11/05/2022 Madonna and Beeple Collaborate on NFT Project

The pop singer spent the last year working with the digital artist on a video series about motherhood. Proceeds will benefit three nonprofits.

A still from Madonna and Beeple’s NFT artwork “Mother of Creation” (2022), part of a video triptych they created.
A still from Madonna and Beeple’s NFT artwork “Mother of Creation” (2022), part of a video triptych they created.Madonna and Beeple

Has Madonna embraced the blockchain?

The pop superstar’s interest in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, caught some fans off guardin March, when she paid 180 ether, a digital currency worth $560,000 at the time, for an NFT of a tattooed ape from theBored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of digital art.

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On Monday, the singer released her own NFT series, titled “Mother of Creation” — three digitally rendered videos that recast her as a nude woman giving birth to flora, fauna and technology. The artworks are the result of a yearlong collaboration with Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple.

“This is such an absolute, insane honor,” said Winkelmann, who is known for selling an NFT in 2021 for$69 million at Christie’s. “I don’t do many collaborations. This is probably the only one I will do for a very long time.”

From Wednesday through Friday, Madonna and Beeple’s NFTs will be auctioned for charity through the online marketplaceSuperRare.

“It’s counterintuitive to who I am,” Madonna said in a phone interview, explaining that her initial struggle with the concept of digital assets made her want to explore what she saw as the elements of faith and community that drive the NFT market.

From there, Beeple and Madonna developed three videos in which audiences have a full-frontal view of Madonna’s avatar giving birth to different organisms from a hospital bed, a rusted vehicle, and a forest floor. The singer has paired each video with poetry — some her own and some by the mystic poet Rumi.

“I never want to be provocative just for the sake of provocation,” said Madonna, insisting that the butterflies and centipedes she gives birth to in the video mean something. “They stand for hope. They stand for technology.”

Proceeds from the NFTs will benefit three nonprofits supporting women and children: theVoices of Children Foundation, which cares for those affected by the war in Ukraine; theCity of Joy Foundation, which helps survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo; andBlack Mama’s Bail Out, which provides bail for incarcerated caregivers.

The charity auction comes at a time when the NFT market’s future remains uncertain.

John Crain, a founder and chief executive of SuperRare, said that his company did $10 million in sales last month compared to a $35 million high set in October. He sees the discrepancy not as a sign of the NFT market’s demise but of its maturation.

“It’s been a frothy year, but marketplaces are inherently volatile,” Crain said. “There are fluctuations, but I wouldn’t call it a bear market.”

Arts

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/arts/design/madonna-beeple-nft-videos.html

Interesting NFTs
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
#88779
By OthersideDeployer
Brave Samurai
This is the second collaborative piece that I have created with the very talented Dutch artist, @eattheart23. Here, a samurai warrior stands guard, honour bound to protect his master even to the death.
Iconic Crypto Queen
(Virtual) blondes have more fun, right? #iconic ICONIC (Adj.): of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an icon. Widely recognized and well-established.
WITH BLOOD
Music by Pablo Castaño Norkus