Just what do gin, digital art and folklore have in common? Not much, you might well think. Yet #FolkloreThursday was recently invited to a curious event that blended these seamlessly, conjuring images of the apothecaries of old.
Saatchi Gallery showcased a new NFT digital art collection commissioned by purveyors of the peculiar, Hendrick’s Gin–who say that they’ve always been involved in the arts, and creators they admire ‘are now producing work that doesn’t fit in a traditional gilded frame’. Their cleverly-named event, G&(NF)Ts, culminates in an online auction to support young artists, with proceeds donated to Saatchi Gallery Learning to further its education programmes. Their learning programmes aim to ‘reveal the possibilities of artistic expression to young minds, encouraging fresh thought and stimulating innovation such as NFTs’.
Four pieces of digital artwork were exhibited from different artists: sculptor Polly Morgan, spoken word artist and commentator Raven Smith, plus established digital artists Ray Caesar and Jake Elwes.
The collective aim? To explore one of the most unique summers many of us have experienced–and two of these have a folkloric bent.
Persephone
By Ray Caesar
Ray Caesar is an English digital surreal artist who lives and works in Arcadia, Canada. He is represented by Gallery House Inc. Ray spent 17 years working in the art therapy program of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where he chronicled everything from child abuse, re-constructive surgery, to the heroic children that deal with the hardship and challenges that life has to offer. Caesar’s experiences deeply influenced his artwork, which is digitally created using 3D modelling software, mastered while working in digital animation for television and film industries from 1998-2001.
‘The piece I created for Hendrick’s Gin is called “Persephone”. The story of Persephone has always intrigued me as she took what was forced upon her and made the underworld itself into a heaven for the blessed-on Earth. Her story is one of empowerment and making the best of a bad situation. The very concept of making a hell into a home was created by Persephone and instead of waiting to be rescued by some hapless hero she turned hell itself into a heaven by sheer will and determination. In this piece the Goddess of the underworld is awaiting the arrival of those coming to the underground station of Elysian Fields. The realm of Elysium is the part of Underworld reserved for the Blessed and the Heroic and Good. The work is about the loss of loved ones to the pandemic and Persephone being the Goddess of spring and new growth is a symbol of hope after a hard winter. The promise that spring and growth will return and that all seasons have cycles is central to the myth. The helmet or mask of thorns is a sign of protection from harm. Persephone is sometimes depicted as the ruler of the underworld and sometimes as the wife of Hades but its obvious in any version of the Myth of who was really in charge. Persephone, who was known for her gentle kindness had Hades on bended knee and had him create light and hope in the land of darkness and death by simply having a vision of kindness. Poor Hades …he simply had no idea of what he was getting himself into when he brought light, love and hope and kindness into his dark realm.’
See it on Rarible.
O(a)k Computer – Midsummer Night
By Jake Elwes
Jake Elwes is a media artist living and working in London. Trained at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, his recent works explore his research into machine learning and artificial intelligence. His practice looks for poetry and narrative in the success and failures of these systems, while also investigating and questioning the code and ethics behind them.
His current works explore AI bias by queering datasets with drag performers. They simultaneously demystify and subvert AI systems.
‘O(a)k Computer – Midsummer Night’, is a virtual journey through an old oak tree on Hampstead Heath, as well as a sound piece which has been generated using an artificial intelligence trained on the British 60s band – The Kinks.’
See it on Rarible.
Summer
By Raven Smith
Raven Smith is a London based cultural commentator and bestselling author. Named the ‘Del Boy of Content’ by the Financial Times, Raven uses his social media channels and columns to examine taste, modern living and pop culture via irreverent essays and Instagram posts.
Raven was formerly commissioning director at Nowness and has written columns for Vogue and Sunday Times, as well as contributing to a variety of other publications and national broadsheets. He is quoted by many as the funniest person on Instagram. His first book, Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits, was a Sunday Times best-seller.
‘I love summer as much as the next guy, but this summer hit different. It felt like a series of pleasant but disjointed vignettes, rather than an overarching narrative. I wanted to print a still from our snapshot summer.’
See it on Rarible.
Originals In
By Polly Morgan
Polly Morgan is a British artist living and working in London. Self-taught with no formal education in art, Polly Morgan works in taxidermy, concrete and polyurethane. Polly won the 2021 Royal Society of Sculptors First Plinth public art award.
She is persistently drawn to the deceptive qualities of veneers that are used to conceal or protect something less desirable or durable, and of snakes’ skins; designed to provide camouflage or to imitate more deadly breeds.
Social media and the Covid pandemic provide the context for her latest work, for which she uses the decorative hides of snakes and the trompe l’oeil designs in nail artistry to probe the disparity between surface and reality.
‘We poured our unruly flesh into rigid structures, coiled up tight and locked the door. Some of us got bruised ribs just from breathing, others had room to get fat. Seams squeaked with the dual desire to fit in and stand out. Contorting awkwardly to meet ever-evolving social strictures, our avatars took over; slicker and quicker than we could ever hope to be. Was your home a sanctuary or a snake pit? And which of us were venomous anyway? Was the threat greater outside or in? We wanted to be protected, attack, hide, reveal ourselves, scare and delight. But we never cracked. Or did we? Watch closely as we hatch.’
See it on Rarible.
The auction ends on the evening of Wednesday 22 September 2021.
