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luntsberg candy castle by CickMy Lunt

Candy house - CickMy Lunt

When I checked out the spoonertastic creator name on this work, my first reaction is that it was probably a griefer drop. A bit of cultural background… my understanding is that the C word is only a moderate insult on the east side of the pond, but here in the US many women consider it one of the most offensive words in the language. (I’m not among them; I’m in the camp that is trying to reclaim it as a positive word, just like the lovely body part that it names. But the avatar name still made me suspicious.) CickMy Lunt has been in SL for more than a year and a half, belongs to multiple groups including Arthole, and I met him and talked for a bit; I satisfied myself that this is a real work to be reviewed.

So enough sexual politics; how about the art? The candy castle is a charmingly childlike riot of bright colors; you’ll see lollipops, sugar dots, and various other candies in the build. Inside the castle he treats us to rainbow-swirled crayon posts for a throne and bright pink animals, and there is a copy of Candyland (the children’s game) set out on a table.  Surrounding it is a moat, with the Kool-Aid man tipped over spilling red liquid into it. And the whole thing is topped by a gigantic sculptie kiss.

Next to the castle, CickMy has a giant boombox that plays short loops of familiar popular music. The loops are also his creation, and he has done a good job of getting the cuts right so that the loops sound seamless. There is also an information box out front that you can buy for L$0; it contains a short notecard about the castle, and a free party cat (also the artist’s work).

I really enjoyed the playful nature of this castle. It might have made a nice accompaniment to playground space, but that is gone now.

Posted by Shirley Marquez on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 10:38 pm.

2 Responses to “luntsberg candy castle by CickMy Lunt”

thanks for profiling my build. i’ve been hamfistedly building for a long time now. in my group, w-hat (members of the forums at somethingawful.com), we spend a lot of time just chilling and coming up with funny and stupid builds so my stuff reflects that pretty well. for this i was thinking of making a “home base” for awhile and it grew into this over-the-top castle that nobody could ever use as a place to build.
because it has like 400 prims and it’s way too small inside to see what the hell you’re doing.

Left by cickmy_lunt on June 29th, 2008

I’m really impressed by this one, I hope a lot of people will come see it, and if its still around wed. night i’ll get our panel to talk about it. (If we miss it you can always bring it back of course).

There are several things here that come to mind– First, a candy castle is kind of the quintessential fantasy world item, so building it in a virtual world is interesting. It makes me think about the impulse of wanting a candy castle- which is a childish impulse, i mean.. really what would you do with a candy castle??- you can’t eat it or you’d have no place to live!– its a half-formed childish dream “how much candy do i want? I want a CANDY CASTLE!”– its also like the goodrock candy mountain hobo song- a fantasy that could never be true.

Thinking about that makes me think about SL and the way people use it. Whenever I just go flying off across the sl landscape i feel like i always run into a “night club” –seriously how many of those things are there? they are all over the damn place! - And I wonder if the candy castle is an implicit reminder aimed at residents that their perfect bodies gyrating in those clubs are just like a candy castle?

This idea is further reinforced by the pictures inside where I see crazy unrealistic avatars mixed in with more standard barbi and ken style ones and i wonder if this is the figurative home of a group of subversive people who go about kind of saying with their avatars ” you think YOUR’re living an imaginary 2nd life… check out how imaginative I am!” — this thought makes me laugh–

then you go upstairs and find out that a who’s home this is… or maybe they are couriers and you’re the king…

anyway this piece makes me think of a lot of Paul McCarthy in the way that its funny but ultimately makes me feel kind of uneasy and seems to be about reality and fantasy- some of McCarthy’s videos were filmed inside sets from old TV shows…

Anyway- Cickmy, your explanation is helpful, and it also doesn’t take anything away from the implied narrative of the work

Left by jvanb on July 1st, 2008

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