Meet Bibbe: The Artist Who Created Art With Andy Warhol and Now Creates Art in SL

Bibbe with Andy Warhol (in stripes) and Edie Sedgwick; in SL as Bibbe Oh with Hamlet

I recently noted that Second Life has a community of established real life artists using SL as a creative platform, and here’s a perfect example of what I mean: Bibbe Hansen, a performance artist and actress who was a longtime collaborator with pop art icon Andy Warhol, who made her one of his inner circle "superstars", is an active SLer.

In-world, she’s known as Bibbe Oh, where she continues her artwork.

“My son got me a small plot of [SL] land and a studio to work in,” Bibbe tells me. She means Channing Hansen, who’s also an established artist, and not her other son, who you may have heard of. Because, you see, Bibbe is also the mother of Beck, the pop art rock star.

In Second Life, her first goal was to transplant her real art work into SL, but she eventually joined a performance art troupe using Second Life itself as a medium:

“Originally I just brought my real life artwork in here,” Bibbe tells me. “It has a textile aspect, so I was working with SL graphics to see if I could get the work to resonate as it does in RL. Textiles don't photograph very well. Using bumpmapping and some different techniques, I was able to find a presentation of them that I liked very much. My son Channing and I also made an art gallery on the land that was designed by his curator wife. Then real life and SL combined together to make the next steps.”

That’s where the performance art troupe, Second Front, comes in:

“A long time family friend and associate of my father's, Fluxist Larry Miller, had worked with Patrick Lichty, who is better known in here as Man Machinaga and one of the founders of Second Front. Raving to Larry about Second Life, he naturally thought to connect me up with Patrick. About the same time, Jeremy Owen Turner (Wirxli Flimflam) another Second Front founder, found me online in SL. We had met in Vancouver when I was there for a family art event and opening at Art Beatus there.” You can read more about her SL work with these artists on her website here.

And what does she think Andy Warhold would make of Second Life?

“It is quite a natural segue,” Bibbe Oh tells me. “If Andy were still alive, we would be hanging out in here and making machinima.”

Hat tip: Svitlana Matviyenko and Jeremy Owen Turner. Photo of Bibbe with Warhol from this Child of the Moon blog post on her life.

Comments

[Missy Restless]

Very super cool. Where inworld can I see her artwork ?

[Ajax Manatiso]

All the guys in the picture are in stripes. Which one in stripes is Andy Warhol?

[Hamlet Au]

Dude with horizontal stripes just above Bibbe's right shoulder (girl with the hat.)

[Hamlet Au]

Missy, I have the SLurl to Bibbe's studio in my notes somewhere, will try to find it and add. Unless Bibbe comes by and adds it (hint thing.)

[Nyoko Salome]

;0 lol feels like i stepped into the generation gap, hearing 'which one is andy'??!! ;0

it sure is humbling to hear of these wonderful rl artists 'lurking' around in here... :) kudos to bibbe and her crew and proginy!! :)