A site to visit without delay is Solkide’s amazing and beautiful Tower at Italic’Art, on the mainland slim of Slitheen.
This is an awesomely huge structure, but the word I would use for it is “exuberant” as Solkide continues to build, piling on the new giant prims is a riot of style, shapes and colours. When Wildstar Beaumont first called my over to see it (and thank you so much, Wildstar!), it was 2,200 metres tall. When I went over this morning, it had reached 2.500 – but there’s no guarantee that it will still be the same height when you reach it, as Solkide is still enthusiastically building.
It consists of layers, each piled one on top of the other in a rich profusion of geometric shapes and sometimes astonishing colours. Some levels are breathtakingly beautiful; some (like the Popeye) made me laugh. Some appear made out of wood, or flat planes, others writhe and twist. Some levels could form temples or strange anatomical structures, others are completely abstract. Look, it’s stunning. Just go, will you?
How do you see it when you get there? Well, this is one where you’ll definitely need some sort of flight assist or a craft to get you to the top. I used my Mysti tool flight assist to take me up the first time; the second time I rode on a magic flying disk with Solkide and Wren Carling (you can see this in the slidshow below). You’ll want to be able to look around – to look up, look down and look around; I used a special slow fall feather that I picked up at the Grendel’s build at SL8B, stood at the top of the Tower, attached the feather, went into mouselook and … fell. It took me half an hour to reach the bottom, and it was a glorious experience (and I usually hate mouselook).
When you arrive, stand on the ground and fly up slowly. The tower offers different perspectives from different angles, outside and in. If you have time, you may want to try several.
Wren Carling joined me at the Tower and took some amazing photographs, which yu can see in the form of a slideshow below. But wonderful as her pictures are, this is definitely an installation where you need to go and experience it for yourself!
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To me, one fascinating thing about this is the fact that Solkide has chosen to create his build on the main land, with all the associated clutter that brings. Thus, as you fly up, you rise through a three dimensional environment filled with all kinds of clutter, from rather dull square boxes to elegant steampunk homes borne aloft by huge rotating propellors, from long-forgotten randomly-grouped stray prims to careful tended and intricate gardens. This is an exuberant art that claims its place in a diverse cultural environment, the way that much public art must do. This isn’t new for Sokilde – we’ve visited builds of his on Designing Worlds at SL7B and SL8B, where they have enrichened the overall environment. But, for me, it adds another dimension to what is a must-see build!
Prim Perfect 