Metaverse Artists: Rebeca Bashly

metaverse artists: rebeca bashley 1

metaverse artists

rebeca bashlyedited by velazquez bonetto

artspace diabolus cybernetic art research project

2012 09

2 metaverse artists: rebeca bashley

edited by velazquez bonetto

pictures:velazquez bonetto

text:

flora nordenskiold

A publication of the at space diabolus cybernetic art research project (CARP)

copyrights: cybernetic art research project (CARP) & Rebeca Bashly 2012

All rights reserved


This e-book dedicated to

Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574)

He was an Italian painter and architect, who is today fa-mous for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing. Vasari‘s Vite de‘ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani (1550-68, The Lives of the Artists) is perhaps the most im-portant book on the history of art ever written. In this work Vasari made famous the term ‚Rinascita‘, or Renaissance.

4 metaverse artists: rebeca bashley diabolus artspace

content:

Interview: Rebeca Bashly..................8Inferno..............................................13Arctica Dreams................................95

Emeralda.......................................105Circles within Circles........................113Abandoned village...........................129SnowCrash.......................................137Just a two of us................................143Fabrica.............................................159

metaverse artists: rebeca bashley 5diabolus artspace

rebeca bashly


Interview: Rebeca Bashly

I am happy to report that Rebeca Bashly agreed to be interviewed for this blog. We spent almost a week trying to find a time to sit down together and finally ended up getting together last night at Rebeca’s place. Below is the interview that followed. Rebeca is currently exhibiting at Nordan Art.

Flora Nordenskiold: Your ice statues are absolutely ma-gical. Would you please tell us a little bit about how they came about, i.e. what got you started working on them?

Rebeca Bashly: Well Flora, I honestly have no idea how all started…I know I did not plan to make ice sculptures…I just did them, that is really about how I am. I have these impulses to do this or that and before I know it I am half way in creating it.

Flora Nordenskiold: Together with Igor Ballyhoo you also made Snowcrash, a creation based upon the novel by Neal Stephenson. This is a fantastic project, I have never seen anything like it in Second Life. Please tell us a little bit about this experience.

Rebeca Bashly: Building Snowcrash with Igor is the most amazing thing that happened to me here. Imagine, building such fantastic project with the best builder in SL…my mind was ecstatic!! It is not something you can easily describe, you just have to be there….to feel it. His creative energy is so strong, so forceful…it’s just overwhelming. We were building Snowcrash so fast…it was like in a dream. Buil-ding with Igor made me the builder I am now.

Flora Nordenskiold: Your new build, “House Where Nobo-dy Lives,” left a lasting impression on me, but its different than the ice statues and different than Snowcrash. What inspires you to create so many different things in Second Life and what are some of the challenges you have come up against?

Rebeca Bashly: Inspiration can come from anything and anywhere really, but all that I make is different and will be


different, because that is me. I am always breaking out of my creation comfort zone and that makes me feel so free, so happy! When i was building Snowcrash the diffi-cult thing was that I had to log out to get some sleep and I wanted to do it 24/7. When I built ice sculptures it was re-ally hard to make perfect ice texture and it made me crazy. When I was building house where no body lives, I was not really thrilled when I realised that I was making it just for it to sit in my inventory, and it was way too pretty for that. So every build has its challenge.

Flora Nordenskiold: What are your thoughts on art and creativity in Second Life?

Rebeca Bashly: I generally don’t think sad thoughts. Most of it I don’t like or I just don’t understand.^^

Flora Nordenskiold: Finally, I love Second Life, but I know I also sometimes struggle finding time for it. There are other times when I ask myself why I keep on doing it. What is it in your opinion about Second Life that keeps us coming back?

Rebeca Bashly: I can only speak for my self really, I see that ppl are often here from completely different reasons than mine. What makes me come back is that I can create here with such ease, I have all I need for it! And those won-derful ppl i met here. Besides, its like being in a cartoon, and what kid can resist that. :)

Flora Nordenskiold: Thanks, Rebeca.

Rebeca Bashly: Thank you.







Inferno

The first circle, LimboThe second circle, LustThe third circle, Gluttony

The fourth circle, GreedThe fifth circle, AngerThe sixth circle, Heresy

The seventh circle, ViolenceThe eight circle, FraudThe ninth circle, Treachery



Rebeca Bashly’s work Inferno is a nine-level work based upon the nine circles of suffering described in the Inferno, the first part of Dante Alighieri’s Fourteenth-Century poem, the Divine Comedy. The nine circles of the Inferno (or Hell) are located within earth and are separa-ted into three parts, representing three types of sin; self-indulgent sins (the first five circles), violent sins (circles six and seven) and malicious sins (circles eight and nine).

The journey starts off in the dark woods, where we first meet Virgil, the poet, who will guide us in our travels to the underworld and through the nine circles of hell. The grey, threatening seeming forest consists of barren trees, with suffering faces as an integral part of their trunks. On our journey, we will continue seeing Virgil, not only as a guide, but also a teleport, transporting us through the nine circles of hell. We eventually enter hell through the Gate of Hell, noting the inscription “abandon all hope” above the gate. The entrance is large and dark, lending a sense of doom.

