My Tezos Journey — Part 3
My first solo show ‘Spectre’ happened in winter of 2021 at the gallery EXPERIMENTER. It was a dream fulfilled for an Indian artist and especially one based in Kolkata. It was also one of the hardest things I’ve had to accomplish in such a short amount of time. I presented 3 installations — Radiation, Spectre and Almost Immersion. The influence of Web3 was an undercurrent to the whole show conceptually but even visually because I’d linked all three spaces together through a hue control algorithm that changed every hour. Something I was messing around with during my generative art making time on fx(hash).
Right after that I participated in a large group show in New Delhi, held at the oldest art gallery in the country Dhoomimal Gallery, where my installation ‘Dimensions’ was on display with some of the most important artists from India. It was during this time that I was invited to visit the India Art Fair and saw something that took me by surprise.
The first thing I saw when I walked into the giant fairground was the ꜩ symbol. The Tezos India team had come out to represent a collaborative AI project in the workshop hangar. This was also the I first saw the newly launched naan wallet at work. Wallets to me had only been a laptop/desktop thing till that point, so it was pretty cool to see something so sleek coming out of India and being used for giveaways.
I spent more time at the Tezos India booth than anywhere else during India Art Fair, finding solace in the fact that I was actually surrounded by people that knew what FA2 was, and were actively developing major projects on the blockchain. Tezzardz even made an appearance on a slide during the NFT panel where Om Malviya, president of Tezos India was speaking. I probably confused a few people when ‘woohoo-ing’ from the audience for a humanoid cartoon reptile.
A month later I got a call for an interview to lead the Tezos India Arts & Culture initiative. I’d a 15 year history of working in production and management of contemporary arts & culture in my city so the opportunity to do more for artists by helping them understand the Web3 space was amazing. TIAC began its activities in August and now I get to share my love for this technology and art in a way not imaginable before.
Which brings us to the present day and the naan collection. My approach to collecting work on Tezos will always be defined by that summer on HEN. A lot has happened since then, especially with new platforms and new forms of art. When I was invited to curate the collection I went back into my wallet to map out the different phases in the history of this blockchain and its artists. My intention is to not just collect art, but to reveal work, and try to use words to explain their context after collecting them. I also want to show people through this collection the works that are being created around the conceptual marketplaces that are doing so well on Tezos. Generative art on fxhash, pixel art on 8bidou, ASCII art, poetry and prose on typed art and whatever else emerges over time, this is something that I’m looking forward to jumping into with nothing but enthusiasm.
Stay tuned for more more as we dive into the naan collection.
About naan
The naan app is an easy & secure way to explore digital art on Tezos. Download now on iOS & Android!
Website: naanwallet.com
Twitter: twitter.com/naanwallet
Discord: discord.gg/wpcNRsBbxy
