Metamorphosis

For Relay for Life in 2014, artist Beq Janus created the installation Metamorphosis, inspired by the work of artist M. C. Escher, whose mathematically influenced works in various mediums featured transformations, logical puzzles and impossible situations. Although the build disappeared with the end of Relay for Life 2014, the artist was invited by the Quarry Hill School of Mines & Industries at New Babbage to reconstruct it in the sky — teleport here to visit. Working almost exclusively in white, black and gray, Beq's build unmistakably captures the feel of Escher's work, down to the feel of the woodcuts and his playful interlocking lizards. (Click on any image to zoom in.)

"My sim," explains Beq in the installation notes, "was inspired directly by a section of the 1939 woodcut Metamorphosis II — though the scene appears both in the earlier Metamorphosis I and the final Metamorphosis III, created towards the end of his career. Metamorphosis is itself a journey and the artwork 'morphs' from one tessellated shape to another from a simple chequered grid through lizards and hexagons into bees and fish then birds, capturing many of the themes of his early paintings. It then morphs back into blocks before becoming the view of Atrani [on the Amalfi coast]." The build covers the better part of the sim, so it's important to turn your draw distance up to fully capture the view, and to play with windlight settings — and be sure to peek into the telescope to see the artist's signature. Do take time to teleport below to explore Quarry Hill and other part of New Babbage, which are always worth a visit. (Thanks to Cat Horatio for a flickr post that drew my attention to Metamorphosis.)