Chey's Travels: The Docks

Photo by Sweetie

Written 26 March, 2011

Chey's Travels

The Docks

Week before last Sweetie and I journeyed to  Amase Levasseur's wonderful Originalia sim, where four impressive bodies of art are on display.

First up was Scottius Polke's The Docks, which I described to another visitor as a cross between and Vincent Van Gogh and Tim Burton-- although now, upon reflection, I think I should have mentioned Edgar Allen Poe as well.

The Docks is a purplish, cartoonish quarter sim populated with Burtonesque puppets and Vincentian clouds and catapulted over the top by a liberal application of Glow. I can't describe it any better; just look:

If that doesn't look like Starry Night meets The Corpse Bride meet Chuckie I'll eat my 231-prim LaLa Moon hair.

Scottius' earlier works include Lunamaruna and MushROOM, both on the Lennox Hill sim.

At sim center we found Dog Dreams-- The Second Life of Al, a series of illustrations from RAG Randt's book by the same name. Clever use of multiple layers and animated textures created a shadowbox effect, adding interest to Doggie Al's technicolor cartoon dreams.

Sweetie's favorite was Eliza Wierwight's Aria, a collection of the artist's furniture, housewares, sculptures, and miscellaneous whimsical objects like giant keys and flowing  aqua particles, all meant to be viewed with Eliza's suggested Windlight settings while listening to opera.

The photo at the top of this blogpost is of Aria, as is this one, also, I believe, by Sweetie:

My favorite exhibit was Em Larsson's Temporal Dreams, which consisted of a series of evocative photographs and abstract graphical pieces set in a mist-enshrouded lowland. Best viewed at night (as are The Docks and Aria), the presentation is subtle, with images rezzing slowly as they're approached.

Before I saw her exhibit, I ran into Em at The Docks (in fact it was to her I said the build looked like Vincent Van Gogh meets Tim Burton). Later I IMed her to congratulate her on the haunting beauty of her presentation. It really was quite stunning.

The artists and especially sim-owner Amase Levasseur are to be congratulated for provided a wonderful experience. It's everything Second Life art should be.