17/06/2021 ‘We’re working towards Afrofuturism’: inside a radical new NFT exhibition

The world’s first physical gallery for NFTs is hosting a new exhibition, curated by a 17-year-old artist, centered on Black creativity and liberation
Last modified on Wed 16 Jun 2021 20.34 BST

“The past four years felt so horrible. I think it all crashed down on me at that moment,” remembers Diana Sinclair, recalling how she cried before the media announced the results of the 2020 election. Sinclair, who describes herself (they/she) as a 17-year-old Black queer woman, says the action was unlike her, so much so it was jarring to her parents.

“It scared me to think that [the hatred] could continue on for four more years … You saw it online in the comments, even in my own town,” she told the Guardian. “I was on Facebook and I saw the horrible posts about Black women and Black people and just absolute bigotry from people that were basically my neighbors. It was horrifying ... I was going through all of these scenarios and [thinking about] what my future would look like in this country and that was very frightening for me as a young Black queer person.

“It was a scary time being a Black person in America,” she said. Then, they laugh sardonically: “It’s always a scary time, but especially then!” Now, as curator of the Afrofuturistic cryptoart show Digital Diaspora: Liberating Black Creativity, Sinclair examines hope through a vital lens. “The theme of the show is Afrofuturism, to express our hopes for the future. The philosophy of Afrofuturism is the idea that we’ll [black people] be here and thriving in the future,” she explained.

It’s hosted by Superchief Gallery NFT, the world’s first physical dedicated NFT gallery space. Produced by Towards Utopia and Foundation, the exhibition coincides with the Black American holiday of Juneteenth and envisions Afrofuturism through cryptoart by 18 global Black artists. Proceeds from the show and subsequent auction will go to the artists, Glits, a charity which provides free housing for Black transpeople, and HerstoryDAO (DAO: decentralized autonomous organization often used for cryptocurrency transactions) of which Sinclair is a founding member of, for arts funding for Black women and nonbinary femmes. Additionally, the art from Digital Diaspora will be displayed on the LinkNYC kiosk screens around New York City.

Jazmine Boykins AKA BLACKSNEAKERS – In The Summer, I wish to be with you.
Jazmine Boykins AKA BLACKSNEAKERS – In The Summer, I wish to be with you. Photograph: Courtesy of the artist
Sinclair states: “We’ve tried to give [the artists] as much of a platform as possible through this exhibition. We’ve tried to give them visibility through the public exhibition, through having their artwork all over New York City, through having one of the biggest NFT markets stand up and declare that they are behind this project and believe in bBack creativity and how we’ve been exploited in the past, understanding that and giving us a platform to combat that in the future … We’re working towards Afrofuturism.”

The exhibition, which came together in a matter of a few weeks, hosts vibrant paintings, photographs, illustrations and visual creations which imagine a future where Blackness and futuristic concepts collide. Kai Morton’s (artist name: KoiKai) contribution to the gallery is a piece called Nsoromma (Child of the Heavens). The piece features a purple Black woman with bantu knots in her hair and whose gold neck extends past the clouds, allowing her to look directly to the stars and a binary coded sky. “Afrofuturism is a portal that connects the past, present and future in a cyclical loop …” says Morton in her artist statement about the piece.

The artists of the show are separated by land and water, but threaded together by the internet, bonded in Blackness and united in art and Afrofuturism. “It sets a precedent for the evolution of Black culture in the genre of art. It allows us to move on from a constant outlook on past events as we’re being subjected to viewing a history full of Black trauma, something that we’re aware of and continue to experience … However, Afrofuturism is not an escape from the past, it goes above and beyond what we know and what we believe. Afrofuturism is a destiny,” said Jazmine Boykins, artist name BLACKSNEAKERS, an illustrator from North Carolina, in an artist statement. Latasha Alcindor’s (artist name LATASHA) artist statement, reads more succinctly: “Afrofuturism means Blackness in its oneness.”

