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The Work Olia Lialina's my boyfriend came back from the war captures the flavor of a complex and personal situation in a presence that reveals anticipation, anxiety, hopes, mixed messages, and personality transformation, in what appears as a mixture of said and unsaid expressions. The navigation scheme presents opportunities to pursue multiple, intersecting threads, creating a web of possible internal and external conversations that become realized in the site visitors' approach to the environment The artist establishes a graceful combination of image, word and flow. One visual region presents a non-changing presence illustrating the boyfriend's presence. The rest of the visual realm is divided into multiple static frames within which the participant interacts to illuminate conversation elements. This work has a performative character, and I found myself "playing" the frames in a combination and speed that matched my own perception and interest. A built-in disappearance of navigation options presents a graceful cadence for the piece, something that is particularly unusual in the more commonplace never-ending web experience.
This piece works well, and integrates the medium in a way that doesn't get in the way of the content and
message. |
Beautiful narrative flow via imaginative use of basic web technology. Eisenstien does the web. Lialina continues to produce excellent work. --cl |