Diomita Maurer’s Blog

Melusina Parkin invited me to the opening of her newest exhibition named “Ordinary People” on Wednesday, Ocotober 13th, at Vibes Art Gallery.

Vibes Art Gallery is an example of the transformation of industrial warehouses into a modern exhibition space. It consists of two buildings and a court between them. The court is used for events. While one building has one large exhibition room, the other building has two rooms, that are connected though.
Melusina Parkin’s exhibition extends over the whole Vibes Art Gallery and it is quite particular for Melusina, as she leaves her general theme of minimalism for this exhibtion – at least for a tiny bit.

Ordinary People showcases – to no surprise – just ordinary people. The connected exhibition space in one building showcases monochrome pictures of Melu at the walls, in the other building are coloured pictures. They are all taken in Second Life and have one thing in common – they show people in daily situations.
Melusina Parkin’s photos tend towards minimalism, which is Melu’s main inclination: simple details from daily life or usual landscapes are the subject of mostly empty scenes, stressing voids, space, geometries, lights; this reveals hidden meanings or pushes the observer to give them her/his own one. Her favorite subjects are wide landscapes, city views, industrial environments, popular lifestyles and daily objects … and now she added people to her pictures. But still her pictures impress by their simplicity and by forcing the spectator to foucs on the few details.

Impressions of “Ordinary People” by Melusina Parkin at Vibes Art Gallery (1)

But there’s more to see at “Ordinary People“. Melusina added static figures to the exhibtion. Not just one, she added enough to liven up the exhibition. And these figures are part of the exhibition. You see ordinary people on the pictures and visiting the exhibtion. Melusina wrote about “Ordinary people“:
“The photos of this exhibition put together my interest in human images and my experience in shooting objects, choosing subjects that stay on the thin border between living beings and things that features the virtual world: the “puppets” (or “dolls”) that we often meet when we visit a Second Life places. Like avatars, they are made of pixels; like statues and mannequins, they don’t talk, neither move. They could be seen as objects, as parts of the decor, but at a closer look they reveals to have expressions and their still poses show activities.
The images of this exhibit show that frozen humanity, that silent crowd that populate many Second Life places; the gallery of their portraits could be seen as a collection of human types. It’s both an exercise of “street photography” and a kind of tribute to these pixel beings who can’t act neither talk.”

Impressions of “Ordinary People” by Melusina Parkin at Vibes Art Gallery (2)

Once again you find a table with the books sold by Melusina Parkin. It is located in the passage between the two rooms with the monochrome pictures. Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already:
Melusina All-in-One Exhibits allow you to keep at home the whole exhibit you visited and loved. It’s an alternative kind of the exhibit catalogue: you can hang the object on your home’s walls and enjoy the changing images. They come in four versions, that you can choose according to your home style: plain or framed, changing image by touch or in random loop. The objects are set as modifiable, so you can adapt them to your walls.

Melusina Parkin is in Second Life since September 2008. She has been a fashion manager, a journalist, a furniture creator, a builder, a decorator and a photographer. Her work as a photographer has been showcased in more than 50 exhibitions – from which I saw just a few. Melusina has a flickr account which counts more than 13,000 (!) photographs. Extensive collections of her photos can be seen also on her blog Virtual Exhibits and on some slideshows on Youtube (links also under this post).
There’s also an online book with her Second Life exhibits 2011-2019 here.
Melusina Parkin has an own gallery at Time Portal and an own store for Art Deco furniture called “Melu Deco”. Melusina also owns a second place (Melu Space) with another gallery (Minimum Gallery), a bookstore and another “Melu Deco” inworld store.

Impressions of “Ordinary People” by Melusina Parkin at Vibes Art Gallery (3)

Thank you for another great exhibition, Melusina. You extended your art carefully to another field not leaving your characteristic style. I enjoyed my visit a lot.
Many thanks to Eviana Raider (Eviana Robbiani) for providing the space for the art and for enabling this great exhibition. As far as Melusina knows the part of “Ordinary People” with the coloured pictures in the large exhibition hall  shall stay open for visitors until October 24th, the other part a bit longer.

Landmark to “Ordinary People” by Melusina Parkin at Vibes Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Isola%20Del%20Giglio/32/196/2711
Landmark Melusina Parkin’s Gallery at Time Portal
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Melu Space (Minimum Gallery, Melubooks, Melu Deco)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/192/9/21
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/243/99/1930
Melusina Parker’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusina_parkin/
Melusina Parkin’s Virtual Exhibit blog
http://meluphoto.blogspot.it/p/home.html
Melusina Parkin’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
On line book Second Life exhibits 2011-2019
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d