Crossing Lines: Yaia Nishi at Tanalois

Gentle reader, today it is your turn to scroll down to the English bit 'cos apparently it's not PC to always put the anglo half of the post first.... go on, it's only a few inches...

La pubblicità è la parte più veritiera di un giornale.

Thomas Jefferson

C'era un articolo sulla rivista del New York Times questa settimana su un'artista che continua a vendere le sue opere nonstante il clima economico; poco di strano, che si parla d'arte a New York, ma questa volta si tratta di un'artista di Second Life, Filthy Fluno all'anagrafe Jeff Lipsky, pittore e soprattutto venditore d'arte in SL... o meglio, trova in SL clienti RL in tutto il mondo, e a loro vende la sua arte per dollari veri. Se non ti ho scandalizzato con questo discorso di sporco lucro, puoi leggere qui l'articolo scritto da Sara Corbett (in SL Marshmella Muggins). E ora tutti in piedi per una nostra diva dell'arte, Yaia Nishi!
Yaia Nishi napoletana, 22 anni, ama disegnare, costruire in SL, e soprattutto cucire, frequenta l'Accademia delle Belle Arti a Napoli, vuole divenire costumista dopo la laurea. Ci ha regalato una mostra bella, vivace, interessante anche dal punto di vista della formazione d'una studentessa agli esordi di una carriera brillante sia in real che nel metaverso. Si divide in quattro parti la mostra ogni sezione composta di opere che Yaia ha presentato per le sue varie esami. Ci sono alcuni bei ritratti RL di amici SL, inoltre dei disegni stupendi di costumi storici partendo dal stile gotico - si vede subito che Yaia sarà una bravissima costumista. Ma la sua arte è multidimensionale: accanto a questi disegni troverai un'opera interessante ispirata da un viaggio in pullman... una figura inconsueta che fa riflettere sulla vita, i sogni e la vita che a volte ci trascina trasformandoci in ...pacco, o viaggiatore?Lo scoiattolo in gamba rappresenta la quarta parte della mostra. Un'operetta di Eduardo de Filippo (da non perdere questo stupendo sito!) su un tema di sua figlia Laura, scritta per bambini e musicato dal grande Nino Rota. L'opera sarà presentata all'Accademia Nazionale S. Cecilia a fine marzo, con le scenografie di uno dei prof di Yaia, Gennaro Vallifuoco. Per aiutare i bambini a seguire la storia, saranno proiettate anche delle immagini sul palco che illustrano i vari fasi del racconto. Yaia ha realizzato e poi fotografato la sua versione del racconto, le simpaticissime immagini hanno qualcosa che mi ricorda Wallace e Gromit del grande Nick Park.La mostra di Yaia Nishi si terrà a Tanalois per tutto il mese di marzo, è assolutamente da non perdere, auguriamo molto successo a Yaia, artista, costumista, builder davvero in gamba!

The most truthful part of a newspaper is its advertisements.

Thomas Jefferson

New York Times Magazine this week published an article you should read: it's about artist and entrepreneur (I mean he actually sells art in this economic climate) called Filthy Fluno. Yes, that's right, the NYT talking about a Second Life artist: well, to be fair, he's a RL artist who uses SL to expand his market. Sex sells, and the opening paragraphs make you wonder where all this is going, but on the whole, the article has a positive bias toward the metaverse, not your usual mocking confusionary prose, probably because the writer Sara Corbett has her own avatar, Marshmella Muggins. Feel free to bug her with offers of friendship, I certainly plan to do so. (BTW, Someone should tell Americans who 'muggins' is, or would that spoil our fun.)
Anyway, Filthy has had far more than his share of free publicity, and there are many fantastic artists who have imported real talent and concrete work from one life to the other, which brings us to Yaia Nishi.

Yaia is 22 years old, an art student at the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Napoli, (this is her in normal form and you'll also see her dressed as the figure on the bus in some of the other photos) . The art she's brought into SL represents her academic life - the pictures were all part of her school work. I really liked the drawings at the beginning of the exhibition, they're portraits of the RL faces behind many of Yaia's SL friends. Keep walking around the exhibit at Tanalois and you'll see her historical costume collection, again work prepared for an exam. Yaia is obviously very talented at drawing, but her first love is sewing and when she graduates she'd really like to become a costume designer. Another interesting part of the exhibit is the 'mummy on the bus', as I like to call it, a piece of street art, a person-package being carried by the whim and wisdom of the bus driver.... inspired by the process of commuting - yes, they commute, even in Naples.

Finally, don't miss the Cheeky Squirrel exhibit. It has something of Wallace and Gromit about it. Here Yaia has used SL to illustrate the libretto of an operetta for children, Lo scoiattolo in gamba. Written by Eduardo de Filippo, the story was inspired by an essay by his daughter Laura. It's a fairy story about a squirrel who loses his teeth, and can't eat his acorn. He meets and the King, who gives the squirrel a set of golden dentures and hires him to work as cook in the Royal Kitchen. Like all good squirrel stories, and kitchen stories, things go comically wrong. De Filippo's libretto was set to music by another great Italian Nino Rota (think The Godfather, as well as the soundtracks of the films of Fellini and Zeffirelli). It will be performed for children at the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome during the last weekend in March. Yaia's RL professor Vallifuoco designed the sets for this production, and Yaia's Second Life pictures will be projected under the stage to create a multi-media effect, and help the children follow the story as it unfolds, bringing SL into the world of Fine Art once again, where it so richly deserves to be.

Go to Rome and see the show at Santa Cecilia, or, alternatively, stay home and pop over to see Yaia's exhibition at Tanalois all month long, along with a new exhibition by Feathers Boa (see below) and of course turn on the sound to catch the wonderful jazz that makes Gemini Isle so cool.