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Quote from CohentheWriter on 17. May 2022, 19:36

Museum Link: https://app.museumofcryptoart.com/collection/the-permanent-collection?collection=0x2a46f2ffd99e19a89476e2f62270e0a35bbf0756&token=23903&page=3

Source Link: https://makersplace.com/0xd9FF1Fbd68e910392dc404F8df0FCD23a64921c3/escape-from-cryptopolis-1-of-1-27069/

Date Minted: June 8, 2020

Artist Description: Cosmic Medusa´s Escape from Cryptopolis; mixed technique: 3D/digital paint; resolution: 8192 x 6224; digital signum painted with X-painter; there will be only this unique picture, one gif and one audiovisual shortfilm from this motive in total.

CohentheWriter’s Commentary:

El Geko’s Escape from Cryptopolis is a bit of a puzzle-box. Originally conceived and unleashed to the world as a triptych of sorts, the version of Escape we see is only one part, this one the single still-image, alongside a gif and a short video. The Gif definitely has more energy. The video is more technically awesome. But the still image Escape from Cryptopolis we’re looking at is by far the most interesting of the three. There’s a confrontation required of an audience when gazing on an immobile image. Movement is better for narrative, but it oftentimes eliminates the most minute aspects of artistry, the very same minute aspects of artistry that give this piece its kick. Escape from Cryptopolis is a beautiful work, a true mind-bender of shape and form and color, with the kind of texture so vivid you want to put your tongue to your monitor and lick it off. The amount of visual information is vast. The atmosphere is finely-tuned. It’s not un-terrifying. Having seen all three expressions of the Escape from Cryptopolis artwork, I’m no closer to unlocking its secrets. But I do feel like I’m closer to El Geko for having done so. The artist encodes all their secrets, their desires and tendencies, into this image right here. No flashing lights or frame-rates necessary. 

In the Gif version of Cryptopolis’ Artist Description, El Geko writes, “She is dangerous. She is a bounty hunter and she combs through space and time in search for prey. Cosmic Medusa´s escape from Cryptopolis was well planned and perfectly executed. Now, after passing the no-time zone, she is back on track ready for a new adventure.” This is the most vivid description of the Cosmic Medusa “story,” we are given; the title of the entire triptych being “Cosmic Medusa’s Escape from Cryptopolis.” And it’s this Cosmic Medusa who confronts us here, her giant Galactus-eyes glowing bright red, her metallic-liquid body, awash in shades of blue and black and reflected glints of gold, her spindly hair, brimming with blue electricity, extending out from her skull like a dozen polearms; her skin itself is a refraction of a many-starred universe unraveled around her. In the video, this universe is rendered in impressively high-quality. It’s quite stunning. And to see Cosmic Medusa in the middle of it, a cosmic mirror of sorts, is breathtaking. 

I am a man with almost 0 artistic ability. I am a man with somehow even less technological knowhow. Nevertheless, we are all in possession of certain markers of quality, and for me, the telltale sign of an artisan is a mastery of texture. I’m an avid fan of Frenetik Void’s work for the same reason, and all throughout El Geko’s work is an almost bored mastery over various textures, technical limitations be damned, artistic styles bent to the artist’s will. 3D art is clearly child’s play for El Geko, as are a dizzying number of animation styles, from the seemingly origami-inspired, to the abstract and papery, to the foggy and silhouetted. It’s more than just texture though. El Geko is able to capture perspective using their peerless technical skill. It’s not just the reflected surfaces in Cryptopolis which are impressive, for example, but how there is a world of reflected material in those surfaces, as if we were there in that floating galactic void alongside the Cosmic Medusa, and we were looking at her from straight-on, a whole universe of stars and quasars behind us. El Geko isn’t always interested in impressing us. There are enough lighthearted pieces in his oeuvre to convince me that he’s interested in consistently piquing our enjoyment over consistently piquing our awe. But it’s the seeming ease with which El Geko can conjure that awe that gives me pause, that alerts me to the level of talent displayed here. 

There are enough styles on display in El Geko’s Makersplace page to suggest a deeply curious mind, the kind of sensibility which cannot stay locked-in to a single style or niche. Rarely, for instance, does El Geko return to the sci-fi influenced cosmotopia of Escape on Cryptopolis. The artist is just as likely to be toying around with fractals, or metamorphosing women’s faces, as they are to be exploring the inner reaches of their mind via the outer reaches of spaces.

Thus, I don’t really think Escape from Cryptopolis needs to be much more than it is, which is a remarkable visual node in an oeuvre full of remarkable visual nodes. But with each new direction El Geko shows mastery over, the larger and more sprawling their overall mastery seems. Think of a botanic garden with a hundred different biomes. That is El Geko’s creative output. It doesn’t feel like a hodgepodge, but like a visitation. Like touching down for a taste of a hundred varied artistic languages. Each one beautifully-spoken. Each one, like Escape from Cryptopolis, only unfamiliar in theory. Down on the ground, so to speak, the assurance of El Geko’s hand is unmistakable; it is, at this point, an old friend.