Update, July 20th: Jim dropped me a line of the lack of soundscape noted below – apparently it was an easily-done oversight, and has now been rectified, so be sure to have local sounds enabled when visiting!
About a couple of weeks ago, if memory serves, I bounced into Jim Garand’s Grauland on one of my periodic visits to see what might have changed since my last visit. At the time, Jim appeared to be smack in the middle of redressing his Homsetead region – also home to his M1 Poses store – and so I pretty rapidly bounced my way back out again to allow him to finish things off, but with my curiosity well and truly piqued. I had intended to return just a few days later, but life had other plans, and so have only just made it back.
Jim has a habit of pulling together settings that are a mix of landscape, art, architecture and narrative. Sometimes they are themed, as with the last edition of the region I blogged about – see: Grauland’s Last Trees in Second Life, or they may be inspired by an actual location; at other times they might be more nuanced in ideas and themes, and at others still, others they are simply offered as opportunities for photography and art. Grauland / Corsair Island appears to fall within the latter two groups, offering hints of a theme here and there whilst in general offered a highly photographic setting with a lean towards artistic expression.
The setting’s little – Corsair Island – might perhaps suggest the idea of pirates, sailing ships, treasure and all that; however, this is not the case. Rather, the name appears to be taken from the World War 2 vintage Vought F4F Corsair single-seat fighter displayed almost as a museum piece towards the south-west corner of the region. Sitting with wheels on its own of concrete apron, a separate square of the same close by hosting a mighty sea anchor which might have hailed from a WW2 battleship of aircraft carrier, the Corsair looks out to sea from flat-topped table of rock with a broad throw of sand curving around its base to form a golden beach.
The local vegetation suggests this is a tropical island, one amidst a small group, with the Corsair itself immediately raising thoughts of the Pacific conflict of WW2. This is perhaps further enhanced by the general layout of the island, which suggest it may have once been an airbase for a land-based contingent of US Navy aviators and their aircraft. The road running north-to-south might have at one time been a runway, and whilst the sound side of the island is now in part excavated and home to free-standing art installations, there is a chance that it may have once been flat and home to a second runway.
Of course, the huge concrete bulk of a road tunnel rising from the sea and with its darkened maw open to either disgorge or swallow road vehicles at the north end of the road tends to suggest that perhaps this is a place much closer to the US mainland, but it does not entirely eliminate the dance of the imagination in thoughts of airbases from past conflicts.
In fact, the placement of some of the buildings alongside the road might also add to the idea, their position suggesting they’ve replaced what may have been an aircraft dispersal area and / or hangers and workshops. But again, in opposition to that, the presence of the gas station and motel with its slab-sided beachfront cabins again give the impression this is a place much closer to the US mainland, and one which sees a degree of vacation traffic passing back and forth through the tunnel; so I’ll leave it to you to form your own backstory for the setting.
The southern side of the island is given over to art installations. Three of these are bound the draw attention, possibly at the expense of the fourth. The latter take the form of a series of disks, rings and cylinder elements arranged in a manner that presents a series of spaces that can be walked around and through. The three main installations, meanwhile, are a mix of the familiar and the new.
Many of Jim’s past installation have included the motif of standing blocks, generally in geometric arrangements. These have frequently been in the form of cubes resembling block of cement, but here Jim includes a pyramid to the eastern end of the island with its flanks being climbed by ranks of stone uprights in a design by Alex Bader. Next to this is the excavated area, walled by heavy blocks and its floor tiled. Within it stands a series of walls forming something of a maze-like area, squares of blue tiles mounted on the wall sections like windows. The maze isn’t hard – it’s not intended to be – and has a roofed platform at its centre, served by two stairways.
Alongside of this maze, sitting between it and the southern beach is an area suggestive of ancient ruins fronted by a large bust of a female torso. Steps down to a lower area passing under the “ruins” provides access to the beach. To the north of the island, hidden among rock formations, is a formal garden area watched over by Buddha, Psyche and a reproduction of Horatio Greenough’s (1805-1852) Arno the Greyhound as found at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
East of the garden and most directly reached via a winding paved driveway that links it to the main road, is a large warehouse style of building sitting walled-off from the rest of the island, giving the impression it is separate to the rest. It is dressed as a private home and not for public access, but the gates guarding it open on approach and there is no security system in evidence – so I have no idea if it is meant to be public or private, so I remained circumspect.
As always, this iteration of Grauland is photogenic and attractive, holding a lot to see (not all of which is mentioned here). It is strangely devoid of any soundscape (either that, or my viewer simply was not registering local sounds during my visit!), but to make up for this (if it is the case), a gift from Jim is available for visitors at the landing point.
SLurl Details
- Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 