Melu has opened two new exhibitions that – once again – follow seamlessly from her exhibitions “Art Deco Ladies” (read here) and “100 Retro Ladies” (read here) and continue the thread. The two new exhibitions are shown at Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery.
“Kisses” is the exhibition on the 1st floor, “Broken Mirrors” is shown on the 2nd floor.
I didn’t count the pictures, I estimate that both exhibitions consist of roughly 40 pictures. I started my visit with “Kisses”. As the name implies, the pictures show couples who kiss each other, in this case two females kissing each other. All woman fit into the art deco era. And all pictures of “Kisses” have a calm neutral background, making the spectator focus on the kiss and the faces. Taking a closer look you can see how different the faces are, how different the kisses are, some full of passion, in other pictures the lips don’t even touch each other.
Melusina wrote a text about “Kisses”:
“Kisses don’t need any explanation, or introduction. Just look at these glamourous ladies and at their love. These images celebrate the short era when all did seem possible. Later hte tragedy ome on, and then many years had to pass before freedom and desire would be allowed again. They are a tribute to all those brave woman who had taught us the actual meaing of the word ‘love’.“
All featured pictures can be purchased at the exhibition itself. There’s a vendor at the end of each of the four series.
On the 2nd floor is the exhibition “Broken Mirrors”. Melusina wrote about this exhibition:
“Mirrors are fragile and it’s very easy they get broken. Nonetheless even a broken mirror can be helpful. Try to look at your image on a broken mirror, You could be frightened or intrigued: you can think that the fragmented image you see says that your are overwhelmed, destroyed, cut in pieces by your problems, traumas, issues. Or you can see those fragments at the different part of your self, and seeing them can be helpful for knowing each of them better and trying to make them living together and interacting successfully.
The power of AI images allowed me to show many ways to be reflected in fragments. The retro ladies depicted in these images wear different dresses and different hair, they have different expressions: they represent the many ways you can approach and unusal and maybe unsettingly image of yourself.“
The images of “Broken Mirrors” are quite different from what I saw of Melusina so far. Each of them takes the theme from another view. Some are very serious, make you think of the the thoughts the woman might have looking ito the broken mirror, others are funny – and all are very artful. It’s for sure an unusal theme – and again Melu used AI in a very creative way.
I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melusina Parkin’s style is minimalistic. She usually 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. Lately she tried out different things, in particular she explored the possibilites of creating art based on AI generated pictures.
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” 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 these exhibitions, Melusina. I enjoyed both, “Kisses” and “Broken Mirrors”
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery – and to “Kisses” and “Broken Mirrors”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/129/107/621
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Melu 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
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 