MAX PAIN AND FRENS BY XCOPY
GM FRENS!
Some things just can’t be contained, and our excitement for XCOPY’s return to Nifty Gateway this Thursday, March 24th is one of them!
No better way to kick that off, than by enlisting the help of one of XCOPY’s esteemed collectors, the grand patron of digital arts, Cozomo de’ Medici to ask some of the burning questions you’ve always been curious about.
Earlier this week, XCOPY and Cozomo de’ Medici had the chance to connect for an exclusive Q&A and we are thrilled to be able to share this dialogue with the rest of the community.
Q. Do your parents know you are XCOPY? How about IRL frens?
A. Haha. Yes my parents and a handful of friends know.
Q. You’ve been making digital/crypto art longer than just about anyone. What originally made you excited about digital over physical?
A. I’m always on the computer, this was making art in my natural habitat! Tumblr gamified art for me. The platform environment shaped the art, I made gifs that fit within the limitations and made them move to stand out from the other content on the feed.
Q. Flash forward to now. Some feel NFT is becoming “over commercialized”. How do you feel about this new rabid interest and the wild market moves we’ve been seeing?
A. I love it all, mainly for the reactions it brings out in people. I love that a random project can come out of the blue and resonate with so many of us. At the same time, others are shaking their fists because the art isn’t their cup of tea.
Q. You recently surprised everyone, including me (!), when you made your famous work, ‘Right-click and Save-as Guy’ public domain. What inspired you to set him free?
A. Once the image is on the internet it’s kind of absurd to tell people what they can and can’t do with it. Do we want platforms to build an AI that stamps out anything similar to Mickey Mouse etc.? I don’t want that.
Q. An evil demon comes along and makes you burn all of your published crypto art except for 3 pieces. Which are they?
A. Changes every day but right now, ‘summer.jpg’, ‘Gods of Tesco Metro’, ‘Mortal’.
Q. If you were to morph into one of the characters in your work, and you were stuck as that character forever, which would it be?
A. ‘Some Asshole’. For sure.
Q. You’re known for not revealing much about your art, and letting the work do the talking. That said, collectors like our fren Phon Ro speculate that there may be a “through-line” in your 2018 works…e.g. “Some Asshole” is a banker, who on a “Death Dip” gets got by the reaper while taking his “Last Selfie”. Then, since he has a “Coin for the Ferryman”… he gets taken across the river during an “All Time High in the City”…. Only to end in “Post Debt”. Would you like to confirm or deny this storyline? Or add to it?
A. I like to keep the art open to interpretation. Leaving some space for imagination makes it more fun. The first 12 NFTs I minted on SuperRare were intended as a set though. I wasn’t sure if there would be any more after that!
Q. What is the inspiration behind this new NiftyGateway drop?
A. It’s inspired by the chaos, adrenaline and risk in this space. I tried to inject some of that into the drop.
Q. My favorite prior Nifty Gateway work of yours has to be “Mortal”. If someone is reading this and feeling like they are that soul stuck in the cage, what life advice do you have for them?
A. Never stop rattling the cage!
Huge thank you to XCOPY and Cozomo de’ Medici for being part of this experience.
XCOPY continues to raise the level with his artwork and mechanics and we are honored to have such an amazing artist on our platform.
Drop Time: Thursday, March 24th beginning at 3:30pm EST — see you there and until then, happy collecting!
