Art in Second Life 2023 (20) A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin @ UASL

16 Apr 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

Melusina Parkin invited me to her newest exhibition “A minmal gaze” at United Artists of Second Life (UASL) Galerie Principale on the 1st floor.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’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 Melusina has tried out herself and other themes and techniques. She made pictures of ladies (read here), she played with AI generated pictures (read here and here), or she reduced her pictures to black&white only (read here). With “A minimal gaze” Melusina returns once again to her traditional pure minimalistic style.

Impressions of “A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin @ UASL (1)

Melusina wrote about “A minimal gaze“:
“At this moment I’m experimenting AI generated images, but I don’t give up my passion for minimalistic photography. So I selected this series, collecting images of details seen in many SL places, to whom I wanted to give the dignity of photograph subjects. That’s what I always have done in these 10+ years of photography: enhancing and proposing what all of us could see and very often don’t “feel”. Minimal details talk of solitude, of uniqueness, of a kind of strangeness, like when we repeat a word until it looses its meaning, or acquires another one. Without a context, a detail can appear meaningless, but this senselessness can be rich of different possible meanings. Isolating a detail – making the usual unusual – does mean taking possess of something and giving it the meaning we want.“

“A minmal gaze” consists of 20 of these objects, which Melu gave a prominent place for us to look at them. That might be the view on a calm see from a window, a fence, a chair with a piece of clothes at the beach or a bus stop. It might be a pipeline, a warning beacon, the branch of a tree, a sun umbrella or a washling line with some clothes drying outside. No matter what it is, simple everyday objects in Second Life (and in Real Life) are the stars of the exhibition.

Impressions of “A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin @ UASL (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” 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.

UASL is a unique artist group in SL that hosts opportunities for visual 3D, 2D and performance arts in it’s full region area at no cost to the artist. UASL is funded primarily by donations and by Riannah Avora. Thank you for enabling this exhibition.

Landmark to A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin
United Artist of Second Life – Galerie Principale
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Karpov/128/53/64
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Melu Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/129/107/621
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

Art in Second Life 2022 (99) Zia Branner’s art at United Artists of SL (UASL)

09 Dec 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , ,

I got an invitation from Zia Sophia (Zia Branner) for a new exhibition of her art in the Gallerie Principale at United Artists of SL (UASL).

The exhibition is on the groud level of the gallery and consists of 10 pictures.

Zia’s exposed pictures in this exhibition are abstract. They impress by their colours and forms. The human brain tends to sort the impressions and to compare with known patterns. Sometimes you think to see landscapes, like a beach or like a waterfall and at other times you see persons or faces, or stones, hands or theeth. Zia’s art is for sure an eye catcher in every liging room. 

Impressions of Zia Branners exhibition at UASL

“Zia Branner had many drawing and painting art lessons at official institutes RL. She is also autodidact on things that did not come along in class. To her making art is a way of life. Often experimenting with techniques as a learning process …. The most important thing to her is that it makes her happy to see others enjoy her art as much as she loves creating it.“
Zia is in Second Life since 2008. She uploaded her RL paintings into SL. Zia owns an art gallery/shop “Elven Falls Art Collective“. Zia also has other permanent exhibitions at The Galleries, Emergent and at Carmel Art Community.

Zia Sophia (Zia Branner)’s motto is : “The Earth without ‘art’ is just ‘eh'”

UASL is a unique artist group in SL that hosts opportunities for visual 3D, 2D and performance arts in it’s full region area at no cost to the artist. UASL is funded primarily by donations and by Riannah Avora. Thank you for enabling this exhibition.

Landmark to UASL Gallerie Principale and Zia Branner’s exhibtion
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Karpov/128/51/62
Zia Branner’s art gallery/shop “Elven Falls Art Collective”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Elven%20Falls/252/41/22
Zia Branner at “The Galleries”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Georgiana/241/100/57
Zia Branner at “Emergent”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mystique%20Isle/191/20/21
Zia Branner at “Carmel Art Community”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/McFarren/236/161/36

Art in Second Life 2021 (83) “Marking the Twain” by London Junkers

07 Sep 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , ,

After my visit to the exhibition “Sinners and Saints” (read here) I had contact to London Junkers, one of the artists who contributed to “Sinners and Saints”.

London invited me to see his latest exhibtion at United Artists of SL (UASL). The exhibition is called “Marking the Twain“. At the entrance you get an important hint “Welcome to London Junker’s Marking the Twain, to enjoy this installation better please use midnight setting or use Shared environment, then read the story in the poster on the entrance billboard. Thank you. enjoy.”

I won’t publish the whole story here, as it would spoil your experience, just a few words to understand what you can see and experience when visiting:
“Standing atop that old steamer boat with clouds touching us while we flew across the skies; his face was familiar, rigid and wise, and he looked majestic against the thin line on the horizon, where the gray light exploded in a boom of colour with his presence.
He was the captain of that ship. THe captain of that creature I was riding on my way South. And I guess I was a cadet under his command…..
His name was Samuel, oh yeah, I remember that name, and boy if I loved the man who owned itm and all those Summer days and starry nights, when we went on all our adventures, together, marking the twain.”
(London Junkers)

Impressions of “Marking the Twain” by London Junkers (1)

The installation has just a few elements. There’s the big old steamer boat that flies over the water and touches the cloulds. It is a big boat and on the upper deck you can recognize Samuel, standing there tall and confident having full control. On your way to the steamer boat you may notice a fisher on the shore. But he’s not fishing fish. Intead you see letters floating on the water.

Some ink drops into the water from a big fountain pen .. forming the letters.. that will once become a story. You must just fish the right letters and put them together in the right way. One who was alble to do that was Mark Twain. The steamer boat with all it’s details stands for his most renowned story about Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. I admit I only read this one book of Mark Twain,

You can find some details on the steamer boat, like the golden bell in front of it. Or like benches with books from mark twain laying on them.

Impressions of “Marking the Twain” by London Junkers (2)

The installation along with the beautiful written story is one piece of art, they belong together.

I’ve never been to United Artists of SL (UASL) before: “UASL is a relaxed group of artists in SL that share and communicate regarding various art events and opportunities open to the artist community. We encourage people to use their imagination and to continue to learn different methods of creating art. We fully support other artist groups. As well, we manage and host our own events. This is for art related events, not club or DJ events.”
UASL offers several different areas for artist to experiment or to exhibit. UASL has a management team consisting of Riannah Avora, CheloBaron and RainCat Furstinna of North (vihmakass).
For more information either visit their website or read the notecard that you will get when you visit “Marking the Twain” by London Junkers.

Thank you London for your installation. I enjoyed my visit!
Thank you UASL for enabling this installation.

Landmatk to “Marking the Twain” by London Junkers @ UASL
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Karpov/127/127/62
United Artists of SL (UASL) website
https://unitedartistsofsl.com/