The exhibit itself is a surreal landscape of alien anatomy and organic oddness, spread out across rolling hills and swamps filled with stalks of insect wings in the place of reeds. It's a great place to take pictures, or just roam around. Check out this video to see what I mean:

A few days ago, Airedine Poe (creator of this rad Lichtensteinian makeup ) plurked a picture of herself wearing an incredibly unique and eye-catching mesh avatar, and of course the av leapt right to the top of my "to buy" list. Never mind buying it though, because it's actually a freebie available at an immersive art installation called spirit , by claudia222 Jewell, on the Art Screamer sim [ Click here to teleport to spirit in ART SCREAMER ].

You can pick up the rather waifish reptilian avatar at the landing point, put it on, and enjoy! In theory anyway...

I was terribly excited to take pictures with this avatar. Mesh avatars are only recently starting to take off and get more innovative, but as cute as the petite fairy trend is I've been holding out for something a little more... exotic. Just like this.

I picked out a messy seaweed green hairstyle from Analog Dog and a pair of perky fin-like mer-elf ears from Shadenfreude and excitedly put on my new amphibian girl body, ready to take pictures for hours. Unfortunately I had a hell of a time getting this avatar to rez properly. I jumped from viewer to viewer and tried all the tricks helpful people suggested, but no matter what I did I just couldn't get it to rez 100%. The avatar comes with an attachment to help rezzing as well, but even that didn't quite do the trick. Even now I'm at a loss, and had to take my pictures with a rather blurry, featureless face.

Maybe you're wondering why I'm writing about this avatar at all. The thing is, even with a blurry face this avatar is still great. I suspect the blurriness is more the fault of a bug than of the designer, since I know for a fact that some people can see the avatar textures perfectly clear. It may just be me, so if this avatar appeals to you don't be deterred. You have nothing to lose by testing out something that costs nothing. Even if you have the same problem that I do, that doesn't mean you always will. Bugs get fixed (usually), so someday long after the installation is gone this avatar may be crystal clear (and a real collector's item). Don't miss out!

[Click here to teleport to spirit in ART SCREAMER]

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.