Shay wrote:
> Veijo Vilva wrote:
> 
> The composition of this one is very exciting. The row of gold boxes 
> outlining the windows and pictures especially. There is a great deal of 
> energy created as a viewer's mind fights between the perfectly 
> symmetrical 2D shape and textures of the windows and surrounding walls 
> and the contrasting asymmetrical, virtual, 3D shapes of the spaces on 
> either side of the windows.
> 
> This illusion is present on the top as well. The diagonal lines of the 
> dropped ceiling show clearly that the picture is centered, but the 
> varying volumes of the dropped ceilings attempt to deceive.
> 
> For me, the whole thing falls apart below the floor line. The strong 
> horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines disappear, leaving the floor 
> looking empty, and the electric, illusory surrealism of the composition 
>  and your familiar yet alien musical instruments is IMO stomped to death 
> by the more mundane surrealism of the floating game board.
> 
> HOW DID THE SHOW TURN OUT!?? You mentioned that it was coming up at 
> p.o-t, but I never saw any report of how your images were received by 
> the public.
> 
>  -Shay

Shay, you've inspired me to try a little harder and give Veijo some 
responses myself.  Even though I grow a weary of the presumptuous stuff 
that comes from my "mouth", Veijo's work deserves some effort be made. 
I am not writing specifically to agree or disagree with anything you've 
said. I enjoyed your analysis and you have put words to some similar 
thoughts on my part.

Salient elements of the composition are, the Bosch "Wayfarer" in command 
top and center, and the hovering chess board of the foreground.  Both 
have obvious connections with the title.  The Bosch signals across a 
range of frequencies centering on its allegory.  In fact it announces 
the very use of allegory.  It represents art tradition in its 
universality and esoterica.  It represents the persistence of ideas, and 
the ability to isolate, rarefy and reintroduce them just as, aged and 
mellow, it is introduced into a contrasting setting.  A modern setting, 
but filtered and cerebral.

This sense of filtering infuses the picture in all its aspects and is 
the way that Veijo brings the particulars of raytracing to produce a 
potent, personal vision.  Raytracing is a synthetic means that produces 
strikingly naturalistic effects.  This mix can be go beyond being a 
compelling means to create "worlds."  It can establish its very own 
reality.  A reality in which a floating object may not signal much 
mystery at all.

Light is filtered, content is filtered, in a sparse world, carefully 
constructed, and minutely adjusted.  Veijo contends that he is 
constructing, not picturing.  I don't think it is quite that easy.  It 
is a world populated with finely constructed objects, but it is a 
setting comprised of pictorial solutions.  Backgrounds in this 
synthesized world are a vexing problem.  An expansive world of infinite 
density cannot be constructed.

But it can be alluded to, possibly, on a chessboard.  The pieces are 
complex and inscrutible, suggesting unfathomable regressions of scale, 
iconography, and cultural effeteness.   Their arrangement is difficult 
to make out,...recorded arcanum from the history of the game.

Veijo's raytracings suggest to me something of Kubrick's controlled use 
of artifice.  It is unafraid of the pithy, the pretentious, and the 
personal.  It is crafted to produce a synthesized reality immaculate in 
its illogic. It's a fertile vein to mine.

Veijo embraces the spirit of Surrealism, but in this picture, it appears 
though the familiar filter of scifi.  The setting is not quite 
otherworldly, but not quite of this time and place either. There is the 
same easy juxtapositioning of familiar and novel relics to gain effect. 
  There is the reliance on futuristic explanations for tropes such as 
the floating chess board or the room above the clouds.  And I say, "Why 
the hell not?"

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