By MajikVixen (bluevioletvixen.lorefield)
“And What Say The Dreams?”
Have you ever been so at one with art, that you ate, slept, and breathed it, just for starters? A lot of what draws us here to Second Life, is the beauty to create and share, so this seems a very obvious answer, but I wanted to share my experience of DiXmiX Gallery with you, anyway! You see, this place called to me, all my senses were stimulated by the unrelenting aesthetics here.
When I first arrived, I was greeted by the colorful and lilting tree branches, encompassing a very practical and modern looking building, made for beautiful presentations. I was drawn in, by the many poetic pieces that reminded me of things you'd find in one of Tool's albums, a touch of Marilyn Manson, things found at TheHappyPencil dot com, or something similar. Whatever the case may be, I was immediately taken back to a very wondrous and emotional place in my artistic past, and I felt ALIVE again.
When I later came back to do a tour with the very kind communal curator, Dixmix Source, he talked about how long this gallery has been in SL and what made him decide to do this, "We opened September 17th, but before, we had another dixmix gallery in another land ... We had to move because we had too many ppl at the opening, so we needed a no limit avatar place for our event (even though the limit is still 100, as per Linden Lab rule). You know before, I was not into promoting stuff, I was sending some notices to art groups and invited my friends, the gallery was not even in search. With this one, it's a bigger project, about art, but also, a place to hang around, to make pictures, and take a drink."
I then asked Dixmix how he decides on what artists should go into the gallery and how often it changes, and he thoughtfully responded, "How I decide hahaha, feelings ... I have to be impressed by one picture, then I'm looking if his/her production is quality, if there is a style, then I talk, and see if we can do an exhibition together ... the 'together' is important. I've been invited so many times in some gallery where the walls were not even nice to pop up the picture, and the owner says 'drop what you want' ... it's fine... But for me, here, I want to be involved in what we are showing. Artists usually like to be helped with their selections, and I push them to produce more exclusive pieces. After some weeks of the opening, and artists being in articles, I will begin to change one of the galleries every 2 weeks."
At the beginning of the tour, Dixmix explained that all galleries have two floors (even though we would mostly stay on the ground level). In the entrance is their thematic room, now occupied by the amazing SL artist, Ariel Brearly. "...all these pics are from my inventory. I bought them through the years, but later this year we will have Ariel with new work here," he commented, "Later we will have different themes, like black/white pics from different artists, or pictures from a sim, or pieces based on a word." I asked Dixmix how he found Ariel, and he replied, "How? Dunno. I saw an exhibition of her maybe 6 or 7 years ago, I bought some, then more at another exhibition, and I bought some other pictures by Ariel too, then we become friends. And we organized an exhibition of her work at Crimarizon's gallery (it was a sim, built by Megan Prumier - co owner and builder of this gallery too). Megan also built a lot of sims, one of the famous ones being Deadpool - Metropolis city."
I was then taken to a room in the South, with a little bar and one amazing coffee machine. I clicked on it, and was then able to select my poison *grin*. Dixmix remarked, "We created this gallery after some others (all were dixmix gallery named), but this time we wanted to promote art as usual, but also have a nice place to hang around. Since the opening, many bloggers are coming here to take the pictures... it's full of nice chairs, and some little details that Megan created and rezzed here and there, to warm up this modern building."
Then continuing on the tour, Dixmix said, "...then we have 3 areas (the black, grey, and white gallery that we named like that, not because of their walls, but because its shade of monochrome ...and even if we will have colored exhibition, it's a photography theme I really like so much). The black gallery is occupied with Grazia Horwitz photos, it's her first exhibition in SL, and I found her in Flickr. As a curator, I select her pictures, and drive her to produce a lot of new ones in the direction I show her. My curator's job is not only to invite artists and let them go, I'm talking with them, I'm sharing ideas about how it has to be hanging on the walls, and of course it has to match all together. Some photographers (like me) have many different genres of shooting (portrait, surreal, landscapes, erotics) but I always want to make a strong selection, and all pics of an artist match in a series."
Hard to pick a favorite, but I did mention how much I loved the sculptures. "All the scupties are bought by us, and most of them are from the Italian sculptor 'Mistero Hifeng,'" Dixmix replied.
In the East, we approached the Grey Gallery, and Dixmix said, "On the walls of the grey gallery, we invited Ziki Questi, who is a SL art blogger, and we have been attracted by the quality of her photography, so I asked her to show 7 of them (as you can see the selection, the blue ones are downstairs and the sunset upstairs. I should also have sepia, pink, or green, but I want to have an 'ensemble' (in French), a collection." Questi's style reminded me a bit of a mix between Salvador Dali and Mark Ryden.
Continuing Eastward, we came upon the White Gallery. "...in the white gallery are my pictures, a selection of monochromatic sensual photos. Works on the light and the darkness. And behind me my favorite chairs (very personal ) hahaha," he proclaimed about Megan's "NOMAD // Sea Mine Chairs." Love the black and white and limited color erotic photographs in this collection, they massage one's thoughts after having visited the previous works.
Then we stabbed Westward into a cozy and spacious room Dixmix called "The Atom," and Dixmix told me, "...it's our party room. For openings, we always have live DJs, but we will also have live musicians playing here too. Even our tip jar has been made by Megan, and is a piece of art. People like to touch it and drop some L$ to support us hahaha. This is one of our permanent galleries (the other one is up here). In this one it's Megan's choice (and I asked her to have this collection of her pictures)." ...This place would be perfect to mingle and talk about the feelings the artwork in the gallery has provoked.
We trudged forth, upstairs and sat in front of a mesmerizingly mechanical memory game. "...Up here, it's my choice and I select again, in my inventory, from the stuff I'm buying or have received, from artists that had an exhibition earlier in my gallery. Some games you can play with are here and there, also. People will discover it when they will take the time. Come back 10 times and you will still discover new stuff."
I asked Dixmix, at the end of our journey, if he gave these tours to everyone, and he replied, "I did a lot ... we build the gallery early August, but with vacations, we wait until mid September to open it, so I invited some art blogger to make the tour before, and since the opening I'm trying to have a SL magazine like yours... It's good to have press before an event, but also after, because we will always have events here, artists will change. And making the tour with people helps me to find my way here too (laughter)."
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then I bet the first hand experience is priceless. Go and see what thoughts and feelings can be brought to the surface of your being, when you live for a few moments, at DiXmiX Gallery ...Your inner poet craves this nourishment. ♥
Additional Information:
SLURL:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20Port/45/235/22
URLs:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/dixmixgallery/pool/
https://dixmixgallery.wordpress.com/
Personal Gallery:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10mix/
Group: DiXmiX Gallery (Group Key: 1f0de95d-9c3b-df47-9b79-db1d8af5c00a)
Preferred contact: dixmix Source
Majikvixen
