Works I feel strongly about.
Hand Touching Stones, by Eva Papamargariti: https://foundation.app/evapapamargariti/hand-touching-stones-3249
This is the kind of gif that should only exist on Tumblr while you’re scrolling through your dashboard. It has a charming stupidity and absurdity to it which I admire, but of course it just has to be sold using ether. It baffles me as to how it exists, and I want to know more about it and why it was created.
Captivates me: Pain: https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/9589
This piece is the kind of thing I’d see literally made by children when they first start out on MSPaint, posted to their first Deviantart page. It’s either a true piece of angst or is a wildly authentic feeling recreation of one. I lean towards the latter given the title, description and tag are all “Pain”. Even so, it brings me back to an earlier time, and given its on hit et nunc I’m a little less irritated by its existence. If the artist can really sell it for 5 tez per edition then more power to them.
I detest: Yosemite Falls by Coldie: https://superrare.co/artwork/yosemite-falls-1201
It makes my blood boil to see this person wax poetic about a time before fires ravaged the west coast, how the clouds of this piece symbolize a better future, etc etc etc while engaging actively in using one of the more environmentally dangerous cryptocurrencies. This dogshit piece is selling for 15 ether @ list price. Visually, it’s perfectly serviceable. In fact the clouds and burnt edges of the piece could mean a lot if it wasn’t destroyed by its own oxymoronic, ridiculous ignorance.
Dog “Dark Companion” by Konogatari: https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/9475
This one is charming!
Overall, the landscape of NFTs seems to be dominated by easily consumable artworks. In my experience, I didn’t come across a piece of art that not only made me think (there were a few of those), but invited me to think. (Both about it and the world around us.) There were a lot of tech demo looking pieces, many of which were rough enough that it was almost uncomfortable to look at. Under this umbrella were also generative artworks, but many just looked lazy and uninspired.
I found a lot of photography as I was scrolling, but much of it had those ‘sketchy’ filters overtop to make it look artsy. This feels like instagram except it kills even more of the environment. These marketplaces with perhaps the exception of hic et nunc make me sad because there could be some incredible opportunities for artist friendly marketplaces online, but we get this instead. Anyways, back to the photography: it’s all wallpaper shit. A high contrast photo of a contact lens. A picturesque view of the Tetons. It feels, again, bland. There were some photo collage works that looked more thoughtful and less like screengrabs from google images. I actually felt something looking at those.
I think right now, the vast majority of NFT artworks are cashgrabs. I don’t have any high opinion of what art should be, I don’t need to be chastised for thinking art should be x, y or z. These marketplaces, primarily Superrare and Foundation, really seem to be catering for the easiest dollar. The lowest apple hanging on the tree that looks ripe. It’s frustrating, and I want to see more illustrative works but at the same time..I think that would be even more frustrating. I can feel a bit of separation between myself and works shown there because we do different styles of art, if the work I do was represented more obviously there, I think it’d just be more heartbreaking.