Postcard #7 - Séance with Vaneeesa - I Rez, Therefore I Am

Hi Guys!

I got an Xmas Postcard from smartypants Vaneeesa! I hope y’all have fancy phones with QR scanners on ’em, cause she sent the whole card in QR codes. Congrats to the rockin’ Second Life Post Office for figuring it out and still managing to deliver it to me here at Biscuit Bay.

SLPO’s #1!

I used an extra big scan of this WTF!? Photo of me trying to figure out the card, so you can click on the pix to get a big pix that you can scan with your phone. You can click on any of the pix to see them bigger or scan them better.

As you can see, Van made it to the cover of W magazine! So cool! And they even had a psychic contact her in the afterSLife for an interview. I guess being “virtually dead” really is a lot better than being really dead! Anyways, here’s the interview Van’s spirit got to do with Jeffrey Vallance. It’d be so cool if we could do a seance on the beach here at Biscuit Bay sometime!

Merry Christmas you guys! It’s been really great meeting you this year. I hope everyone has a really nice holiday with family and friends!

— Aero

THE BLAYLOCK SEANCE

Artist Jeffrey Vallance interviews the master of virtual performance art — in the afterlife. JONATHAN WINGFIELD listens in.

Who fancies a chat with Leonardo da Vinci, Jackson Pollock, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Duchamp, and Vincent van Gogh? London’s Frieze Art Fair is playing host to an intimate panel discussion between the five deceased legends and allowing mere mortals to ask them questions. The improbable scenario was conceived by Los Angeles–based artist Jeffrey Vallance, who uses mediums to channel the spirits of said artists. Vallance, whose work encompasses installation, collecting, and performance, has already channeled Richard Nixon and undertaken lengthy research into the Shroud of Turin, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster. As a pre-Frieze taster for W readers, he tapped self-proclaimed “psychic astrologer to the stars” Joseph Ross to channel Vaneeesa Blaylock for a discussion from beyond the grave.

Ross:
Is it possible I might contact you and share some insights with those in Second Life?

Blaylock:
Why should I bother? They were hardly capable of understanding my genius while I walked among them. You are irritating; go away.

Ross:
But I am a psychic reader revealing the power and beauty of humanity.

Blaylock:
A world-famous one?

Ross:
Not yet.

Blaylock:
Contact me when you are famous!

Ross:
But you shared your art while you were alive even when you weren’t famous.

Blaylock:
I was always famous. I’m busy. Bye.

Ross:
Wait…wait…are you in heaven?

Blaylock:
Heaven. Hell. What’s the difference? I created heaven and hell in my work and life.

Ross:
Which is better fun?

Blaylock:
Heaven would be very boring without hell, and hell would be very painful without heaven. Hell is heaven if you have the eyes to see.

Ross:
Are you making art?

Blaylock:
It is not “art” here. The spirit manifests into form without a brushstroke. The angels joke that I have designed much of the universe for them already, that I took over where Raphael and Botticelli and Bosch left off.

Ross:
Do you hang out with any other artists?

Blaylock:
I have grown quite fond of Bosch. We party all the time, cavorting in bordellos. Drinking is allowed here…and you don’t get hangovers! All of these artists are wild except Picasso, who is boring and serious. He’s only interested in getting back to earth and making more money. I just want to have fun. Look at this:

Ross suddenly visualizes a series of images, describing them as “the most incredibly beautiful universes, angels, and hideous but lovable monsters.”

Blaylock:
Bosch and I did that together one drunken evening.

Ross:
Wow. And you mentioned bordellos—are you having much sex there?

Blaylock:
This may be hard to believe, but Blaylock was once a prude. After you have all the sex you want in all the ways you want, you can come here and realize, Wait a second, where did that take me? But a little bit now and then is fine.

Ross:
Do you keep a close eye on the contemporary art scene?

Blaylock:
I love it all. And hate it all. The only artist I really like is Lady Gaga. She is the only one qualified to call herself a Blaylock-ista. I only hope she never does performance art.

Ross:
Why?

Blaylock:
Art is dead. Only entertainment is alive. The human being is the greatest art.

Ross:
Do you watch TV?

Blaylock:
Strangely, yes. Just to rejoice in what I have left behind. The flickers are so dim compared to the movie that is eternal life. I cannot tell you the names of many shows, however. Partridge Family Crime Syndicate, is that one?

Ross:
Do you have a message for your friend Trill Zapatero?

Blaylock:
Never despair, it only gets better, Trill. I am waiting for you in paradise. I must go now…

Ross:
One last question, please. What would your message be to young artists starting out today?

Blaylock:
You need to get off your lazy asses and create beauty and love and joy. There needs to be a World War of Love. A Revolution of the Aesthetic. Open your eyes and you’ll see me. God gives me everything: all the glory of the universe, drunk like the froth on a tidal wave of champagne on the Bay of Life.…

In V’s interview with Maurizio Cattelan she stole the questions from his interview with Eva & Franco Mattes and answered them herself. But that still turned out to be a lot of work. So this time she stole both the questions and the answers from the Vallance-Ross seance with Salvador Dalí.

http://vaneeesa.com/2010/11/07/maurizio-cattelan/

http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2010/11/salvador_dali_interview

http://www.wmagazine.com/services/presscenter/pressreleases/NovemberPressRelease10