“If
everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‘Why the hell not?’”
- John
Wayne, 1907 - 1979
For reasons I have never fully understood, the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) seems
to come in for a lot of stick from some quarters. Whether it is their endowment
decisions, the composition of the panel itself, or in fact just about any other
aspect of their work someone or other seems to find cause to criticise.
I have to say however, that in my opinion the LEA makes a very
valuable contribution to SL generally. It has also enriched my personal SL by allowing
me to see the work of various artists and creators that I would otherwise have
been unlikely to get to see.
Indeed, many of the scenes in my own Fwd: Evolution film for MachnimUWA V were
filmed on the LEA regions. When at a loose end I’ll often fly around the LEA
regions or just visit the LEA sandbox to see what is new. I’ve met and chatted
with a lot of creative and inspirational artists this way, and made some good
friends along the way.
I am therefore one of those uncool people who have no reason
to criticise the LEA as an organisation or individuals on
the committee. Sorry about that.
I logged on last Tuesday to a message from Tutsy: “Hey. Come
see this sim. I like it! It is very very original.” I wasn’t surprised to see
that the teleport request asked me to join him on a LEA region – LEA13, to be
precise.
I
accepted the tp and as I rezzed noted that it was a whole-region parcel named “*Cica*”, was owned by Cica Ghost and was using only 1200-odd
prims of the allocated 15,000. |
| Cica Ghost |
As I greeted Tutsy and
thanked him for the teleport, I watched the textures resolve to full clarity
and realised that there were a lot of 32bit alpha textures about. I
automatically calculated if I needed to adjust my draw distance or bandwidth
settings. As it happened, I didn't but it is some kind of instinctive
procedure or ritual I go through whenever I land on a new region.
I waited for the colour to “pop” in…
And waited.
And
finally realised I was in a black and white world....
Cica Ghost has created a world of her own. A cute world. A
quirky world. A delightful world of love and togetherness.
It
may be an oxymoron, but Cica’s black and white world is also a world full of colour.
What is so wonderful about this installation is
that Cica’s gray scale sketches manage to endow her world with colour and with life
– the colour comes from your own imagination; after a short while you almost
become oblivious to the fact that it is simply grayscale. The life comes from
the fact that many of the sketches are animated and have movement. Sadly the static
photos on this blog-post cannot show the animated nature of the sketches and therefore fail to
successfully convey just how moving the installation is, and how well it works
as a whole.
Many of the individual pieces depict uncomplicated, simple
activities like watering flowers, flying a kite, fishing from a bridge – we see
a cat here, swans there, bird fly. Raindrops littered with little hearts create
puddles in which stick people play.
It is all very beautiful, very innocent.
And
very, very moving.
Other pieces show young lovers holding hands, kissing in the
rain, playing catch with a ball…
Again, it is all very innocent and moving.
Cica
has managed to communicate emotion in all of the pieces. Each is a small
self-contained tale but within a wider narrative when considered as a whole installation.
The LEA has granted the region to Cica for a
six month period. It is intended that two months is spent building the
installation and for a further four months the installation is open
to the public. As such, the installation isn’t yet finished or officially opened.
Cica will often be seen there working, chatting and wandering around.
She is very friendly and approachable.
Even though not officially
opened, please do not let that deter you from visiting! Already lots of people are
visiting and enjoying! Traffic is currently measuring 4000, just by
word-of-mouth. This is a real achievement and all credit to Cica as the creator,
and to LEA for selecting this installation for an endowment.
To celebrate just how much we have enjoyed Cira’s work, Tutsy & I have been wearing ‘Stick Men’ avatars. They fit perfectly! You can get your own Stick Man avatar from the Marketplace for only 50 Linden
I enjoyed this installation immensely. I am sure most
visitors will too. It’s innocence and simplicity are its strengths. Although we
all enjoy cerebral, sophisticated, complex and “hyper-real” art often it is
refreshing to return to basic black and white ink and paper.
And, as John Wayne would say, "Why the hell not?"
Pixie xx
Wonderful build Thank you
ReplyDelete