which provides PJ with inspiration for so much of his other work, the prevailing subject for these abstracts is the natural (if virtual) world in detail. Both Abstracts 10 and 11 were shot in the Chakryn Forest, created by Andrek Lowell and home to the founder of the (now closed) group Not Possible In Real Life, Bettina Tizzy. This sim is another ethereal place full of rich colours and textures to capture the imagination. Beams of otherworldly light fall upon you as you stroll through the forest to discover it’s hidden gems, of which there are many. I kept pausing to take photos of my own as PJ led me to the sites. We walked up through the forest and paused on a rocky outcrop which left me feeling slightly like Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, except rather than misty blue mountains, I was surveying the rich green forest, sparkling in the dappled light. It was an equally sublime spot, and PJ gestured to the expanse of trees which were the source of Abstract 10. This was another title that had come to me very quickly, Self-portrait of the author going all Friedrich. and based out of nothing other than the colour and texture speaking to my Victorian proclivities. The dense green, mottled with obscure light, was clearly an Absinthe Haze. Standing at the source, and being filled with Romantic sublimity, I was indeed feeling slightly light-headed, and could imagine the delicate sparkles of light in the air were green fairies dancing amidst the landscape.
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The artist tugged me from my reverie and led me through the top of this craggy hill, where we plummeted into a very strange chamber, interesting if slightly chaotic in its organization, with places to lounge and contemplate the objects/art scattered about. There, upon a wall, PJ pointed out the source for Abstract 11. This image is a detail of another artist’s work, Gore Suntzu’s Prim Abuse 2.0: Nebula. The original is a hypnotic, swirling prim sculpture that is placed almost flush to the wall so that it appears a bit like a laser light show. Suntzu’s work is lovely to watch, and sets the tone for the rather surreal space. Because of the nature of the object, PJ’s photograph is more symmetrical than some of his other works (he often finds his focal point slightly off centre). His version is a close-up focused on the centre of the object, the pulsing and swirling lines frozen to lead the eye to the lens-like opening; thus the title, Aperture.
The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
abstract 10
Absinthe Haze
CHAKRYN [Chakryn/45/121/57]
abstract 11
Aperture
CHAKRYN [Chakryn/70/87/21]
Rowan Derryth
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abstract 8
Cryogenian
AUGHT [Aught/19/191/22]
abstract 9
Eocene Epoch
CIUDAD DE MEXICO [Ciudad de Mexico/101/90/67]
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The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
To me, Abstracts 8 and 9 both had very geological aspects to them. With its cool blue palette and mottled, fractured surface, Abstract 8 looked like an ice flow, and something rather remote. I pictured the surface of the planet covered in ice, cracking and shifting, and as such selected a name from deep in the planet’s ice age: Cryogenian. Similarly, Eocene Epoch became the title of Abstract 9, because I had just been thinking about geological time with the previous piece, and the intense green of this image was so vital it spoke to me of a time and place when the earth must have been filled with new vegetation, lush, unspoilt. Ironically, neither of these works are what they seem. What I saw as ice crystals in Cryogenian was in fact the surface of the water in Aught. PJ took me there, and as I stood looking, I still could not see how he managed to capture that image. But I like it all the more for it, as the truth of its origin carried its own mystique.
Rowan Derryth
Eocene Epoch was even more surprising, as rather than the rich, dense forest I assumed was its source, PJ took me to Ciudad de Mexico, an ‘urban, futuristic combat roleplay environ’. We landed in the middle of a cityscape, and he pointed out three rather basic trees, each surrounded by a ring of spotlights, in the midst of a concrete plaza suspended between ultramodern buildings, high above the crumbling undercity. I could see elements of the image, but how he managed to get the dense marble texture from these rather sparse trees still perplexed me. I moved closer to inspect them, and discovered to my surprise that they were in fact not solid, but rather holograms of trees, projected in light, which of course would make sense for this somewhat dystopian city of the future. How he managed to make them look so solid in his version is still something of a mystery. I was actually pleased to find two works whose sources did not directly relate to the titles I chose, because it highlights the way in which these works stand on their own. While ice and water are of course related, the roiling fluid that PJ showed me was so different than the fractured surface of Cryogenian; and in Eocene Epoch he managed to take a phantom element of an urban cityscape and transform it into a marbleized surface, as if looking at a cross-section of stone. More than immersing himself in the world, this flâneur has found a way to transform it and show it to us in a manner which we ourselves may never have seen.
