I got an invitation to “Fragments” by Melusina Parkin, an exhibtion shown on a seperate platform of Milena’s Carbone Gallery @ Serena.
For the exhibtion “Fragments” Melusina Parkin and Milena Carbone have cooperated for the first time. Milena composed the texts, each piece inspired by one of Melusina’s images. Pieces of sentences that, put together, constitute an absurd story, but a coherent whole, like a journey of human life.
Together with the invitation I got a bunch of information. I have visited quite some exhibtions of both artists.
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.
“Fragments” by Melusina Parkin @ The Carbone Gallery
Melusina wrote:
“The image belongs to the observer. I agree with this statement made by the recent semiology and art critics. The reasons that an artist takes a photograph or paints a picture – or is compelled to do that – aren’t the same as those that open the observers’ way to find a meaning in them. Images are just incentives to seek unconsciously in our mind a memory, a meaning, a feeling we saved into the cells of our brain, codified by a mysterious chemical language. More ambiguous images are deeper and can evoke more complex thoughts or feelings.
My photos try to offer these “links” to the observers’ minds by representing simplified, “incomplete” images. Lonely places, empty rooms, absences, silent, still, small details that we usually neglect, when shown in a large size photo can have that power. Fragments of the outer world we live in take to fragments of our inner one.
Examples of “Fragments” by Melusina Parkin with texts from Milena Carbone (1)
When Milena proposed that I show my photos at her new gallery, paired with her written reflections on them, I was curious to know what kind of thoughts they would stimulate. The result of her careful observation has been stunning: her texts reveal even the most private sides of her soul, starting from pictures that don’t belong to her past life, but are linked to her own mind’s archive by multiple hooks : so she tells her stories about an object or a landscape, or even about a color, or a light, and those stories compose a portrait showing something placed between memory, reality, imagination, dream and abstract thought.
I wish that my images could have the same effect on visitors’ souls. No other aim would be more enticing for a photographer.“
Examples of “Fragments” by Melusina Parkin with texts from Milena Carbone (2)
The exhibtion consists of two parts – outside and inside. The provided landmark leads to the outside area. Melusina Parker’s pictures are featured on big single boards under the open sky. Chairs are placed in front of the boards so that you can sit down and look at the single pictures. A paved walkway leads you to a center screen, which shows the pictures one after the other in a slideshow – together with the texts, that Milena Carbone wrote.
As you walk along the paved walkway, you can read another accompanying text on the paving stones:
“My life is straight as a road through the desert, and this road never stops, it goes straight in circles, it ticks off the numer that never ends. If this desert were alive, my road would be twisty, facetious, chaotic and unexpected. But wem the human species, have sterilized and flattened the earth to satisfy our appetite for perfection, geometry, purity. And all of this, now, is boring like a gray day at the office. Boring and tiring. I am sitting on the bench, exhausted and sad. Here, a circle will never be perfect, Everything we see from the outside is a story. Your life, my life, our life are fragments of stories, nothing is true, nothing is holy.“
Examples of “Fragments” by Melusina Parkin with texts from Milena Carbone (3)
Milena Carbone’s texts are created using automatic writing, a surrealist technique. They are initially extracted from independent stories, sometimes autobiographical, often imaginary. Subsequently, they are reworked so that each text is linked to one or more other texts by common images, symbols or sensations.
The inside area contains what might be the other half of the pictures in a traditional gallery. In the center of the inside area you find a bookstore. 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.
“Fragments” by Melusina Parkin @ The Carbone Gallery – inside area with bookstore
Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena Carbone currently curates three own galleries: The Carbone Gallery, The Carbone Gallery @ Noir’Wen City, and The Carbone Gallery @ Serena. You can follow her on flickr and you can read some of her texts on Medium.
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 an own gallery, an own store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco“, 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 under this post).
Thank you both, Milena Carbone and Melusina Parkin for a this cooperative work, for a perfect combination of images and texts. My visit to “Fragments” was touching and inspiring – a great exhibition!
Landmark to Fragments by Melusina Parkin
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Serena%20Pontypridd/145/82/2071
The Carbone Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/172/158/3316
The Carbone Gallery @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
The Carbone Gallery @ Serena
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Serena%20Pontypridd/69/182/22
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s texts
https://medium.com/@539568
Landmark to Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
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
On line book Second Life exhibits 2011-2019
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d
Melusina Parkin’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 