Dada Boipelo - Ngano
Dada Boipelo - Ngano Photograph: Courtesy of the artist
Sinclair, a highly accomplished artist in her own right, entered the crypto art space in late February of this year, and noticed a familiar yet unsettling pattern. “When I first started in the NFT space, I really didn’t see many other Black women or Black artists in general. Also, when you look at who was being spotlighted by these platforms or people who are being consistently bought from, there was this [great] disparity. I felt like the Black artists in the space were not receiving their flowers,” Sinclair said. This prompted their decision to foster change in the space through curation. “In the traditional art world, which has been around for a very, very long time, there’s been time for those patterns and those systems of power to solidify and just become what it is. I think, with the NFT space, with it being so new and platforms still growing, figuring things out as well, and the community still growing, we are at this pivotal period, where we can break those patterns before they are set in. That’s why I think this project is so important; we’re saying that now Black art is important and giving them a platform now before we can’t get in the room to have these conversations.”

The art is radical. The space (or “metaverse”, as Sinclair says, using the parlance of the cryptoart NFT space) is radical. The frame, Afrofuturism, is radical. So is the goal, declares Sinclair:“The goal for this exhibition is equity. And equity will help feed into our liberation.” Even the date of the exhibition’s debut lends to the objective, observes the prodigious curator. “Although Juneteenth is about liberation from slavery in the United States … Juneteenth is such an important day when you think about Black liberation. I think that that’s what we’re aiming to do worldwide with this exhibition. We have artists from six different countries and we’re hoping that this will give them a level of autonomy and equity moving forward. In a way, that is liberation. That is freedom.”

The Digital Diaspora: Liberating Black Creativity will be on display at Superchief Gallery NFT from 18-20 June with an auction online

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Arts

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jun/16/nft-physical-gallery-afrofuturistic-cryptoart

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.
Who Is The Creator 2
The idea for this piece was borne out of a tweet of mine that caused a bit of a stir. I’d posted a link to a blog article I’d written a number of months previous titled ‘Who is the Creator’ discussing various types of creative collaborations and why I hire people to work on my animations. It generated a lot of debate around creation and attribution with the community split on whether it’s right or wrong for an artist to hire other professionals to help them realize their art projects. I decided to push the boundaries even further and see how the cryptoart community responded. What if I quite literally had nothing to do with the physical or digital elements of the work other than coming up with the concept and coordinating it? I decided there was one artist in the space who could add huge value to this idea on levels that none other could and so I gathered my courage and contacted the great José Delbo to ask him if he’d be interested in a very unique collaboration. I explained to him that to make this piece ‘work’ he couldn't have any say in what I produced and moreover, he wouldn’t even be allowed to see the animation until it was dropped on MakersPlace. To my surprise, Mr Delbo agreed to my proposal. The animation tells the story of the creative process, which includes my roles as writer, director, and producer working with a team and making edits and changes ‘in real time’. The dialogue between myself and my ‘hired guns’ plays out in front of the viewer. The music written for the piece adds to the nostalgia of the comic book superhero theme but other elements such as the snapping and kicking of the pencil and the signing of my signature at the bottom incorporates further layers and challenges the viewer to ask important questions, such as, is the ‘Art’ the final animation (the creation) or is the ‘Art’ the concept/credit for the creation itself?
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By OthersideDeployer
My Other Half | Inspired by Minecraft: The Last Minecart (2011)
Almost every year, we capture ourselves in a way that no photo or video is capable of: with a photoscan. If you dig through our archives, you'll find many of them and can see exactly how we change over time. Sam Gorski, Creator | I wanted to find the oldest scan of myself and put him side-by-side with Sam from the present. While it is hard to look at it and not miss the years past, at the same time, this gives me hope for the future by embracing and cherishing the change in my life. How would I have gotten this far without him? About This Piece | Sam on the left was captured in 2014, while Sam on the right was captured last week (2021). This work represents the personal, creative, and emotional journey in all of us, and the hope that ourselves tomorrow may be better than ourselves today.