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The titles for Abstracts 2 and 4 are the ones which I fully expect to mean nothing to most viewers, perhaps outside of the vague impression the words suggest. However they are very specific references, which are the most personal I came up with.
of the narrator as words of the allegorical figure of Love encourage him to be brave and let go of the memory of his lost love. As such, Wind’s Wellaway became the title I selected.
Abstract 2 was even more perplexing. I stood in front of it looking When I first stood in front of Abstract 4, I was a bit stumped for a title. closely, and then noticed two things I hadn’t seen before. First, in the It is perhaps the most formally clear of all the works, a field of roses rhythmic vertical patterns created by the foliage, I could see what shot in Wanderstill, Ode, although it retains that ‘close to the surface’ appeared as willow branches suspended from the top of the picture aspect that gives it a slightly abstracted feel. Everything I came up with plane. Then, in the middleground at left, I noticed two figures: what was rather generic, and I didn’t actually want to use the word ‘rose’ in looked to be a ghostly, cloaked shape, and the artist himself. Again, I the title. I realized then that this had been a creative endeavour for recalled Rossetti’s poems, particularly ‘Willowwood II’, in which we me all along; a true ekphrasis through just finding one or two words see the shades of their former selves gather in the wood: that could describe the work, capture its essence. Yet as I stood there, And I was made aware of a dumb throng I could only think about the roses, and how they seemed to cling close That stood aloof, one form by every tree, together in the image. Then, the words drifted into my head, lines from one of my favourite poems, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s otherworldly ‘Willowwood’ sonnets (see Appendix. p. 24). They describe a metaphysical encounter between a lover and the spirit of his lost/dead love while seated with the personification of Love ‘by a woodside well’. The first sonnet describes the author seeing the face of his love in the reflection of the well, and he leans down to the water as her face rises to meet his. The second sonnet relates the transfigurative moment when his lips meet hers on the surface of the water, as shades step out of the wood — images of the lovers in other times (possibly other lives) — and at that moment Love sings a song of mourning to caution the lovers that pining will bring naught but pain. This song is the third sonnet, with the fourth closing with words of consolation and hope, that the author might be able to let go. It is from this last sonnet that the words came: …and as meeting rose and rose Together cling through the wind’s wellaway… Although there is no rushing wind here, the stillness of the image evokes the melancholy close to Rossetti’s tale, the lingering hopefulness
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All mournful forms, for each was I or she, The shades of those our days that had no tongue.
For me, this scene became the Willowwood of Rossetti’s poem, a liminal place, a space between worlds, particularly with the idea of the artist/author appearing ghost-like in the midst of this strange wood. Thus I named this work Willowwood II in honour of the poem, and out of my own romantic sentiment. Of course Rossetti inspired neither of these works, so I didn’t know how PJ would receive the titles. But I had recently shared these poems with him and knew he liked them, and was relieved when he confirmed his approval of naming these works after them, personal as the selections are. I found it interesting to discover that this site was the one that no longer existed: PJ took this image at the SL 6th Birthday Celebration. Thus Willowwood becomes a further symbol of loss, an allegory for the ephemerality of Second Life itself. But I shall refrain from pushing any further comparisons with Rossetti – including the way in which both enjoy making images of beautiful women – lest my art historical imagination run wild.
The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
abstract 4
Wind’s Wellaway
ODE [Ode/208/214/150]
abstract 2
Willowwood II
SL6B VELOCITY [No longer in existence]
Rowan Derryth
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abstract 13
Tangerine Dream
AVALON [No longer in existence]
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The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
This piece is perhaps the most difficult to discuss, as I have no real frame of reference for the source. According to PJ, this work was taken at a friend’s handfasting, looking through tall autumn grass. The title is straightforward: tangerine in colour, dreamlike in subject; and of course, the shadows seem to be performing a trancelike dance, and I could easily hear the atmospheric, electronic music of Tangerine Dream being played at this celebration. But it additionally occurs to me that this piece, also rather visually liminal, sits transitionally between the abstract works and the rest of his body of work. It contains elements of each: the flat planes of colour and airy light of these abstract works; the documentary aspect of his commercial work; and the energetic warmth of his spontaneous portraits for friends. It is phantasmagoric on its own, but in the context of this show, it may be viewed as another example of the way in which PJ is able to transform what could have possibly been just another snapshot into an abstracted, ethereal moment through his keen artistic vision. It is not arbitrary that I chose Baudelaire as a literary lens to discuss this artist, as to me, there is something very 19th century, very aesthetic, about his work. PJ Trenton’s photo abstractions are contemporary feasts for the senses, transient moments captured and reinterpreted through the artist’s luminous lens.
