The icon of pop is celebrated with an NFT collection: discover nine Web3 artists’ tribute to David Bowie!
David Bowie, the timeless artist who helped define the pop genre in the 1980s, is now appearing on OpenSea with the ‘Bowie on the Blockchain‘ collection.
The project involves the launch of a series of NFTs entirely dedicated to the White Duke. NFTs, or non fungible tokens, are digital products whose uniqueness and value are guaranteed thanks to blockchain. The NFT trend, which took off in 2021, often involves traditional artists such as singers, performers and painters. It opens the door to new horizons of digital art.
Continue reading this article to discover details about NFT’s new collection dedicated to David Bowie!
Bowie on the Blockchain: details of the collection
The ‘Bowie on the Blockchain’ project was conceived by the David Bowie Estate, an association that manages the artistic heritage inherited by the White Duke. The initiative came about thanks to a collaboration with OpenSea, one of the most important marketplaces for NFT purchases, and the We Love the Arts project, founded by Andrew Keller, artist manager and founder of the We Few Group company operating in the art consultancy sector, and filmmaker Joaquin Acrich. We Love the Arts is entirely dedicated to the digital works of Web3.
The proceeds of the initiative will be donated to Bowie’s widow, Iman Abdulmajid, and her charity CARE, a humanitarian organisation that has been working against poverty and gender inequality worldwide for almost 80 years.
The NFTs were developed on the Ethereum blockchain and will be available for purchase through Opensea’s marketplace. The launch of the collection, initially scheduled for the 13th of September, was postponed until a later date due to the sudden death of Queen Elizabeth II. This decision has been criticised by many David Bowie fans: in 2003, the artist refused the title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire, offered by Buckingham Palace.
This NFT project dedicated to David Bowie involves numerous artists already established in the world of crypto art. The peculiarity of the initiative is the heterogeneity of the digital works, created by artists with very different styles. There are specifically nine NFT artists who contributed to the project. FEWOCiOUS, Defaced, Glam Beckett, JAKE, Jonathan Wolfe, Lirona, Nadya Tolokonnikova of PussyRiot, Osinachi and Young & Sick.
Some of these names represent the most important personalities linked to the NFT sector. FEWOCiOUS, at only 19 years old, has managed to earn almost 18 million dollars with his digital works. Growing up in an unfriendly family environment, he was able to express his emotions and communicate with others thanks to NFT. The artist himself has described himself as a big fan of David Bowie.
On the other hand, Osinachi is an artist who grew up in a country with a strong interest in NFTs : Nigeria. His style is distinguished by his collage-like, brightly coloured works.
On Twitter, some artists have decided to share small details about the NFTs they have developed. However, at the moment, it is not possible to view the entirety of the piece previews leaked by the artists and wait for the official launch of the collection.
One of the early pioneers of the Web? David Bowie’s interest in technology
The decision to create an NFT collection to honour David Bowie lies above all in the artist’s interest in the world of technology and the web. In the 1990s, when the Internet was beginning to make its way into everyday life, the singer not only launched his official website, but also his own Internet Service Provider. With this service, Bowie gave his fans the possibility to surf the net safely and quickly and to access exclusive content about his private life.
Bill Zysblat, the artist’s former manager, commented on the initiative in an interview with Billboard. He states David Bowie would certainly have been one of the first artists to exploit the potential of Web3.
Although the initiative is exclusively aimed at raising funds for charity, the news of the launch of the new NFT collection has turned quite a few noses within the David Bowie fanbase.
The announcement of the project was heavily criticised by some users on Twitter. Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son, commented negatively on the initiative, criticising the use of NFTs as a fundraising tool.
More and more artists are getting involved in the NFT world
The NFT collection about David Bowie is certainly not the first crypto initiative launched by prominent figures in the music world or in honour of great personalities now deceased. The Non-Fungible-Tokens, in fact, are not exclusively drawings or graphic works, but can also be entire songs.
In May 2022, Snoop Dogg, the US based rapper and leading representative of the g-funk genre, and Steve Aoki, a US based DJ, launched an album available as NFT. The tracks can only be listened to by holders of the Snoop Stashbox or Aokiverse Passport NFT token, who were created by the artists to celebrate previous events.
Even Madonna, ‘The Queen of Pop’, decided to launch her own NFT collection in May 2022, consisting of three pieces of digital art.
The project, entitled ‘Mother of Nature’ and available for purchase on SuperRare, was created with the cooperation of Beeple, a well-known NFT artist. As with David Bowie’s collection, the proceeds from the sales of the works were donated to three charity organisations: The Voices of Children Foundation, The City of Joy and Black Mama’s Bail Out.
With ‘Space Oddity’ in our headphones, we can only await David Bowie’s arrival on the blockchain.
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