The Trees of Paris by Melisa Teo
By Melisa Teo
90 Robertson Quay, Singapore 238259
This exhibition encompasses eight artworks from the series The Trees of Paris which are on display at Beasts and Butterflies from 8 July to 31 October 2023. This is the perfect opportunity to meet up with friends for drinks and food while discovering this beautiful and meaningful series.
For Melisa Teo, the camera is a transmitter and translator of light’s messages and photography a doorway bordering visible and invisible worlds.
Photographing helps Melisa blur the lines, borders, boundaries and definitions that separate humans from nature. In recent years, her fascination with the relationship between man and nature has led her from shamans in the forests of Siberia to anonymous figures in the manicured gardens of Paris, her adoptive city.
- 8 July -
- 31 October, 2023
At Beasts & Butterflies M Social Singapore
“Men have always felt a need to represent the invisible with the tangible. But rather than carve dead blocks of wood into symbols of the divine, why not direct one’s prayers directly at trees? Wouldn’t communication with the gods be better facilitated by living messengers? If the trees of Paris were substitutes for the metaphysical, then the gardens of Paris were my shrines. I spent days walking in them, finding consolation and company in their living deities. They became my faithful companions, always there, standing in for the absent ones whose presence I missed.”
Melisa Teo
About the Artist
Melisa Teo is a Singaporean photographer who regards her camera as a “third eye” which is guided by intuition to perceive a reality that eludes the naked eye. For her, the camera is a transmitter and translator of light’s messages and photography, a doorway bordering visible and invisible worlds.
Since 2008, she has been travelling through spiritual worlds in pursuit of the sacred. Her journeys have been documented in a number of books (Light From Within, The Light Beyond) and exhibitions (Dark Light, Eden).
In recent years, her fascination with the relationship between man and nature has led her from shamans in the forests of Siberia to anonymous figures in the manicured gardens of Paris, her adoptive city.
Melisa is a graduate from the National University of Singapore and worked in publishing before becoming a photographer.