Collection Info
Documentary Video
Work Statement by E.J. Hyun
When I first started looking into the crypto / NFT scene, I was fascinated by the developing trend of PFP characters. Especially the emergence of cryptopunks and BAYC stood out to me because they opened aways for self-identity and reflection to be unique, aside from biases that follow our real human traits, such as, race, gender, age, height, nationality, so on and so forth. Often in the art world, the physical background of an artist induces a particular read of the artwork, because it reflects their personal histories imbedded within the narrative of their background. However, as myriads of PFP started gaining traction, I wondered, could PFPs serve to reflect our identity of human-ness? (Maybe acquiring collections and collections of PFPs have become something like our grandparent’s series of small porcelain sculptures of Mother Mary and Jesus?)
Instead, could it be possible to imbed certain physical characteristics of human-self and digitalized identity into an amalgam? The series of NFTs created for Vasari DAO is consist of images that are derived from my own skin. Different image scans of my skin were removed from the body into a digital medium, then repurposed into paint. These paint-like skins were then collaged on to layers of paper sculpture that would reflect a rendered head-like mass. I feel like our digital identities (even My Space, Facebook, Instagram, Tic Tok) are devices in which transplants physical images ourselves into pixelated skins. Through these series, I wanted to deconstruct my questions on digital identity and skin into material process and a reconstructed result. Perhaps, digital identity itself is an empty canvas and a container for values to be built upon by ourselves as both viewers and users.
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