The Vanishing

You've a couple more weeks to see Fuschia Nightfire's 'Not Everything Is Plain Black & White' on sim MetaLES.

That 'Not' is a marvellous paradox in this sparkling concoction of night and day, town and country, earth and sky, protagonist, victim and observer. Fuscia's RL professionalism glows in the clarity of her brief notecard, which gives her visitors credit for using their own imagination. No windy exposition here, Fuschia knows how to vanish into her work, and yet be ever present. It's a level of skill very very few artists in SL have the confidence, or the competence, to achieve.

Contradicting artistic conventions from the word go, the landing point is the free Gift Shop. Jump through the floor, and you're confronted by a shivering cityscape, and tunnels that are lines of promise going nowhere.

Many immersive builds include very specific costumes - sometimes complete avatars, but Fuschia takes the broader approach of the consummate artist by supplying black and white skins and clothes for those who wish to mix and match and invent their own greyscale fantasy. In my perverse blue state of mind, Fuschia's rainstorm hat seemed a propos. Fully interactive, you can add your photos to the build's Flickr Group, and the pictures there show many vistiors vanishing into the art in the most exquisite way.
For a more moving approach, here's Spiral Silverstar's vid of the build, but check out Fuschia's own film, and another nice machinima by Praxisfield Resident

The lunar-like sim is scattered with wonderful sculptures.

 Some confront head on the tension between light and darkness, while others invite a more subtle inquiry into our personal nuances, posing the eternal question of poses, for example.

Perhaps the most powerful element is out on the ice. A tiny gallery coolly explicates the vernissage experience; you mingle with two dimensional characters with shadowy nothing-names, contemplating a black canvas, becoming - what? Part of the art? Or part of the limnal experience, somewhere between showing and being shown? As always, choice of conclusion is left to the viewer.
Clever work. If  art is perception, then this is our vanishing point, to which we submit, and which, in turn, reflects us all.

Fuschia Nightfire's build 'Not Everything Is Plain Black & White' remains on sim MetaLES until February 20th.