Tag: Closed

Original art debuts at Originalia

Posted on by Inara Pey

Travel to Originalia is the newest art exhibit on Amase Levasseur’s Originalia sim. It features three new works, Postcards Home by Callipygian Christensen, Adapt or Perish by Cherry Mangaand and Gateway to Hell by Fuschia Nightfire, together with a chance to once more enjoy Scottius Polke’s acclaimed The Docks.

The exhibit itself opens this coming weekend, but I was lucky enough to be invited to preview the installations ahead of the formal opening.

Teleporting to Originalia brings you to a small arrivals area, with the ominous title Adapt or Perish.From here lay a series of wooden or stone paths leading to the different exhibits in the installation, three of which are visible without excessive camera-panning, two under their own respective domes, while the third appears to be a quite rural English Post Office of yesteryear.

There is no specific order in which you should view the exhibits; however, as I am English, I naturally felt drawn towards the Post Office, which also seemed to have a small welcome area in front of it. So that is where this preview starts.

Postcards Home

If it wasn’t for the very obvious domes raising from behind and one side of it, one could almost imagine the Post Office is part of a set awaiting the arrival of Miss Marple and a BBC film crew. It’s a charming place, with a fountain out front and places to sit. There is also a poster for the exhibit, which provides an introductory notecard and a series of landmarks (which actually all resolve to the same arrivals point).

The Post Office

Inside are the orderly roped counter queue areas (we English so love our queues), a familiar counter and, on the walls, Callipygian Christensen’s images which form Postcards Home. Each, as the name of the exhibit suggests, features an image captured from somewhere within SL displayed as a postcard, complete with the “reverse” side tucked in behind it, some of the text just visible.

Callipygian Christensen’s “Postcards” – clever and evocative

It’s a clever approach; the images themselves can be evocative – there is one of AM Radio’s work which causes a slight pang given his sims are now sadly gone from SL. The partially viewed messages from the “backs”of the postcards give each one added depth, as we catch a small glimpse into the life and thoughts of the person who sent the cards.

Adapt or Perish

This is something of a cautionary tale about our need to remain in harmony with nature or risk destroying it – and ourselves.

Cheery Manga: Adapt or Perish

Entering the dome, you enter a fantastical landscape, rich with flora, with fairies, fawns, centaurs. This is not a single tableau, however. Rather, it is as series of visual vignettes, all of them interlinked and accompanied by a short verse, which all build together into the overall piece and the story it tells.

Stone paths over the water lead you deeper into the piece, past those who have learned to adapt and accept what Nature has to offer, taking no more than what is needed, sharing, making nature their home and giving thanks for all that they have.

But as one moves deeper, so things grow darker. The grass dies. The leaves wither from branches overhead. The trees themselves become bare-branched, misshapen grotesques. So to, does the music change, a haunting, deadly voice slowly filling the air the further one continues.

Here is the realm of those out of harmony with nature; those, we are warned, who steal and kill, who always want more. Their footprint is that of desolation where a dank mist covers the ground and nothing but fungi flourish. The air is filled with the sound of leaden, warning drums and a deathly chanting, and the path leads us inevitably to chaos and death.

It is a sobering message, one only too clear in its meaning – and it is also one beautifully rendered, although I must admit that I wish something other than a refrain from the soundtrack of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut had been used for the more menacing element of the background music; this tended to allow images from the film slip into my mind, spoiling my focus on the piece in front of me.

Gateway to Hell

Gateway to Hell in some ways continues the theme of death and damnation as it presents us with burning image of the entrance to hell, the air heavy with ravens, a fire pit heaving and pulsating beneath, the tentacles of unknown creatures writhing up through the fiery rock. As lava flows down from the walls, so to become visible the spirits of the damned as they are pulled down through the pit into hell itself, few willing to go without a struggle.

The Docks

Scottious Polke’s The Docks won acclaim when first presented in SL, and became a popular subject for Machinima makers across the grid. Now it makes a welcome return to its original home. It is a haunting place to visit, one that is perhaps best summed up in What isn’t Underneath by Textcavation.

Opinion

Travel to Originalia is an interesting mix of exhibits, each with its own context and meaning, yet three of them  – The Docks, Gateway to Hell and Adapt or Perish carrying, for me at least, a common subtext. I enjoyed all four pieces – The Docks perhaps slightly more than the others, as I had missed it the first time around, and have only had machinima to allow me to see it; so having the opportunity to visit it in person gave me a sense of anticipation the other pieces, being original items, couldn’t match.

Which is not to say they are not worthwhile seeing. Rather then reverse, in fact. Whether see as a whole, and in a single visit, or as individual displays, each visited independently, they are well worth the trip. Should you visit all three together, I would recommend you do so in the order I used: start with the Post Office and Postcards Home, then go to Gateway to Hell via Adapt or Perish.

Travel to Originalia opens at 13:00SLT on Saturday October 22nd.

Celebrating FLW

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update: The FLW museum has closed its doors and Dilemma City has been redeveloped.

