Rebeca Bashly's "Chronophobia" at (the reopened!) Split Screen Installation Space

Rebeca Bashly is well known for her pensive, sometimes disturbing installations, such as Colour Key and When Life Brings You Apples ... Run! However, she hasn't built anything in Second Life since then -- in fact, not for over a year. She now returns with Chronophobia, open now at Split Screen. It consists of three towering stone pedestals hanging in midair. But they are crumbling away, and every now and then a rock tumbles down to the water below. The top of the pedestals are sundials, each with a different gnomon (the raised column or vane that casts a shadow) -- all of them skeletons. One is simply a torso. Another is a pegasus, rearing up on its hind legs, the skeletons of its wings outspread. The last is a resting couple, the woman reclining in the man's arms.

Rebeca Bashly's Chronophobia

(click to enlarge)

For me, Chronophobia -- the word means "fear of time" -- brings to mind the concepts memento mori ("remember that you shall die"), and tempus fugit ("time flies"). Each gnomon seems symbolic. The meaning of the couple seems fairly obvious. The pegasus has had a range of meanings over the centuries, such as poetry, inspiration, fame, and transcendence from the physical world the spiritual. The torso is a little more uncertain; possibly it represents the heart. But against all these uplifting and loving images comes Time the Destroyer. All that is left are their skeletons, and even the symbols of time (the sundials) are decaying.

Somewhat in keeping with the idea of transcendence, Chronophobia is a "fly" build: instead of walking around, one must fly in order to reach the installation. The recommended windlight is "[NB]-MistyDay-4pm." I recommend playing with the time of day.

This installation also marks the reopening of Split Screen Installation Space as a place for new large art installations, and I'm very pleased that its first new work is also Rebeca's first new build in SL after a long absence.  I'm changing a couple things: I'll only have one rather than two artists at a time, and they'll have three months to build and show instead of only two.

Chronophobia will be open until the end of April.