Rowan Derryth
Or we might liken him to a mirror as vast as the crowd itself; or to a kaleidoscope gifted with consciousness, responding to each one of its movements and reproducing the multiplicity of life and the flickering grace of all the elements of life…
And the external world is reborn upon his paper, natural and more than natural, beautiful and more than beautiful, strange and endowed with an impulsive life like the soul of its creator. The phantasmagoria has been distilled from nature. ~ Charles Baudelaire
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Appendix
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ‘Willowwood’ from The House of Life, first edition, 1870 SONNETS XXIV., XXV., XXVI., XXVII. WILLOWWOOD.
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I. I SAT with Love upon a woodside well, Leaning across the water, I and he; Nor ever did he speak nor looked at me, But touched his lute wherein was audible The certain secret thing he had to tell: Only our mirrored eyes met silently In the low wave; and that sound came to be The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell.
II. And now Love sang: but his was such a song, So meshed with half-remembrance hard to free, As souls disused in death’s sterility May sing when the new birthday tarries long. And I was made aware of a dumb throng That stood aloof, one form by every tree, All mournful forms, for each was I or she, The shades of those our days that had no tongue.
And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers; And with his foot and with his wing-feathers He swept the spring that watered my heart’s drouth. Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair, And as I stooped, her own lips rising there Bubbled with brimming kisses at my mouth.
They looked on us, and knew us and were known; While fast together, alive from the abyss, Clung the soul-wrung implacable close kiss; And pity of self through all made broken moan Which said, ‘For once, for once, for once alone!’ And still Love sang, and what he sang was this:—
The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton
Rowan Derryth
III. ‘O YE, all ye that walk in Willowwood, That walk with hollow faces burning white; What fathom-depth of soul-struck widowhood, What long, what longer hours, one lifelong night, Ere ye again, who so in vain have wooed Your last hope lost, who so in vain invite Your lips to that their unforgotten food, Ere ye, ere ye again shall see the light!
IV. So sang he: and as meeting rose and rose Together cling through the wind’s wellaway Nor change at once, yet near the end of day The leaves drop loosened where the heart-stain glows,— So when the song died did the kiss unclose; And her face fell back drowned, and was as grey As its grey eyes; and if it ever may Meet mine again I know not if Love knows.
Alas! the bitter banks in Willowwood, With tear-spurge wan, with blood-wort burning red: Alas! if ever such a pillow could Steep deep the soul in sleep till she were dead,— Better all life forget her than this thing, That Willowwood should hold her wandering!’
Only I know that I leaned low and drank A long draught from the water where she sank, Her breath and all her tears and all her soul: And as I leaned, I know I felt Love’s face Pressed on my neck with moan of pity and grace, Till both our heads were in his aureole.
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PJ Trenton
A Second Life resident for well over 3 years, PJ Trenton has been a member and supporter of the vibrant Second Life arts community since creating his virtual self. Chief Executive Officer of the Exposure Art Gallery and Render Graphic Design, PJ now finds himself wandering the grid on assignment as photographer for Prim Perfect and The Primgraph magazines ... exploring and documenting some of the most incredible places and creations in the metaverse. PJ is also photographer and designer of the “Quest for the Golden Prim,” a serial running regularly in The Primgraph.
Rowan Derryth
Rowan Derryth is proud to be an art snob extraordinaire. An Art, Fashion & Design Historian in RL, she spends her time in SL looking for the very best visual culture the grid has to offer. She is on the Board of Directors at the Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum, is a writer for Prim Perfect and The Primgraph magazines, and has recently begun profiling some of the most innovative SL artists in her new column ‘Ekphrasis’ on the Prim Perfect Blog. What little free time she has is spent learning to build, exploring the grid, and now mastering the art of the SL camera.
PJ 26 and Rowan shopping for a prim baby.
The Luminous Lens • Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton