Saturday 16 March 2013

A lot to tell about Torell

This week I saw this artwork as background in a fashion blog picture and was amazed:

The Tower (Rebecca Bashly)

I was very happy that the blogger (who's name I forgot to jot down, unfortunately) had added a landmark and was quite surprised to see that the name of my country (the Netherlands) was in its name: Torell Nederland . That was an exra reason to visit soon!

Once in Torell Nederland I discovered that the artwork is part of Rebecca Bashly's 'The Tower', which happened to be on my places-to-visit-list anyway, so I could tick off that one now. The Tower is a dark but beautiful installation and quite impressive. Only this is already worth a visit to Torell Nederland.

The Tower (Rebecca Bashly)

But there's more. Much more.

Only one day after I had made a note of the landmark to The Tower, I received a snapshot from my friend Peter Stindberg, with a beautiful landscape that seemed to be copied from a Van Gogh painting. Sim name on the snapshot was, you guess it, Torell Nederland.

Thus, after my visit to The Tower, I teleported to sea level to find a complete village inspired by Van Gogh indeed. The buidings are old fashioned prim builds with simple textures, yet it's a funny experience to walk 'inside' Van Gogh's paintings.

In case you're not very familiar with the works of Vincent van Gogh, you get a little help from the owners of the sim, JanFolkert Alter and Ellenilli Lavendel: they set up easels with copies of the paintings on the spots where you can see the depicted scene.

Le Café de Nuit, but unlike the painting, without visitors:
Van Gogh Village - Café Terrace at Night

Van Gogh's bedroom in Arles:
Van Gogh Village - Bedroom

Outside of the village is a Mediterannean scene with golden wheatfields, cattle and mills, and also a small patch of forest with a more fairytale-like atmosphere.

Torell NL - Magic Forest

More of Van Gogh can be found high up in the sky, where several galleries are located in ultra modern buildings. In a number of galleries are exhibitions of real life paintings by Van Gogh, Klee and Klimt, which makes me wonder. The strength of Second Life is that it's a 3D world, where you can interact with objects, so why would I use it to watch 2D art work from the atomic world?

Only one gallery could grab my attention, with an installation by SL-architect DB Bailey. Like in the Van Gogh Village and in Rebecca Bashly's Tower you can walk through and you are immersed in a strange world of pillars and colours:

Installation by DB Bailey

The outside of the galleries could not really attract me and I felt pityful for this poor little dog:

Lonely Dog But in general Torell Nederland is a great sim with a lot to see. Here are your taxis to see it for yourself:
To Rebecca Bashly's Tower
To Van Gogh Village
To DB Bailey's installation

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