The decorated artist and collector explains his selections for the first DaïmAlYad Collection exhibition

by Daïm Aggot-Hönsch

The DaïmAlYad Exhibition features a selection of 8 artworks hand-selected by Daïm himself from his eponymous collection. We invite and encourage you to visit the exhibition in Hyperfy.io until its close in June 2023. In addition, please read more about The DaïmAlYad Collection and what went into its creation.

In selecting these 8 works, my choices were guided by a desire to highlighting pieces that resonate particularly strongly with me.

E sol by Hvrmemoirs, is a sort of Afrofuturistic Madonna icon, a genre that even prior to my conversion never had religious significance to me but always felt like a worthy and much-needed celebration of womanhood. I was immediately drawn to it when I saw it for the first time.

Seba Segel — Astronomer King: Kingdoms of Ethiopia by Yatreda ያጥሬዳ, like all of their work, feels uniquely suited to be realized as crypto art. Its dynamic nature and grounding outside of the usual narrow focus of the traditional Western art establishment make it a natural fit to crypto art’s greatest potential as a pro-social global movement democratizing art and opportunity through the combined forces of culture and technology. I also, in a perhaps grandiose way, see a little bit of myself reflected in the Astronomer King: While his inquisitive gaze scours the heavens, my own often searches the mathematical realm with no lesser wonder!

The Legend of Gondar: Movement of the Ancestors by Yatreda ያጥሬዳ, in contrast, feels like a vision of my own daughters’ boundless potential and a reminder of my responsibility as their father to nurture and empower them to reach for their dreams.

I — Buda by Sukrits25, along with the other two pieces of the series, are photographs of the parliament of my native Hungary. The building is one of the most powerful and widely-known symbols of the country and the culmination of more than a millenium of nationhood. Seeing it captured as artfully and with as much love and appreciation by a non-Hungarian, whose identity was not intimately tied to the subject, was a deeply affirming and emotional experience. The physical canvas prints of the series continue to hang in my living room, making me feel closer to my ethnocultural roots that continue to be dominant undercurrents in my thinking and way of life.

Rudo Rwaamai [Mothers Love] by VintageMozart is another Afrofuturistic Madonna, this time with children in arms, and beyond its overt aesthetic appeal, I perceive in it the very same deep beauty of motherhood that I regularly see in my beloved wife.

Wishing by AlienQueen is a powerful work rooted in personal and ethnocultural roots that touched me deeply as an immigrant living in a country that has long become home despite never ceasing to be alien to me. The joyful celebration that is this piece feels kindred to my love and nostalgia for my own past and roots.

OdinTree by Marshall Scheuttle resonated with me deeply on multiple levels: In referencing Yggdrasil with the title, the subject is thus dubbed a sort of “World Tree,” a concept that is native to my own culture’s mythology as well; but for me as a religious man, the powerful imagery felt more like a natural shrine, a sort of Terebinth at Mamre, offering a chance to emotionally commune with the ancients.

Last, but not least, Souls of the world #13 by NakulSharma07 depicts an Eagle Hunter from Kyrgyzstan. Hunting with Birds of Prey is another part of my cultural heritage, and demonstrations of the practice have always had deeply emotional impact on me. This Hungarian-Kyrgyz connection is no coincidence either, and the masterful photograph also reminds me that my deepest historic roots as a Hungarian not only do not end with Europe, but began in Central Asia and beyond with now-distant cultural and ethnic kinships to myriad lesser-known peoples.

Once again, we invite and encourage you to visit Daïm’s exhibition in Hyperfy.io until its close in June 2023. In addition, please read more about The DaïmAlYad Collection and what went into its creation.