Diomita Maurer’s Blog

I got an invitation to visit “Phenomenal Women” in the white pavillon at Itakos Project and Art Gallery. “Phenomenal Women” is an exhibtion of two second life photographers, Cecilia Nansen and Maloe Vansant. Together they selected pictures to illustrate a poem about women, that was written by the African American poet Maya Angelou.

“Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years, she was a cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, the English-language work by the American composer George Gershwin. Actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs, was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.” (taken from the notecard available at the exhibition)

“Phenomenal Women” by Cecilia Nansen and Maloe Vansant at Itakos Project and Art Gallery (1)

Maloe Vansant joined Second Life in 2007, a new world for her who had never played games or joined any social network site: “After creating little Maloe, my barbie doll, my pixel soul, I discovered the possibility of making snapshots and I started to make a graphic diary of Maloe’s journey in Second Life, showing the emotions she experienced in this pixel world. I think I succeeded in doing this by using some post processing in Photoshop. I am not a woman of many words, I try to express myself, my feelings, my passion and probably my dark side through my pictures.“

“Phenomenal Women” by Cecilia Nansen and Maloe Vansant at Itakos Project and Art Gallery (2)

Cecilia Nansen joined Second Life over ten years ago, but took a long break from it. She returned four years ago and found her passion for pictures and learned how to process them. Cecilia and Maloe are close friends. Their style is different. And you can clearly identify which picture was taken by whom. There’s one exception though. On the second floor on the exhibition are a few pictures showing Maloe and Cecilia together and you can’t tell which was done by who. Actually they both made some of them.

“Phenomenal Women” by Cecilia Nansen and Maloe Vansant at Itakos Project and Art Gallery (3)

The poem accompanies the exhibition and vice versa. It is written on the floor of the gallery and you get the full text in a notecard as well. I really like the poem and it’s rhytym and the pictures selected to accompany the poem express the phenomenon very well. They’re never explicit and always leave room for a little mystery, yet transport the beauty and the gracie of women.

Thank you Akim (Akim Alonzo) and Violet (Violet Boa) for enabling “Phenomenal Women” and thank you Maloe and Cecilia for realizing it. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to “Phenomenal Women” by Cecilia Nansen and Maloe Vansant
White pavillon at Itakos Project and Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ATL/181/216/1009
The Itakos Project and Art Gallery website
http://itakos.it/