When first playing Ocarina of Time, every appearance of Sheik leaves both Link and the player with a common question: who was that masked man? While that question is answered by the end of the game, early attempts to puzzle out its solution elude us as Sheik is always quick to disappear with the snap of Deku Nut or simple silence. Renuski’s piece of art, “Remake: Zelda Transforms”, breaks this secretive streak by providing us an interpretation of what it might look like if Sheik were to transform before our very eyes.
The use of the golden light in the top left corner of the piece allows Renuski to direct the audience’s eyes to the first thing they want us to view: Zelda’s face. There are many interesting details to notice here. Zelda’s eyes are not the traditional blue color that they are in the official art from the game, they still retain Sheik’s haunting bloody hue. Along with the color, it’s also important to examine the princess-turned-ninja’s expression. There is a calm determination to her eyes and downturned brows. It’s the mouth that’s most interesting to me though. The way that it’s open almost makes me imagine that she’s exhaling. It offers us a glimpse of that moment after she warps away from Link. She’s been holding her breath, holding in the secret of her identity, but now she can let it and the costume that is Sheik dissolve away.
Renuski creates a tremendous amount of movement in this piece through two particular aspects of Zelda’s dual identity: her golden hair and Sheik’s bandages. Sheik’s short-cropped hair retains a very bright hue and is sharp and in focus while Zelda’s longer hair is out of focus and wispy. It floats in the air as both a blazing gold on the left and a ghostly white on the right. In a similar way, Sheik’s bandages which are normally wrapped tight to conceal the secret of her identity are shown unwrapping. This sense of flight by both her hair and the bandages implies a freedom that Zelda can only feel in moments like this when the secret she must keep a tight lid on can be set aside and she can just be Zelda.
While the majority of the piece is dominated by Sheik’s garb, it’s equally interesting to notice that the skirt of Zelda’s royal dress appears as a torn and feathered garment. The look of it reminds me of a molting bird, especially on the right where the white shards of the dress are shown floating through the air knitting back together out of the ether.
Renuski’s art pauses the frame on an iconic Zelda mystery: what does it look like when Zelda transforms into Sheik and vice versa? In doing so, they lay bare the burden of the secret. Just as Sheik’s bandages are wrapped tight, so is the secret of Zelda’s identity lest Ganondorf hunt down the missing princess. The transformation Renuski shows is both the rebinding of the secret and the freedom of loosening the bandages, and Zelda resuming her true identity.
