#Yakoub Mousli

[manonamora-if-reviews]

The Sculptor by Yakoub Mousli

============= Links

Play the game (IFComp) See other reviews of the game

============= Synopsis

Sways of an artist's delicate spirit. An 82 year old sculptor with no achievements to his name or a penny in his pocket now seeks to make the masterpiece of his dreams before his life fades.

============= Other Info

The Sculptor is a Texture game, submitted to the 2023 Edition of the IFComp.

Status: Completed Genre: Experimental, Self-Reflection, Echoes of Life

CW: Occasional Profanity

============= Playthrough

Played: 4-Oct-2023 Playtime: around 15min Rating: - [IFComp vote] Thoughts: What's the point of selling out at this age...

============= Review

The Sculptor is a pretty short interactive story about the artistic dilemma of creating for the sake of creating and essentially selling out, through the lens of an older man yearning to create his Magnum Opus before it is too late. Through a fairly poetic prose, the man reflect on his gifts, the process to get to the finished state, and that dilemma.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

With a focus on touch-related imagery, the entry does a fairly good job at describing the tedious, and often painful, but fulfilling process of creating art. Its poetic prose engages to see creative endeavour as more than the final product, but all the acts, the efforts, the sweat, the tears that made it happen. I was particularly touched by the yearning of the old man to accomplish one last piece, fulfilling his dream, before meeting the inevitable.

Though it is a major point of the story, I did not find the dilemma quite satisfying. The question itself of creating for the sake of creating or to be able to survive has been debated almost ad nauseam, without much of a new or fresh angle to it. It also felt like the Sculptor's position was clear: not preserving the art from being sullied through transaction would tear his soul.

Another thing that felt strange was placing the time period of the piece. The cover art and starting prose suggest a Baroque or maybe Romantic period, while the dialogue from other characters would place it in a more modern time. It would not be too surprising to learn that the sculptor's sensibilities were tuned to older periods, being maybe even detached from reality due to his age or current state. An angle like this could have helped bridge the gap, I think.