The Gallery II--The Hideous Evil Among Us

Gallery II--the hideous evil among Us among us is ready for viewing at Reil 51, 47, 27. The photographs here display the Holocaust, and the Khmer Rouge, Armenian, Chinese, and American democides. I will change one photo each week, and all are free.

It is shown below.


Each Sunday, I will moderate a discussion event at noon, here. It will focus on the democide displayed, the latest photo, or painting shown, and what artists can do about it.

Below is one of the photos now hanging in the gallery.


The plaque included with the photo says this:

From April 1970 to January 1979 the communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas, and then as absolute dictators of Cambodia when they won their guerrilla war in 1974, murdered about 2,000,000 Cambodians and 35,000 Vietnamese. One of the security facilities (prisons) the Khmer Rouge created was Tuol Sleng, an extermination center in which they tortured and murdered some 20,000 people. Only fourteen prisoners may have survived. The Khmer Rouge photographed each new inmate, and these photographs have now become available in an attempt to identify the victims. Here is one of these photographs, that of a young girl whose name and "crime" are unknown, but who almost certainly soon ended up dead.

Why am I doing this? I love beauty, as you can see from The Gallery. But, I also hate this democide that is so much of our world, but its extent is virtually unknown. I want to recognize and honor these millions of victims, bring them to the attention of all, and show in contrast how precious is the world of beauty. Beauty and the beast are among us, but artists display only half of this.

The Gallery II--Evil Is Among Us

The Gallery has added an extension, which doubles its space. It now comprises two nearby stores in the Fortuna Plaza, at Reil 44, 68, 27.

I plan on turning the extension into a unique display of the world's worst evil--pictures and photographs of democide, as it is called, which is murder by government, exemplified by the two paintings of democide in my posts above. All these pictures will be free.

At the center of this gallery will be a conference table for weekly discussions of art (a publicized event), particularly focusing on the horrors pictured about the gallery, its how and why, what artists can do about it, and the power of art to communicate it.

Both galleries together will then by the yin and yang of art in SL. One showing that art is forever. The other that there is evil among us. The first Gallery is called The Gallery--beauty if forever, and the second will be aptly named Gallery II--evil is among us.

Remodeling on the second store will begin as soon as the former tenant clears their displays away.

Wating To Die

This week, The Gallery will center around the painting below of an old woman about to die. As she shivers in the cold, she is about to be shot by a Nazi execution squad because she is a Jew.

When I first saw this as a photo I was so moved that I had to paint it to better display of this horror. I did this by centering it only on the poor woman, removing soldiers nearby and extraneous detail that distracted from her, and building up the contrast between her and the white snow.

I am selling all these democide paintings/photos for L$0.

To show the beauty and the best in our world, I placed below the woman one of my other paintings in The Gallery.




The dog was our West Highland White Terrier, who died from a liver disease at the age of 4. I painted this picture of him as we remember him--always a questioning beauty.

The Why And The What OF The Gallery

I have opened The Gallery in Second Life (SL) for two reasons. For one, I am an artist and a lover of beauty in all its forms, whether in nature, the human body, or the well turned phrase. And I want to display my sense for this beauty in art, and hope that others can see it as I do. But, second, and perhaps more important, as also a student of history, I am appalled by the ugliness of our world, by the mass murder and genocide that is so much of our history.

Few know about this, except for the 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War. But in addition, during the last century, governments have murdered over 200,000,000 people in democide (genocide, atrocities, massacres, assassinations, concentration and labor camps, ethnic cleansing, and so on. Some governments, such as Stalin's Soviet Union, Mao's communist China, and Hitler's Germany (in addition to the Jews), have murdered in the tens of millions.

On the one side of our lives we have a beautiful world. And on the other side, in hideous contrast, we have pain and suffering the numbers murdered can barely touch.

The Gallery is meant to provide this incredible contrast by showing photographs and my paintings of this ugliness along with a statue of the tears it deserves, all in the center of the gallery's portrayal of beauty.
Beauty and the beast. Yes. And thus open people's minds to the faces of the world in which we live.

Below is a photo of the gallery, showing at the center the statue of tears and my democide paintage of a Chinese woman and child being murdered by a Japanese soldier in World War II. For ugly contrast, I also show my painting of a beautiful white rose.

If you are in SL, come and visit at Reil 44, 68, 27, or in the real world by slur at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/reil/44/68/27. And IM me--MarkMonet Thor in SL - or email markmonet at gmail.com with your questions or comments. If I do not answer an IM, it maybe my IM are capped. Then send me a notecard.

I will use this blog to respond to questions or comments of general interest, and also as a website to posting links and pictures, as well as links and references.

Have a beautiful day.