Saturday night at the Museum of Modern Art’s first Mixx party—a new series of events that pairs visual art with dancing and boozing—the segment of the crowd partial to leggings and booties was drawn upstairs like moths to a flame.The young women were transfixed by a video installation produced by the fashion and art collective Fly 16x9. Short silent films featuring scantily clad runway model–types acting freakishly were projected onto the wall; wearing a veil, one pushes a stroller down a deserted street, in another scene a group of them devours a chocolate cake.
In the confluence of Gossip Girl extras, wearing a black SS visor cap, a bearded middle-aged man was doing pelvic thrusts to the sounds of DJs Andy Butler, Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter.The man, a Scottish hair stylist named Raymond McLaren said he had left the mainstream fashion world to work with Fly 16x9, because they care more about art than money. “Art is getting more important every day!” Stephen Blaise, who runs the collective, was clad in a blue sports jacket and refused to give his age as he was greeting one of his actors, Lisa Cady, a 20-yearold redhead. As it turns out, deep themes lurked behind the visual candy, Blaise explained. Clutching at the air excitedly, he interpreted each stylized images through the prism of isolation, madness and death. A smile creeping to his lips, he looked out at the crowd and admitted: “they don’t necessarily understand what they’re seeing but it raises questions.”
Wearing a black cocktail dress over black leggings, Skye Monson, a 24-yearold from Utah, kept her eyes fixed on the video as she stood at the bar. Placing the palm of her hand on her heart she said, “It’s a very beautiful description of life in New York.” Pausing for a moment, she added softly, “I don’t know if that’s how they meant it.”
