Diomita Maurer’s Blog

On March 6th, A new installation of Theda Tammas was opened at the Womb at DixMix Gallery – Aspara.

I visited on Sunday, March 7th. The Womb is a seperate platform in the skies above the gallery. The teleport is right next to where you land.
Once you’re on the platform you should adjust your viewer settings: graphics to ultra (or to the best your system can handle), enabled advanced lighting, enable sun+moon and projectors. You should also use shared environment (top menu “world” -> “environment”). Then you’re almost set to visit. Almost? Yes, enable music, it adds a lot to your experience of this installation.

Theda Tammas – Apsara @ DixMix Gallery – bird’s eye view

The environment is all in red tones. When you walk behind the wall with the recommended settings you will see the installation. Bascially it is a court surrounded by walls that look a bit like books. At one side is kind of a stage. What you see are dancers. I didn’t count them, I think there’re about 10 dancers. One is performing on the stage and stays there. There are 2 groups with 3 dancers who stay at one spot while dancing. The others move. There is enough motion to keep you busy watching, and enough stability to calm and relax, in particular together with the music: “shamanic drums, deep trance humming meditation, shamanic meditation music for stress relief”

Theda Tammas – Apsara @ DixMix Gallery – Impressions (1)

Apsara? I looked it up on wikipedia:
“An apsara is a type of female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist culture. Asparas figure prominently in the sculpture, dance, literature and painting of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. There are two types of apsaras: laukika (worldly) and daivika (divine). Urvasi, Menaka, Rambha, Tilottama and Ghritachi are the most famous among them.

Theda Tammas – Apsara @ DixMix Gallery – Impressions (2)

In Indian mythology, apsaras are beautiful, supernatural female beings. They are youthful and elegant, and superb in the art of dancing. They are often wives of the Gandharvas, the court musicians of Indra. They dance to the music made by the Gandharvas, usually in the palaces of the gods, entertain and sometimes seduce gods and men. As ethereal beings who inhabit the skies, and are often depicted taking flight, or at service of a god, they may be compared to angels.” (excerpt from wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara)

Theda made a great choreography. I don’t know how the mesh figures are programmed to dance and to move, but it looks naturally and enough randomized to provide the impression of living dancers. You should see it yourself. I found a video on the internet. It has been provided by Violet Boa.

Theda Tammas is in SL for almost 14 years. She has had already some exhibtions of her work. I couldn’t find out a lot more about her. If I interpreted it right, then she’s from Brasil (I might be wrong though). Theda has an own website where you can see a lot of her former installations.

Thank you Dixmix for providing and curating the DixMix Gallery, thank you Megan Prumier for building it and for contributing at it. And thank you Violet Boa for the video, that porvides an even better impression of this installation than any picture can do. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to DixMix Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Madori%20Bay/46/213/22
DixMix Gallery website
https://www.dixmixgallery.xyz/
Theda Tammas website
https://bytheda.weebly.com/
Video of Thada Tammas – Apsara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHZVuWFBsos&t=29s