Activism is not a word one typically associates with NFTs. Blockchain work may have continued art’s tradition of leveraging new technologies, generating hype through artificial scarcity, and questioning all that has come before, but it’s left the propensity for political protest largely offline.
One platform bringing activism to the blockchain is Artwrld, a project launched in early 2022 intent on collaborating with thoughtful creatives on provocative pieces. Its initial roster of signed artists suggested an intention to counter the NFT scene’s saccharine optimism with works of sociopolitical commentary. So far, it’s followed through.
First came Walid Raad’s “Festival of Gratitude,” a series of spinning birthday cakes dedicated to the 20th-century’s most notorious dictators, complete with sparklers, candles, and confetti. Now, it’s the turn of Turkish artist Ahmet Öğüt, whose “Monuments of the Disclosed” commemorates nine whistleblowers with their busts hovering over concrete pedestals.
“Ahmet has worked across a variety of media to imagine and put into place critical artworks of resistance and imagination,” Kerin Sulock, Director of Production, told Artnet News. “We thought he made for a perfect artist to work with.”
On December 15, the collection of 99 unique NFTs will mint publicly.
The NFTs are 3D monuments—designed in gold, silver, and bronze—with augmented reality functionality, meaning a few taps on a smartphone transports the whistleblowers into physical space....
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s years-long campaign to undermine faith in U.S. elections has gained broad traction with the American public, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, p...