The Last Forever -Nomad Aries reporting

 The Last Forever is a new sim, completed March 29^th, 2017 by Kraftwork (Nodnol Jameson and Oobleck Allagash) also creators of the sim West of the Rain, along with a very creative team consisting of;  Kai Mannequin, Brooke Barmy, Rooky Yootz ,Triin. Misty and Jack Hanby.   The Last Forever is actually the recreation of the real life town of  Marfa. located in west Texas  U.S.A., on the Chihuahuan Desert plateau. It is a small ranching town and trendy tourist destination with a present day population of  2,316 . 

The real life Marfa has quite a few famous and popular spots such as  the mystery lights of Marfa, and the fact that it was used as the location for the 1956 movie classic Giant , starring Elizabeth Taylor , Rock Hudson and James Dean.  Marfa was also used as a U.S. military base during World War two and many of the buildings are former army buildings.  Marfa is also a great fashion and shopping place , it even has a Prada store.  This Prada location though, is not a working store and is actually an art instalment. You can gaze through the window at the purses and shoes but the door does not actually work .  At any other place this would be an oddity , but in Marfa it just seems to fit. 

The main reason that Marfa is an important destination is because it is the home of the Chinati Foundation and the Judd Foundation.  For anyone who has ever studied art , they will know the name of Donald Judd. 

Donald Judd

 Donald Judd is one of the most influential and famous minimalist American artists of the 20^th century(1928 to 1994).   Although Donald disavowed minimalism, saying he “sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy” he later wrote volumes supporting minimalism and is largely associated with it.

Donald Judd started out in NYC creating works that spread from floor to ceiling then all five floors of his building.  In the 1970's Judd  moved to Marfa, rented a house and began large scale works .  Later , Judd bought a ranch just outside Marfa and continued to build massive structures. Judd's works were done in metal, concrete, plexiglass and wood. 

Donald Judd wrote, taught and lectured in the U.S. , Europe and Asia.  In his later years , he produced furniture that was purely functional .  At first glance, it reminds one of  Asian design or Scandinavian design. 

Today the Judd Foundation in Marfa is the home to many of Judd's works as well as other artists and is one of the main reasons people visit.

SecondLife Marfa

  Arriving in Marfa SL. after the dust settles, proves to be an astonishing moment . It is Marfa.  A small desert town with cracked pavement, tumbleweeds and surrounded by desert and mountains.  There are scrub bushes, cacti and wind bent trees.  The town buildings  are a mixture of new buildings and refurbished army ones.  Right away ,some of the more famous buildings stand out, The Marfa Contemporary Gallery , Building 98 (also known as the Ballroom), The Palace movie theatre and even the Food Shark truck (offering free burgers).  

 

 Walking around the sim I headed towards the open desert plateau and there in plain sight are Donald Judd's Boxes.  Framed against the desert sky and parched earth, they are part of the landscape  of the plateau. 

 There are numerous references to Judd's work in the sim.  Even the furniture ,similar to which Judd designed in the latter part of his career . is for sale on the sim at Kraftwork.

                                                                                                                                                                             

                                       

  Over at the Marfa Contemporary Gallery is another exhibit featuring works by Melusina Parkin. The show is titled “ Americana-American Icons in SecondLife”.

 “Americana exhibit aims to show how American pop culture is reflected in Second Life. Since SL is a world made by residents, the choice of things they reproduced in this world looks like a catalogue of that can be called "icons". That includes typical landscapes, historical symbols, daily life objects and places, architectural styles, vintage objects and much more.”

Melusina is the CEO of MEB as well as a multi-talented artist in design, photography and building objects.  She has won various awards for her works and designs, and gives talks on her work in Art Deco.  Melusina is also Chief Editor of Esselle Movie Magazine.  Complete information about Melusina Parkin is given out at the exhibit and it will also provide you with her links to her store and other works .   It is a beautiful exhibit, with many stunning photographs and it is suited to Marfa in its minimalist style.

   Art is everywhere in Marfa and not just in galleries.  There are sculptures on the streets , photographs, paintings, graffiti and even the remnants of old planes and vintage cars.  Absolutely nothing is random, everything is placed in exactly the right way in the exact right spot. The entire sim is a work of art, the desert, the buildings, the streets and the mountains.

It is no surprise that the creators of the sim all have home bases for their stores here .  Kraftwork has a main store in a building that looks remarkably like the Chinati Foundation building . Big Bully and Powder Pack are in equally impressive structures that blend in beautifully with the sim and the streets are named after the creators.  The Last Forever  is an incredible feat of design, art and creativity that pays homage to Donald Judd.  Truly an enjoyable trip through Marfa .