SIZZLE - "The Peace Palace" and "The Atomic Cafe"
This entry was posted on 8/29/2006 8:55 PM and is filed under Sizzle.
I mentioned the Atomic Cafe a couple of days ago, but I didn't realise at that time that is was linked to another build, "The Peace Palace", DrFran Babcock's kaleidoscopic creation. These two pieces SIZZLE in the Burning Life desert and I hope you get a chance to visit them. Let me tell you about these gemstones and why they have earnt one of Burninglife.com's SIZZLE awards.
The Peace Palace is located at (Jeraku) 241,180,46 and is DrFran's embodiment of the longing for a return to more peaceful time. Having taken "Hope" as inspiration from the Burning Man design brief she has laid out a hippy heaven made of cool blues and pastel greens. Paisley swirls and tie dye walls. I cornered her for a few minutes to talk about the Atomic Cafe over at (Jeraku) 96,91,38 and her Peace Palace.
Update: I foolishly wrote this review thinking the fact that the Atomic Cafe was built on Grace's Land, made it her build. On further inspection I see it is also on Micala Lumiere's land. Having talked briefly with Micala she told me that the Atomic Cafe was a team effort with Micala and Grace, and extra help by Reginald Golding.
From the comfort of a huge rainbow hand chair DrFran explained a few things about the build. She told me that originally the two friends had hoped for adjoining parcels of land, but that wasn't the case... so Grace and DrFran both created different builds. They then joined them by using a teleport between the two. To me the separation between the two builds works very well.
Music posters and bean cushions adorn the main area of the Palace although there is a special psychedelic room upstairs. It's "like a trip without the drugs" DrFran tells me. She's captured something here, I really enjoyed the colours and the feeling. Scanning the walls I recognised some of the names, but other's were a mystery to me. I even spotted a reproduction I had myself, and the other's seemed familiar even though this is a period in time I did not live through. Personally I hope the Peace Palace becomes a place to hang out during the festival.
DrFran has a desire and "Hope" of getting back to the values and freedoms that the hippy era seemed to encompass. And I have to agree that the idea of a true peace among humanity would be wonderful. But unfortunately there's always a nagging worry about what could happen to humanity if things don't go that way.
Looking from the window of the palace you can see the Atomic Cafe, and it gave me a slight chill to see it's contrast. Somehow the possibility of a catastrophe like that happening never seems far enough away.
As I walk through the ashen white spruce trees, stripped of any foliage, DrFran's Palace seems a distant ideal. Those peace symbols on the ground look like some ironic footnote. There's a bomb crater and even an open missile silo protruding through the sandy desert. It makes me think back to those black and white nuclear test movies from the 40's and 50's. As I get closer I can see how the project encapsulates the "Fear" of a nuclear 'possibility'.
As I grew up I really did live in fear of a nuclear holocaust, and it would haunt my childhood dreams. Perhaps that threat seems to have returned recently with the flare up of conflict in the middle east. It has crossed my mind.
Micala, Grace and Reginald have put together an impressive place, there are interactive items which serve you up political rhetoric and folly, and there's obviously also been a lot of thoughtful texturing done here.
Downstairs in the shelter there's a lonely picnic bench and a few bed bunks. There's also a selection of food rations. It pretty dire, but really well done. I like the way the ground and the build come together, and the gentle use of colour. It really is an opposite to the vibrant hues of the Peace Palace.
But war is never really a colour filled place, except perhaps for the spilled blood. I don't think Fear is that colourful either. Hope, should be the more splendid place to be.
These two builds wholeheartedly deserve a BurningLife.com SIZZLE award and I urge you to take a moment from your Burning Life festivities to look them out. The Cafe's nuclear mushroom is pretty clear to see, but take a moment to stop by at the Peace Palace where residents can share a song and hope for a better future all around.
Congratulations to DrFran, Grace, Micala and Reginald for their Jeraku builds.
Comments
GavinLeigh,
Thanks so much for your kind words!
-Micala Lumiere
You guys are my heroes!
Comments