Thursday, March 5, 2015

February LEA Full Sim Speculum by Giovanna Cerise, a review by Victoria Lenoirre

On February 18th, Giovanna Cerise's Speculum opened at LEA 6.

I apologize for finishing this review late.

Speculum is an intriguing piece of art. She always gets you thinking and gazing in wonder at her creations, at least to me her work does that.

In Giovanna's words,

The mirror, as multiplicity and continuous playback.
The mirror, where the invisible overlaps the original and the hidden appears suddenly.
The mirror, as an illusion of which you can not do without.
The mirror as a projection in an unreal dimension.
The mirror that opens the door to ....
The visitor can interact with the environment simply going through it, resulting in different visual impressions.

The recommended setting is Sunset or Verdigris, to appreciate the nuances of the installation.



The sim feels like a speculum forest. If it was enclosed and not on open water, some might feel claustrophobic. There are a lot of them.  Has anyone counted how many there are?

Some of the mirrors made me think of satellites.


I set my world to Verdigris. It gives it a somber, eerie dusk look. The idea of being surrounded by speculums is strange. How does it make you feel? Do you feel like you're in an alien world?


I am just awestruck by it all.

Here are the questions I asked her:

Why did you choose to use speculums?

My choice was motivated by watching once again “The Arnolfini Portrait” by Jan van Eyck. It is an oil painting on oak panel dated 1434 by the Early Netherlandish.

Have you ever felt like life is an illusion? Have you ever had the feeling that you have to look deeper into life to really see what is happening?

I think that sometimes life is a beautiful illusion, but it is always worth living. I always look behind appearances even if the mirrors can be broken in look beyond.

Verdigris created such an interesting glow effect on everything. What was the effect that you wanted to create?

I like to play a lot with the effects of light. Verdigris looked like one of those that did stand out a little dreamy atmosphere. My choice was dictated primarily by the intuition of the emotional moment.




It certainly was dreamy. I loved the dusky effect.

Speculum is no longer up at LEA 6. But stay tuned for the next installation on LEA6, coming soon!

-Victoria Lenoirre

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