CRYPTOCURRENCY AS ART - 2014-2021, S. SATOSHI
THE ART: Artist(Pseudonym): S.Satoshi Title,Year: SCARAB, 2015 Medium: Cryptocurrency Size: 100,000 pieces H.O.A: Hash of Authentication THE CRYPTO DIDACTIC STATEMENT: "SCARAB is not attached to a physical work of art or digital object because the cryptocurrency itself is the art, chosen by the artist to be, act, and represent the linguistic term of what an artwork is. Since Duchamp we have moved beyond the work, beyond the artist, and have dissected the interpretation directly from the audience. We say things like intrinsic value comes from beauty, comes from importance, but where the value really lies is in the belief of whatever story we’re telling ourselves at the moment. Sometimes the story is exciting and the value of that story's elements goes up and sometimes the story is dull and the value of those elements goes down. This is the way our world works by our design. By creating a cryptocurrency and proclaiming it as art we can clearly see the desperation of our self-made tales and observe the true reason for assigning an abstract value system on art, money, and things. Warhol reflected his time in culture with mass produced prints which materially are nothing more than fancy printed papers that narrated societies numbing love of commerce. So too SCARAB reflects the current age by announcing a progressive movement from materialistic things into an ever expanding illusory story of value. Just as work from Murakami, Picasso, or Pollock has gone from art to currency through the pretense of fame and story, with little being attributed to the actual materials of construction; SCARAB is at once both art and currency without the need for an illusory element, such as beauty, or fantastical tale to get it from art to value. It has no need for an artist or object, physical or not. It traps the ephemeral, aura quality in a work and shows it for what it really is." |