News: The Windhorse Project in Second Life

In 2009 Charley Peters was asked to participate in The Windhorse Project, a site specific exhibition of work by 15 international artists in Manchester's premier cultural quarter, the 'Oxford Road Corridor'. Initially exhibited in Manchester as part of The Cornerhouse Gallery/MIRIAD State Legacy venture, this project has continued to evolve since its auspicious beginnings, and is now hosted by Leeds University’s Second Life presence in their innovative ‘Art at the EDGE’ virtual gallery. Each artist was asked to produce a piece of work expressing an issue of global ecological concern, to be hung face-to-face with nature in All Saints Park, Manchester.


Above: Charley Peters, Addition/Subtraction (2009)

In September 2010 Dr. Erica Wright has brought The Windhorse Project into Second Life, and says, “Bringing this project to the prestigious ‘Art at the EDGE’ gallery, is an important step forward for real world art... Second Life’s excellent free communication facilities allow for live conversation, note sharing and instant feedback about the art being viewed remotely. The potential benefits offered to artists and educators by this technology are simply breathtaking."

Above: The Windhorse Project, Art at the EDGE gallery, Second Life (2010). Charley Peters' work can be seen second artwork from the right.

In addition to The Windhorse Project’s virtual world presence, the original printed works will continue to travel the globe, as new destinations present themselves. Project organiser Vanessa Cuthbert says, “The Windhorse works are part of an exhibition chain that began in All Saints Park and Righton Gallery, on the ‘Oxford Road Corridor,’ Manchester, a route that has been used throughout history for marches and protests. I hope to continue this project by sending the works to other locations in the real world, so they themselves will be carried off into the universe, in a sense, and the message will spread. The next host will add more works and decide a wide range of cultural, social and political differences on their journey. The works will change and be weathered, maybe subject to graffiti, and this will reflect the impermanent and ever-changing conditions that we are all subject to.”