New World Notes has spent little or no time covering the British Royal Family over the last 14 years, but here we are: This Tuesday, a day before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced an official withdrawal from their royal duties, they spent some time looking at art made in Second Life.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took in Skawennati’s exhibit "Avatars, Aliens, Ancestors" on Tuesday while visiting Canada’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom to say thanks for the hospitality they received during their recent trip to Canada...
The show imagines indigenous life past, present and future. It opens with the video work Words Before All Else, in which Skawennati’s avatar recites the Haudenosaunee’s Thanksgiving Address.
“My avatar, who is named xox, is an extension of myself,” she said. “She allows me to go places I might not be able to go.”
The artist Skawennati is pretty amazingly ambitious, and makes amazing use of SL in her art. Here's a talk she did about it a few years ago:
Skawennati uses Second Life to re-imagine Native American life and culture in a digital context.
That her work is being seen by a couple from the royal family of a country that once dominated indigenous people across the globe, in the very moment that they are seeking independence from that family, partly motivated by that country's prejudice against the wife, who hails from a former colony... could inspire a new work of art in itself.
Hat tip and Getty photos via artist Hannah Claus. Also hat tip to someone on Discord who sent me this link that I first assumed to be a hoax.
Ironic, eh? They step back as living avatars for something essentially British, and they go to an avatar show.
Good on them, btw. Nice (yet sad) to know that the USA does not have the corner on racism, and I'm glad they have revolted against that rubbish.
Posted by: Iggy 1.0 | Friday, January 10, 2020 at 06:01 PM
I love Prince Harry. I hope they have a great life.
There's absolutely nothing in SL that could be as sordid as the real life of the Royals.
I like to see this as Prince Harry finally giving his mother some peace. He's doing what needed to be done a generation ago.
Posted by: We're so sorry, Uncle Andrew | Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 08:34 AM