Day: February 15, 2024

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

– In Memoriam A.H.H (1850) Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The above words, written in the 27th Cantos of Tennyson’s elegy to his friend (and lover?) Arthur Henry Hallam- who died at the tender age of 22 -, have become something of a modern proverb since they first appeared in that poem. They are often offered in consolation to someone who has lost  – through death or other departure – a person who has meant so much to them.

The words, whilst generally sincerely meant, likely don’t come as much comfort for anyone in the throes of loss; rather they likely sound like a hollow consolation, such is the hurt, the loneliness, the sense of desolation which tend to overwhelm us at such times. However, the poem is more than a trite 2-liner; through its cantos, Tennyson expresses a range of feelings and reflections on the passing of his friend and a poetic essay on the cruelty of nature.

As such, it has much in common with Mihailsk’s latest exhibition, which opened within the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery operated and curated by Dido Haas (and which served to introduce Mihailsk’s art to the world of SL art exhibitions back in 2021 – see: Mihailsk’s Baptism of Fire in Second Life). Like that exhibition, this latest, entitled Lost is a highly personal selection of art, dealing as it does with his coming to terms with the lost – or rather, disappearance – of his Second Life partner.

Within it, and like Tennyson’s poem, Mihailsk explores the rawness of emotions as the loss is felt and the resilience of the heart which allows us to (perhaps) eventually accept and move forward in life. However, where Tennyson used 2,916 lines of iambic tetrametre, Mihailsk uses his marvellous, minimalist monochrome style (his lingua franca, if you will) across a dozen images to convey a similar depth of emotions, feelings, prayers and wandering thoughts as found in Tennyson’s poem. Each image is a poignant canto in its own right, elegantly conveying its feeling and sentiment even without recourse to skilling out its name via the Edit floater.

These are pieces which, so artfully created as they are, in places enfold a heartfelt sense of the artist’s inner emotions and sense of self whilst also reflecting his outward feelings and sentiments. Elsewhere, they reveal the wellspring of hurt and loss only one who has loved deeply can perhaps feel – and the resilience born of that love which can, in time, allow that person to look back on what has been lost and accept the proverb of Tennyson’s words as true.

Just take, for example, Take Care, and Be Well. Both offer kind sentiments to the one who has vanished, each with its butterfly symbolising taking flight to a new life / escape; at the same time, they both evoke a sense of loneliness and loss through the shadowed figure, standing either with hands thrust dejectedly into pockets or leaning against a bicycle with its promise of travels – but with nowhere to go. Then there is Wish, evocatively capturing those shadowed moments of hurt and want; when the one wish is to have all back as it was – whilst knowing it can never be so; or Mute Pain, perhaps the rawest of the images in terms of its emotional tone and impact.

And just as Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H carries broader themes within it, so too does Lost bear witness to the wider truth that whilst Second Life might well be a fleeting realm of digital “make believe”, the emotions and feelings we bring to it, or which are stirred within us as a result of our interaction here are as genuine, lasting and impactful as any we might experience within the physical world. Indeed, they may well be worse, in that this world is unique in the way people can simply vanish, leaving those who remain without any knowledge of why or where they went – or how they might be, physically and mentally. Thus loss here can be shrouded in the additional hurt of just not knowing.

Powerful, emotive and with a beating heart of love, strength and resilience, Lost is a stunning collection of images wrapped within very personal feelings which should not only be seen, but absorbed like the words of an elegy. When visiting, do be sure to view Adwehe’s sculpture Revival of Psyche, made especially for this exhibition and which helps underscore its emotional content.

SLurl Details

• Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated Moderate)