A new museum has opened – not without controversy – in Second Life. It’s on a subject dear to my heart: the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Located on is own sim – Dilemma City – the museum primarily consists of five reproductions of Lloyd Wright’s buildings, coupled with two museum facilities and a small retail area.

The museum is of particular interest to me as it contains two reproductions of FLW houses I really admire: the Robie House and the Kaufmann House – the latter being more popularly known as … Fallingwater!

FLW-1_001Take the LM / primary SURL to Dilemma City and you arrive at that Museum’s main entrance. This is an imposing building style after Frank Lloyd Wright’s style, containing exhibits relating to his life and works that visitors can wander through at their leisure. Fronting the ocean, this section of the museum is the most developed, with paved footpaths  that mix brickwork and water in a fashion beloved of FLW, a small marina / dock and footpaths that lead to the commercial sections of the sim – of which more anon.

In keeping with the FLW theme, the main building comprises two blocks linked by a central walkway. Behind this sits an open plaza-like space – again very redolent of FLW’s use of space within his builds – which abuts Wright Street. Here the visitor is transported back to the start of the century – the 20th century, that is – as across Wright Street sits the Robie House.

FLW-2Built in the Hyde Park neighbourhood of Chicago between 1908 and 1910, the Robie House is a fitting model to have in the museum, given it has now reached its centenary. Regarded as the finest example of his “prairie” style houses, the property took its name from its original owner – Frederick C. Robie – who was just 28 and the assistant manager of the Excelsior Supply Company based in Chicago, and owned by his father.

As was common with Wright’s designs, the commission not only encompassed the house and grounds – but also the fixtures and fittings, many of which weren’t installed until 1911, by which time Robie and his family had already moved in. Sadly, the Robies did not enjoy the fruits of FLW’s labours – the house was sold just fourteen months after they moved in.

FLW-5The reproduction at the FLW museum has been donated by Miltone Marquette, and is a beautiful model very faithful in looks and layout to the original. Just as FLW provided the interior furnishings for his Robie House, so has Miltone for this one. Each of the rooms has been finished in a decor matching that of the original and with furniture very similar to that of the original.

Walking through the house, the attention to detail amazed me – from the positioning of the furniture to match photographs taken inside the actual house, through to the careful reproduction of the distinctive glass designs used in the windows throughout the house. The other thing that struck me was that while some of the rooms were perhaps a little on the small side, the entire house was entirely “livable” for an avatar.

Behind the Robie house lay a number of smaller FLW properties – the Jacob’s Houses 1 and 2 and the Seth Peterson Cottage, with plenty of room for further builds to be added, or for builds to be rotated on display. But I have to admit, it was the Kaufmann House that drew my attention.

FLW-3To be honest, when I read Pathfinder’s piece on the museum, I was somewhat confused. The main picture showed what was clearly a terrace from the Fallingwater build by Lox Salomon and Ethos Erlinger. I’m particularly well-acquainted with this SL build, as it was a visit to it that persuaded me that a decent reproduction of the Kaufmann house could be made within SL – and that with tweaking, could be very avatar-livable. As the Salomon / Erlinger build is elsewhere within SL, however, I was confused at to why Pathfinder and the FLW museum’s principals were sitting on the terrace…

Well, the answer was simple: Salomon and Erlinger have donated a copy of their build to the museum! True, it is something of a bare bones version of the house compared to Erlinger’s and Salomon’s original, but it more that gives one a good feel for the actual house; and while the landscaping around it is not as extensive as I’d like (prims, prims, prims!), it does give a comfortable setting for the house.

Elsewhere on the sim is a combined gallery / “wine bar” / social centre called “Breeze”, and somewhat based on an FLW design. With a rooftop dance floor, this is clearly intended to host events held at the museum which in turn will hopefully increase traffic flow. Downstairs is an area that I understand will become a gift shop, as which is already selling a small selection of furniture items made by Frey Bravin, who has done much of the work necessary to make the museum possible.

FLW-4Abutting Breeze sits a small commercial area containing a number of shops. Both Breeze and these shops have been made the subject of controversy in the short time the sim has been open – as anyone reading the comments in Pathfinder’s blog entry will see.

For my part, while I can see some faults in the arrangement, I have to say the loudest criticism against it does smack of a clash of personalities than it does of any other issues, real or imagined. The person shouting the loudest clearly has issues with one of the store owners (who, it has to be admitted, is a major donor / builder involved in the project) – and it unfortunate to see what appears to be an genuine effort to celebrate FLW’s work subject to such ill-placed backbiting.

If one had to fault the museum at all, it would be that some of the signage is confusing (or missing altogether), and that the place would benefit from a little more landscaping (prims permitting)  – or from the inclusion of a sim-based Tp system to move those disinclined to walk / fly to the exhibited houses to Tp to them. But these are really minor issues. Overall, the museum represents what SL is really best at: showcasing good, resident-based activities and projects. It could benefit from perhaps being on a full sim – lag is very evident throughout, this being a homestead sim – but then, locating it on a full sim either massively increases the tier costs, thus reducing its potential longevity or (if the sim is shared) risks little in the way of performance benefits with a large reduction in the available land area.

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