NMC Campus – Digital artist Nebulosus Severine is unveiling a new exhibition entitled “The Cult(ure) of Television” on Saturday April 21st at the Aho Museum parcel on the NMC Campus. This will be her first installation since her break with the Artropolis sim earlier this month.

The move was prompted by Severine’s response to a discussion on the SLART website (http://slartblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/no-more-phony-limited-editions.html) about the worth of labelling Second Life artwork as “limited editions”.

This cemented Severine’s dislike of the commercial side of art. "Trying to force myself to make art just for the purpose of selling it felt wrong to me," she said. "The value of art is not how scarce it is – it’s what makes it meaningful, or touching, or amazing, or evocative."

Severine decided to stop charging money for her pieces altogether. From now on, she said, "The stuff I sell, unless I sell it for fundraising purposes, will be L$1."

"Some artists charge upwards of several thousand lindens for their work," she went on to say. "The most I have ever charged was L$1000 – and that was against my better judgement."

"I don't want to come across as self-righteous or anything. I think all artists should pursue art in their own ways, but I need to do what feels right for me, too."

To announce her viewpoint, Severine opened an installation titled, “I’m an Artist, Not a Plumber” at Artropolis, selling 50 Art Plungers for L$1 each.

"It was aimed at artists who treat their art like a business," Severine said. "While I'm not sure it reached as many people as I would have liked, it did create a bit of a stir."

Most of the L$1 plungers sold: to artists and fans alike, on the first day, during an event announced to members of the “Art & Artist Network Group”, founded by Severine to allow SL artists to advertise their work. Most of the remaining plungers were snapped up over the next few days.

Severine’s departure from Artropolis shortly afterwards was a financial decision. "The rent at Artropolis was far too expensive for me since I don't make art for making money," she said.

"I wouldn't have come on board with Artropolis if I had known the rent would be more than I could afford – I wasn't told about how much rent would be until after I had already moved into the spot and set up everything," she continued.