Cica Ghost's "Arachnid "

By Becky Shamen

During the last month, we have been tied up with producing a full length animated tour of Sunweaver Estates. The next sim to be included is remodeling for upcoming RFL events, so we were faced with either rescheduling our shooting sequence or taking a break and creating a new article for the Newser. At the same time, we learned that Cica Ghost had a new exhibit, called "Arachnid", located on the Weeds sim. Having already enjoyed exploring and writing about two of Cica's previous exhibits, it was a no brainer and I informed the Editor that I was heading there to play with the spiders.
For maximum enjoyment of this exhibit, set your viewer to use local "windlight" settings and allow music and media to play automatically. This reviewer rates art by how well the artist uses their skills, tools and materials to communicate a series of thoughts, from their mind, into the minds of those viewing the art. If a picture is worth a thousand words, we expect these creepy spiders to tell us a detailed story of  "What was Cica thinking?"


The sim landing places us in a large cage, or trap structure, with information, a TP to Cica's workshop and a tip jar. The sim lighting is a cloudy twilight grey. It's the kind of sky that makes you wish you had brought an umbrella along. As we look around, the large spider webs, in every direction, suggest the umbrella might also serve to hack our way through the sticky barriers. We also notice that there are eight cages, like the one we started in, scattered around the sim. Eight is also the number of legs on a spider. Is Cica doing this to show that there is a connection between the spiders and cages. These structures are "man made". Are they here to protect us from the spiders, or are they the webs we weave for ourselves, that trap us and remove our freedom to live a full life?

One of the cages contains several revolving displays of fancy gowns. How much of our life energy is drained by the need to stay in style with the trends, when most of us would be just as happy to wear the same old t-shirt and jeans, every day?

Several of the cages have TV sets, that play music videos, in the living room, the bed room and by an open bookshelf. As we walk to the next cage, we wonder if we have misread these symbols. Surely, Cica is not suggesting that pretty dresses and TVs are going to kill us. Such thoughts are quickly dispelled, as we almost fly into a large web which holds the wrapped remains of two humanoid victims, with a pair of trash cans on the ground below.

In another cage, we find a stack of commercial clothes dryers. These, at first, seem to have no place in the theory being pondered, until we notice that each dryer is an amusement ride that will spin and tumble two avatars together. One has to ask, how much better would life have been, had you only learned to avoid whirlwind relationships that ended up taking you to the cleaners?

The last cage that we explored took a little longer to extract the thoughts from. It contains two chairs and a table with a potted plant on it. Over by the bars of the cage, a raven is looking outside the cage. You can sit in the chairs, so we parked our cotton tail down, to contemplate the meaning. The old saying, "a little birdie told me so", came to mind. What is this little bird telling us? He is looking outside the cage. Next, we notice the unusual construction of the furniture. The chairs, instead of having four wooden legs, each have a pair of human legs, wearing shoes. The table has a single wheel, in place of legs. A wheel and legs suggest motion and the raven is looking outside the cage. We got the hint and moved on, in the direction indicated by the raven.

Our forward motion is rewarded, as we come upon a small stage. The lighting is cheerful and a free butterfly is perched on the roof. Sitting down, we find it odd that the pianist, while still playing the same style of music that added to the gloomy atmosphere of the sim, now sounded more cheerful and entertaining. While we were enjoying the concert, an avatar with a pistol was dashing to and fro, behind us. It did not disturb our peace, in the least. We figured he just hadn't found which cage he belonged trapped in, yet.

 

I give the Arachnid Exhibit my top rating. Cica Ghost's  continually evolving artistic skills and abilities to communicate with thought forms, makes her exhibits a "Must See". Come to the exhibit and set your butterflies free.

 

 "Sha"

 

Weed (155/170/37)