The eyes have it

A recevoir tant de cervelles estrangeres,
et si fortes, et si grandes,
il est necessaire que la sienne se foule,
se contraigne et rappetisse,
pour faire place aux autres.

Montaigne 1:XXIV

It's always been a weakness of mine, a man in a kilt, or rather, commenting on a man in a kilt. The possibilities for humour are almost endless. Last night these was just such a specimen at the opening of the black and white photography show of Newbab Zsigmond at Tanalois. Newbab's photos are just splendid, real-world pictures with that otherworldly aura only black and white can reveal, the veiled spectre of feelings frozen in time, in a face, in a landscape. It is hard to believe it is his first solo photo show, he and partner Merlina Rokocoko are stand-out talents in their own right, as well as generous patrons and enthusiastic promotors of art in and off-world via the PiRats sims and their excellent website which, for some bizarre reason, I'd not thought of adding to the 'Other Blogs in English' list to your left. Until now. He has a wonderful eye for a landscape, and the portraits, many of them Merlina in RL, are just beautiful. Really worth checking out.
The man in the kilt was Igor Ballyhoo turned out to be more Bosnia than Bannockburn, if you know what I mean. And, yes, apparently it is airy down there. He did the usual wordskirimishing when I asked him if he was a producer or consumer of art, which is understandable, the word 'artist' is so loaded these days and few wish to come off sounding precious, even though they are rightly proud of their accomplishments.
I thought I remembered the name, and then he mentioned his Gargantuan Uterus /me clears throat and quotes from notecard:

"Welcome to the Gargantuan Uterus! It is made with only one idea - recreation of most important moment in universe ! All of us that come here have been already in this situation in RL, some time ago. So, my plan is simple: First, join Pirats group so you can rezz here !Grab for free the two vehicles here, (sperm-mobile and eggcell-mobile) rezz either of them - never mind which one, we are all made of both of these, sit in it and drive around bumping in other vehicles ! That is moment of creation of life !"

In the picture, that's me wearing egg and sperm at the same time (oooh! miracle of life!) as I wanted you to see how fun both vehicles are, and I was by myself... hey, who're you calling hermaphrothingy... The vehicles, are copy /transfer, but note the notecard warning: "If you sell it for money, God give you hemorrhoids!"

Meanwhile, back in the gallery... Igor offered to show me his 'axis of life' which turned out not to be a kilt-related offer but an Actual Thing Worth Seeing, on sim Salmo, one of a number of places the Itinerant Igor graces with this creations. Here it is, the axis mundi the centre of the universe, the point in which all the good and evil of the metaverse come together in mirrored glory. The next words out of my mouth you already know... but you get a better look at the bird bit of the installation down in the Italian blurb. And no, it's not my crappy camera, he really has no eyes, he told me he doesn't need them. No eyes, no trousers, we may have a theme developing here... Turned out, there was more - a whole platform of other sculptures including these two magnificent angels, and a very disturbed half-child... the top half, with tentacle arms that Igor said wants to embrace the world... if I were the world I'd stand well back. You can see what I mean down below.Back in his castle, next to his large fire and little scissor table (don't run with it) Igor told me of his love of classical music - witness the very nice chairs are upholstered with the score of Bach's Kunst der fuge (that's Laibach's version of it). As a final treat he showed me his pièce de resistance.... a magical music box that plays Für Elise or, as we used to call it when I was a child at piano lessons, furry knees. Anyway he made all of it, the beautiful carillon sounds, the moving parts, the textures, it is just beautiful! I'm hoping when he reads this he will give me one. Oh come on, what is it with you today? the box, I mean. Bellissime le foto di Newbab Zsigmond in mostra a Tanalois questa settimana, foto bianco e nero di RL; paesaggi misteriosi e ritratti luminosi frammenti di una vita reale ricca e nostalgica. Impossibile credere che si tratti della prima volta che il fondatore di PiRats, uno dei gruppi artistici più prestigiosi di SL, abbia voluto condividere con noi le foto della sua Francia e i ritratti della sua bellissima moglie Nathalie in SL Merlina Rokocoko.
Mentre ammiravo le foto ho notato una persona senza occhi e ...senza pantaloni e naturalmente mi sono presentata. Ho riconosciuto il nome, si trattava di Igor Ballyhoo ormai famoso a PiRats per il suo Utero gargantuo.... guarda meno brutto di quanto può sembrare, ci sono piccole navicelle, uno spermatozoide, e un... vabe' non sarò certo io a spiegarti come funzionano queste cose...

Igor mi ha proposto una visita al suo axis mundi e non ho saputo dire di no... ed eccolo il punto d'incontro tra il bene e il male, il positivo e il negativo di SL, come due piante che si rispecchiano un'infinità di rami e uno stormo di colombe, anzi due, uno per ogni albero: in un mondo fatto di tante sfumature creative e emotive qui la certezza del bianco e nero. Mi è piaciuto molto. Igor mi ha voluto mostrare altre altre sue sculture aprendo anch'esse una finestra sulla spiritualità dell'artista. Angeli, monaci e forbici cedono spazio a una figura un po' sinistra, il 'figlio' di Igor ma un bambino a metà, con dei tentacoli al posto delle braccia.... vuole, secondo il suo creatore, avviluppare amorevolmente il mondo; fossi io il mondo mi guarderei bene da un tale abbraccio... Dopo a casa sua, un castello tetro, ci siamo accomodati accanto al tavolino con le gambe a forbici - letteralmente - su queste splendide poltrone ricoperte da una stoffa sulla quale puoi vedere lo spartito del Kunst der fuge . L'artista ama molto la musica classica. Mi ha fatto ascoltare quella versione della fuga, e poi mi ha fatto vedere il tesoro a mio avviso più prezioso della sua collezione, una scatola musicale o carillon davvero strepitosa. Ha creato tutti i pezzi, persino la musica - il per Elisa di Beethoven.

Dalle immagini stupende d'un mondo bianco e nero di Newbab, all'intricato meccanismo del carillon di Igor, il metaverso - o meglio, i creativi del metaverso - non finiscono mai a stupirci, e chissà quante altre preziosissime sorprese ci aspettano ...