Saturday, April 23, 2011

Double Build

It's almost Golden Week in Japan, when they celebrate both heritage and the environment in a four day festival. After recent events, one can only imagine what a poignant occasion this year's Greenery Day will be. Many SL residents have contributed in a practical and a spiritual way to the long road to recovery. Alizarin Goldflake has made Requiem for Fukushima, a sort of sculptural haiku that helps us reflect on the awe-inspiring effects of nature unbalanced.
Alizarin Goldflake: This build is the beginning of the story post-ecological disaster, which is exactly what Fukushima is. This is my vision of what the radiation is doing to the nearby sea. It is awful and beautiful at the same time.
Enter the pyramid and you're surrounded by
tongues of fire, volcanic rock, spectral seaweed, and the vast woodlands above and beyond them. The sound of fire crackles underfoot, along with a melancholy chord or two, fusing the connection between fire and water and loss.
Alizarin Goldflake: I have just always been in love with Japanese art and design, and the sea is a big influence on my art, RL and SL. I'm a sea kayaker; I summered by the sea most of my life, it's in my blood. My ancestors were seafaring. The ocean is my favorite place to be - actually, the intersection between land and ocean is what I find endlessly fascinating, and it shows up a lot in my art. With this build, I really got into using glow for the first time, because it creates this radioactive feeling. The rocks emit light, too, which adds to the glow.
All change with the traditional laggy and gossipy vernissage, too. Instead of staging a single opening, she's inviting people to visit the build throughout the month. It's also the first time that Ali has shown a build simultaneously on two grids - you can visit an identical installation in InWorldz at Nexus Central. Ali's been busy  re-visiting ideas from her Sky Sculpture Garden on a greater scale than would be possible in SL, on a sim donated by the much-publicized art patron, Jeri Rahja.
Alizarin Goldflake: I like building in IWz, there are few groups notices, and no griefers yet, just peace and quiet and all the lovely tools. We don't have physics yet, but they are getting in the phlox script engine which wipes the lag astonishingly.
It's a second window for her art, to both sell and be seen. With the economy still so cruel to RL art, this is a way to expand her visibility. But Alizarin's really charmed by the possiblilities of making art virtual worlds.
Alizarin Goldflake: I just want to see where it all takes me.
So do we.

2 comments:

alizarin said...

Thank you so much, Thirza. I didnt know about Greenery Day; it makes the build seem especially timely. I really appreciate your sensitive reading of the piece. And you like my idea of no opening, just drop-in hours - YAY!

sororNishi said...

Wonderful. I look forward to seeing it.