Bead Soup. 2020-21. Virtual transmediation of a bead spill as furniture. Installation view, AbTec Gallery, AbTec Island, Second Life.

Bead Soup is a set of virtual furniture shaped like giant cylinder and rocaille beads. Second Life users can have their avatars sit on the furniture by clicking on it.

This work was created after the exhibition ‘A Thread That Never Breaks’, curated by Lisa Myers and Sage Paul, was moved online due to COVID-19. The physical exhibition was scheduled to open at the Harbourfront Centre during Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto 2020 but was canceled. Paul and Myers approached Skawennati and the AbTec team about taking the exhibition online and they offered to host the exhibition on their island in Second Life. These images are snapshots taken in the AbTec Gallery on AbTec Island.

This work is indebted to the AbTec team who taught me how to build and script within Second Life, and to Sage Paul and Lisa Myers who pursued the exhibition in the face of extenuating circumstances.