The first circle, Limbo, is a region on the edge of hell and it is meant for those who did not accept Christ, in some sense it is a lesser form of Heaven. The stone castle with the seven gates, representing seven virtues, is large and dark. We enter from a bridge and then find oursel-ves standing in a yard, with a grass ground, in front of groups of white, translucent figures sitting on the grass in the dark; these are some of the great thinkers, wise men, scientists, poets and philosophers. Entering the castle, we first come across Homer and Socrates. As we continue, climbing winding stairs, we see other white, translucent figures, there is even a child in a closet at the bottom of the staircase.

The second circle, Lust, contains those led astray by lust; these are the first ones truly punished in hell. We find ourselves standing in a barren, moonlike landscape, on the edge of a large, deep hole, out of which a reddish, translucent whirlwind of faces appear. These faces seem to be in great agony and distress. Here we witness the conflict of love and lust and the tension between attraction and desire.

The third circle, Gluttony, is a space for those involved with self-indul-gence and addiction. This is a gloomy place where people lie scat-tered in a brownish area containing vile slush and mud produced by a never-ending muddy rain. There is a sense of doom and darkness hovering over these people suffering in their own misery.





























The fourth circle, Greed, contains two groups of those plagued by over-consumption; those who hoard and those who waste. We wit-ness a struggle here; people pushing large, heavy balls in a barren, grey landscape. They seem to be going nowhere, yet appear to be investing an enormous amount of effort. There is no winner and it ne-ver ends. This is a place where people punish and insult each other, but without effect. This group is ultimately the most offensive to the spirit of love.

The fifth circle, Anger, is represented by those who can no longer find joy; those who express anger (wrath) and those who repress it (sullenness). We find here groups of deadly pale individuals covered in blood, biting off each others‘ flesh, clearly in agony and struggling. They are situated in the Stygian marsh, in the swamp-like water of the river Styx. There is a sense of intense frustration.

The sixth circle, Heresy, is a location where violent and malicious sins are punished. We find at the entrance to the ironclad walls of the city Dis three blood covered figures with threatening heads; these are the three furies. Once we pass them, we are inside the city, surrounded by people trapped in flaming tombs. We can see here Farinata, exten-ding and towering out of his tomb and Cavalcante, who only lifts his head above the edge of his tomb.

























The seventh circle, Violence, consists of three rings; outer, middle and inner. The outer ring represents violence against people and property; those staying there are punished, resulting in a river of blood. This ring is guarded by the violent Centaurs, men from the waist up with lower bodies of horses. The middle ring holds violence against self; these persons are living in a horrid forest. Harpies, foul creatures with the head of a woman and body of a bird, are perched in suicide trees. The inner ring symbolizes violence against God and nature; those si-tuated there find themselves on barren sand ignited by sparks of fire.

The eight circle, Fraud, can be reached only by descending a vast cliff on the back of Geryon, a winged monster with mixed human, bestial and reptilian nature. Those guilty of deliberate evil are located in Malebolge (evil pockets), which in turn is divided into ten Bolgie, or ditches of stone, with bridges spanning the ditches. The ten bolgie contain seducers, flatterers, those committing simony, false prophets, corrupt politicians, hypocrites, thieves, fraudulent advisers, sowers of discord and various kinds of falsifiers.

The ninth circle, Treachery, contain those who have committed acts which involve betraying some kind of special relationship. We see these traitors being frozen in a green-blue, or teal, colored lake of ice known as Cocytus. Ice spikes surround them. In the very centre of Hell, condemned for committing the ultimate sin, personal treachery against God, is Satan. Satan presents with three faces (black, red and yellow), a large imposing figure, beating his six wings; this act is ultimately what causes the river Cocytus to freeze





























Arctica dreams









Emeraldabased on the novel by Italo Calvano













Circles withinCircles















Abandonedvillage









SnowCrashbased on the novel by Neal Stephenson







Just the two of us















Nordan Art Prize October 2011

Rebeca Bashly’s work The Suicide Forest In-fested by Harpias is part of larger work named Inferno, which in turn is based on the first part of Dante Alighieri’s Fourteenth-Century poem, the Divine Comedy. The suicide forest is part of the seventh circle (Violence). The Suicide Fo-rest Infested by Harpias consists of trees and two figures. Textures, shapes and composition are outstanding. The trees are gray and barren; their trunks firmly positioned in the ground and branches stretching to the sides like spears. The figures are gray as well; rib cages pronounced, birdlike legs and feet, feminine frozen faces and large wings. Watching this scene, one is over-come by the dread and beauty of it. There is a sense of having become part of a movie or perhaps a painting. Rebeca’s work stands out to Nordan Art because she utilizes the highest level of craftmanship to express emotion and with it captures a sense of melancholy beauty, so rare



Fabrica






















































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Metaverse Artists: Rebeca Bashly