HypeDAO started a collection of art from our community to support and promote member artists and NEAR NFT art. We wish to collect a variety of art from the very eclectic artists minting on NEAR so that we can showcase the full range of possibilities for artists, collectors, and the community in the NEAR ecosystem. As of the writing of this blog, we have had two rounds of collection, and we look forward to expanding the collection.
The collection exploration begins with two multimedia multisensory projects exploring two very different conceptual areas. The only similarity between these two pieces is that they both incorporate audio and visual elements into a single art piece. The emotional impact of the visual is amplified by the audio in both of these pieces and the voices of the artist bring a new depth to the visual experience.
She speaks, “I need to breathe,” in Portuguese. The words are looped and layered with the sound of gasping for air and wheezing. The haunting vocals and echoing audio is paired with an enigmatic sculptural image in Mailza Bernard’s I need breath. The viewer is drawn into a biomechanical object that evokes branches of a tree, lungs, and bronchi, medical machinery, something that is perhaps healing and sinister at the same time. There is no documentation of the materials used, but it appears that there might be wire, natural materials, and found objects.
The artist, based in Brazil, tells us that this piece comes from the relationship between the body, womanhood, feeling, and nature in the political environment of COVID and the Brazilian forests burning. As a Californian facing wildfires and the pandemic, I very strongly and personally resonate with this feeling. This piece truly captures a moment in history for so many people as many places around the world face fires, pollution, and air quality issues in addition to the air-borne COVID-19 virus.
There is also the aspect of gender and womanhood to consider here in this piece. We hear the woman’s voice saying, “I need to breathe,” and consider the burdens of environmental injustice, medical inequality, and chronic illness on women in many societies around the world. It is a complex issue beyond the scope of this small blog. Through this one art piece, we hear and see the call of one woman connecting her body to the local landscape and politics in a historic moment.
Stayed Human [A] by Bone Police x Strangetown is more recognizable as a song with a “music video” in the form of an animated gif. In addition to collaborating on the song, each artist contributed a video and each video was cut into five animated gifs. The intertwining of artists in collaborative work here is remarkable, and their sounds play against each other in the music and the gifs have a conversation when seen in a series. HypeDAO’s edition, [A] shows the human/alien character that we hear in the song forgetting how to be human and wanting to be heard. The music is reminiscent of 1990’s goth and alternative styles with a jangly guitar, synth sounds, and emotionally jarring variations in the harmonies. There is a strong feeling of a raw emotional age and a vibrant underground alternative cultural world where things are different and this human/alien character lives.
Now that the musicians have built a sonic world for this character, let’s spend some time with her. In this gif, we see red and blue lights with heavy dark shadows on a figure with teased hair and dark makeup. We catch her in a moment as she looks down, away, and closes her eyes. Lights and shadows move slightly as the figure moves her face and eyes. Her expression is neutral. It seems we caught her in a thoughtful moment or perhaps a private moment. Or perhaps this is just the expression of loneliness and the difficulty of reconnecting to humanity after feeling disconnected for so long.
As I write this it seems strange that we associate these very common and identifiable feelings of loneliness and disconnection as being alien or not human. Being human is to be social and emotionally connected to other people. Being alienated is to be socially distant and emotionally disconnected. Being alienated and feeling like an alien and even thoughts and feelings of leaving are such a common and almost universal human experience. It seems unfair to any future extraterrestrial aliens we might meet to label them with our human emotional baggage. When I hear this song and watch the gif I want to reclaim the humanity in these dark feelings and bring people back into connection.
Art brings people together with the expression of common feelings and experiences across time, distance, and social borders. Even though the content of these two artworks is very different they are relatable and emotionally moving expressions. HypeDAO’s collection is made richer with these two pieces and the whole NEAR ecosystem benefits from supporting artists such as Mailza Bernard and Bone Police x Strangetown.
