I got an invitation of Melusina Parkin to see her newest exhibtion “Fading Melu” at Melusina Parkin’s Photo Gallery.
I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’s style is minimalistic. She takes her pictures in Second Life. The minimalism forces the spectator to focus on details, that might stay unseen when too much distracts the view. “Fading Melu” is a different exhibition, something I have not seen before from Melusina Parkin. The exhibition consists of 22 portrait pictures (if I counted correctly). I assume from the title that Melusina selected for this exhibition that all portraits show Melusina herself.
“Fading Melu” is shown at Melu’s Photo Gallery right above store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco”. In the center you find a table where you can purchase a photobook about “Fading Melu” as well as a free catalogue of all photobooks published 2021-2022 and a free book with the exhibition posters 2010-2021.
Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already. Melusina makes one of every exhibition. The book about “Fading Melu” is sold at the exhibition, all others are sold under her brand “Melubooks” in a seperate book store: Melubooks shop.
Impressions of “Fading Melu” by Melusina Parkin (1)
The portraits are all blurred – faded. That is another way to force the spectator to focus on details. It is also a technique to inspire the spectator to add details that are not visible from own experience. For me personally in most of the pictures Melusina looks a bit mysterious. And if I were asked to estimate a time period I’d say that most of them look a bit 1920/30ish. My personal favourite picture shows Melusina with big sun glasses and a red scarf. The blurring makes the portrait look very real and you can see that there’s something in the background (other people?). Quite intriguing. Melu picked the backgrounds for her portrait picture intentionally, some are also just plain black.
Impressions of “Fading Melu” by Melusina Parkin (2)
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, “Melu’s Photo Gallery“, where “Fading Melu” is presented 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.
Thank you for another great exhibition. I enjoyed my visit and seeing something unexpected different from you, Melusina.
Melusina Photo Gallery
Landmark to Fading Melu by Melusina Parkin
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
Landmark to Melu Space (Minimum Gallery, Melubooks, Melu Deco)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/173/25/22
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
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 