Speaking of sightseeing, I hope you all come and sightsee at Rebecca Bashly's Tower.
In the artist's own words, "In fables the towers there is someone captured -- a princes and stuff like that. So it becomes metaphor for bondage, limits, etc."
When you arrive, you'll see a lovely, forest green flower and a wooden box that says "Click for all locations teleports." I'm in ultra and the glowing circle by my elbow is where you click to get the Locations notecard.
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| Me at the Starting point |
I decided to sit on the lovely flower and see where it would take me. So, here I go....
Seconds later, I find myself on the bottom of a flight of steps.
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| The Stairs |
A number of life-size glass jars are above me as i climb the wide steps. The figures are agonized, tortured, even a bit grotesque. Such suffering in their faces...like inside their souls are tortured by some internal or external pain. These figures are being punished for some sins or crimes they have committed. This is the Stairs. The torture and pain gets worse the higher you climb.
At the top of the flight of stairs is another flower.
After sitting on it, you are taken to a slightly lighter room that looks much like an alley or a prison cell. There is a dead end. Four figures are in various crouching positions. One is on the floor and the other three are clinging to opposite facing walls as they attempt to scale the high walls. This is Delirium. The four figures are going crazy within the cramped room with no doors or windows. This room is more specifically about mental anguish, unlike the Stairs which featured varying degrees of physical and mental anguish. A green flower at the end of the room signals the door to another level of this tower.
Next you find yourself in Casting Shadows.
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| Casting Shadows |
A lone figure is sitting alone with its back to you. Tree branches cast shows along the wall and floor. The imagery suggests that the person is suffering alone, facing some deep inner turmoil surrounded by shadows of their past. They just cannot face it, but it is always at the back of their mind...following close behind them. Rebeca disagreed with my assessment and explained, "It's about growing some spine to make a tree to make a nice shadow for yourself as security, to feel safe."
Turn away from the figure and move on to the next level, This Walls.
This Walls is an intriguing level. This room is a bit bigger and there is a separator splitting the room in half. One figure is on each side of the divider. Both look like they're climbing up, feet planted firmly into the wall, the back hunched over and the hands pressed down onto the wall as they balance precariously on the fairly smooth wall. It is a bit mottled but mostly smooth.
My exchange about This Walls with Rebeca is below:
Lady Victoria Lenoirre (victoria.lenoirre): what is this walls about? it looks similar to Delirium in that the women are climbing up on the wall.
Rebeca Bashly: in this walls, woman are not climbing they are merged with walls. If you dont go outside your home for 2 days you will capture that feeling.
Lady Victoria Lenoirre (victoria.lenoirre): cabin fever
Rebeca Bashly: yess
Just when you thought it couldn't get any more interesting, you come to another room called The Sound of Music. This room is even bigger and has 2 dividers. The dividers form prison cells. In the first 2 cells, the figures are covering their ears to block out music or sound. Is it an annoying noise made by the prison warden or guard or is it an obnoxious piece of music? Sound can be such an irritant. And I have heard that one form of torture is keeping prisoners awake all night by constant noise blaring from speakers. Perhaps this is what we're seeing in this room. Rebeca said that "it is about listening over and over same story from the same source...its a woman screaming in pain not being able to take one more word, u have 3 scenes there, 1 she is standing, 2 she is on her knees curled up, 3 she is gone." She has gone to the next level.
Notice that as you ascend the tower, the floor and wall textures get darker and darker, it is as though the punishment and suffering is bleaker and bleaker. The third cell is your ticket out and on to the next tower room.
Beauty is where you arrive from the dark flower. You are now in a dark cavern of rock. Beauty is up on a ledge. Keep walking forward and you'll see her. She is the figure bent in supplication with dark green flowers stuck in her shin, thigh, and hand. Rebeca tells me, "In the next level, you see a damaged statue with gorgeous flowers growing from her flesh. She is free from the begining of the story. In every step there is beauty, in beauty level itself, it explodes.
I noted that the textures get rougher and darker as you ascend the tower. Rebeca said, "dark is not really a negative thing in my head. But with roughnes you have a point. If you are in a tower, some dark corner hides you pretty well.
The final level is Hiden.
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| Hiden, background was lightened in GIMP, originally was black |
There are two figures hugging each other tightly. I lightened the background on the photo. The black background makes it hard to make out the figures. It's like they are hidden.
Rebeca says, "hiden is thebeautiful part, but it is still part of the tower."
Do they escape the tower? We may never know.
Thank you Rebeca Bashly for building The Tower! It is a phenomenal, masterful body of work. The figures and flowers are mesh, so use a viewer that lets you view mesh like the SL official viewer or Firestorm viewer.
Please come over to LEA and see it, before it's gone!
Happy Holidays to everyone! Have a Happy New Year!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/LEA6/140/143/21
Have fun and enjoy the art!
-Victoria Lenoirre
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