Friday, March 27, 2015

March LEA Full Sim, Rebeca Bashly's When Life Gives You Apples...run, a review by Victoria Lenoirre

This month at LEA 6, is a brand new work by Rebeca Bashly. This is also the last month that there will be monthly full sim grants at LEA 6. So it's fitting that Rebeca's work is also the last in the series. Her first installation here at LEA 6 was the Inferno. The name of this work is When Life Gives You Apples...Run.

At the arrival area, you'll see a small, green info with an info hover text.
Arrival point

Click it and you'll get the following info:

Looking at various myths, legends and fairy tales, apple seems to be pretty misfortunate for a woman.
When an apple appears in a story, you know that something will go bad.
From Eve, thru Greek mythology to Snow White there was always a catch with an apple.
It is beautiful, delicious, tempting, seductive. A Perfect disguise for all bad that can come.
I use it as a symbol for the monstrosities that woman too often dont recognise as such in its early stages.
This installation is about domestic violence and eating disorders, on first sight two very different things, but violence against someone and violence against oneself are the same thing, a violence.


Standing inside the apple, looking up


Rebeca's work is always so intense and dark. It's that darkness that highlights the beauty in it.

Even in the seed, you see the women huddled in pain but you also see a beauty in their posture. There is a sort of beauty in pain. That may sound weird. They have each other and they are taking comfort from the physical closeness. The way they hold themselves together is beautiful, I suppose.

As you go through the apple, you will find teleport points to go to another location in the sky. The Dollhouse is one of those locations. Do read the store of the Dollhouse. It tells the story of 2 girls who overcame their circumstances to become a success. It reminds me of the saying about how suffering makes you stronger. The human spirit is strong, our sense of survival is inherent. Even babies know that they want to breathe and eat; they want to live.



The stair inside the apple spirals around until the top of the apple, it's a square door to the stem of the apple and the leaf on top.

The mood inside the apple is ominous. It is simple, unlike the Inferno or other builds I've seen by her. The ominous mood is felt just by how dark it feels and then you see the seed hanging from the ceiling. And perhaps you feel a certain dread when you see the teleport signs. You want to see where they lead, but you feel like the destination won't be cheery and happy. You may wonder how sweet Sweet Home is...see for yourself when you rezz here.

It's an intriguing build. It seems simple but the overtones are mood are not simple. The theme is definitely complex.

Here are my questions for Rebeca:

In fairytales, the bad apple is red. Why did you decide to make your apple green?

- It was suppose to be blue, but while I was painting it I fell in love with this shade of green.
Generally I always have green in my builds, it is personal.

What can we learn from fairy tales?

- Kids are learning from fairy tales in a safe environment about many things like human nature,values,how to deal with adversity in life,
they enhance imagination and creative process... I could go on and on about benefits of fairy tales.

Why do you think the apple is used to tempt people and lead them to unfortunate events?

- Well, it is not really certain that the apple was the trouble maker.Till late 17th century
word "apple" was used for all foreign fruits, except for berries and nuts.

What are your feelings on pain? Do you think there is some beauty in pain? 

- I don't find being beaten up with leather belt  or stomach ruptures caused by binge eating beautiful.
I don't find humiliation,despair and fear beautiful.I don't find Jesus nailed on cross beautiful.I don't find being stung by the bee beautiful.
It is human ugliness in its purest form,except for the bee stung ofc. There have always been  people that are skilled to present pain in a way that we can render
 it as beautiful - Artists. Otherwise probably half of us would just turn away our heads.

How do you fight against violence towards women? Is it a personal cause for you?

- It is personal, i am a woman, i am a human.

Thanks for answering my questions, Rebeca! Great build at LEA6!

Come see her London build at FFL, open until the 29th of this month!

Best regards,

Victoria Lenoirre

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