Culture in Second Life: Art in Second Life (AKA The Arrival By Rose Borchovski)

The one thing many users of Second Life enjoy is the fact that you can be creative in that world. The ability to build, create clothes and content is what brings many users to the Linden Labs created world. When a new user views SL’s Destination section on the website, 9 times out 10 there will be art pieces on the Featured or Editor’s Pick list. Here is one piece of art called The Arrival by Second life Resident Rose Borchovski:

“I grew up in a small village on the edge of the sea. Once every few years a big fish (small whale) would strand itself on our beach. And that was an enormous event: THE ARRIVAL, this giant big fish lying on the beach, its weight made it impossible to breath, longing for the water, overheated by its own fat, trapped in the sand, slippery and smelly. We would climb all over it, standing on top of its belly, poking it with sticks, jumping up and down for pictures, while the whale was slowly dying under our feet. The beach would turn into a fancy fair, good business for local kibbling (warm fish) and hot chocolate sellers.”

– Rose Borchovski

This art piece jumps right into surrealism, with its use of  mannequin children, fishes, eyes and television sets, a carnival, penguins and other props to illustrate this story. Visitors are asked to have sound and to turn their volume up since sound is a part of the art piece. Along the way visitors are given gifts to take away, souvenirs of their time there. It’s worth looking around, if not for its surreal take on art then for its interactivity. 

The Torch Interpretation:

Chris C: My interpretation is rather that it is about growing up, the big fish is a metaphor for adulthood and the little fish is the childhood. The child doesn’t want to grow up, so she “kills the fish” by keeping her childishness intact, but the big fish will always eat the little fish. In the end, she finds a way to keep young at heart even thou she is an adult, and realizes the dead fish is not her fault, it is ok.

Kennie M: I think It’s about the lost of innocence, the girl did something that she was ashamed of, probably something that took her innocence away, whether murder or abuse. It’s an mephtor for what happened to her. A big fish eats a little fish could be people or a person is  taking advantage of people (or person) who can’t take care of them selves like children or the elderly or business. They killed the big fish and felt guilty. If its a big company or something, it ended wrong and someone was killed or , someone went out of business or it caused something very bad to happen