The Heiress

It was a great pleasure to be able to setup a 3D exhibition for this series in the metaverse, I would like to encourage everybody to check out this exhibition in the metaverse and then leave us feedback here or on my Twitter: https://oncyber.io/heiress

I chose the abandoned church I suppose in the tradition of a lot of the great galleries in London which come out unexpected locations like Whitechapel and White Cube. There’s a feeling of a connecting to the relics of history with the space, time forgotten ruins that are reconstructed and contemporized, much like the way Senju and I go about our respective practices and what brought us together.

Preview available oncyber above, Full drop on Foundation

Senju’s work has become very popular on instagram because at first glance it is traditional Japanese art of the highest quality, but then the longer you spend with it you notice subtle influences of the present which begin to make themselves known to the viewer. Before long you realize you are in the grips of a contemporary artist, what still may not be evident until further inspection into Senju’s process is that he’s creating all this not with traditional Japanese brushes, but with a digital pen. Pretty astounding and hard to think of anyone who is working in this way, so successfully.

This new medium working with fine artists and adding that performative aspect to the work with my poetry would not have been possible in any other medium other than NFTs. Anyone whose been following my social media knows I was experimenting with this sort of new media on my social media for a couple years, but never to this extent and with these production values. NFTs have provided a frame for spoken word poetry and fine art to come together much like these elements come together in cinema. So all of that has been a very natural progression for me and the work that I’ve been doing.

I can probably only describe the sort of poetry I write as being Neo-Romantic. Lord Byron is one of my favorite poets, his work Don Juan was reflective of his statues as the bad boy of the Romantic poets. The great seducers throughout history, have all had in common a sense of taboo, between an obsession with the pursuit of pleasure and by contrast the appearance of restraint. I wanted for the performances to be non-linnear and not at all to feel like a poetry reading. I want the abstract soundscapes to work on the subconscious like a dream and for the piece itself to be calmly hypnotic, I’m going to continue working in this way, the goal is to see if this experiment will have a deeper and more complete experience for the viewer both with poetry and with art.

The other actor in the piece is Cynthia San Luis who did an amazing job with her voice performance. I wanted to give both characters much of the same dialogue as the power dynamics and control is passed back and forth between the masculine and the feminine although the feminine energy is mostly the one taking the reigns throughout.

Obviously as a classically trained actor its been a real blessing to have an outlet to practice my craft, but even after the theatres and the cinemas return to life post-Covid, I will continue to work in this way as well.

I want to give a quick shout out and a big thank you to NFTipi (Clarina) for hosting our drop party on Clubhouse on Wednesday and to everyone who showed up and participated in the event, it was a great experience for both me and Cynthia to take part amongst such supportive community of artists!

View the full drop here on Foundation

2021 is the New Era for Spoken Word Poetry

Up until just this year all forms of poetry were considered really niche and the realm of hobbyists, but since Amanda Gorman rocked the world with her inauguration poem, spoken word has become something more than a local cafe interruption. Gorman’s chap book ”The Hill We Climb” became an Amazon best seller for the first time in the history of contemporary poetry. 

Hussain Manawer introduced the BAFTAs, paying homage to every nominated film seamlessly weaving throughout the narrative.

David Bianchi and myself found a new home in NFTs, respectively. Before I go into David’s work more in depth, it’s evident we both offer very different things to the landscape of contemporary, spoken word poetry, and nft performative art. My work has a relationship to the past and a questioning of the classics, my goals is to contemporize the fine art tradition for our time and to hold myself accountable to the same standards that I would with a Shakespeare play or a film. I’ve always had a strong connection to paintings, sculpture and the fine art tradition through my family bonds (my mother the painter Stephanie Fuller and my father the late art critic Peter Fuller), attending art openings was a weekly family outing growing up. I won eight awards and 35 Finalist placements at writing competitions in the last year for my screenplay based on his life, MODERN ART. NFTs have become such a collaborative medium and there it really is hard to think of any other time in art history where this would have been possible to put together so many diverse disciplines much like we do in film. Fine art and poetry have shared a very similar emotional space, in particular with the likes of Baudelaire who regularly wrote poems in response to the art of his time and was also a notorious art critic. But never before was there a medium which allow the blending of these two mediums into one piece, allowing a verbal narrative or soundscape to the visual. NFTs allow us that freedom. David Bianchi and I came up around the same time, both actors and poets in our own right - I minted and sold my first spoke word poetry collaboration with artist Sima Jo “Childish Force Of Nature” on March 20th in my collection Elysium Verto: https://opensea.io/collection/elysium-verto-v2

Parts I-IV all sold on Opensea for 0.333ETH each, Parts V-VII will be revealed at an upcoming group exhibition honoring the Ocean on Kalamint. I’ve been so impressed by their ecological inspirations and of course carbon neutral technology. I’ve partnered up with Charitas Foundation who will be matching any charitbale contribution I make to Ocean conservation through the sale of my NFTs on Kalamint. The exhibition will also feature collaborations with my mother Stephanie Fuller celebrating whales in the fight against commercial whaling.

This NFT is also presently the only way to get ahold of my Novella THE FORTUNE, an allegory for commercial whaling.

A collaboration with GAN artist Doodle Dips called “Winged Urchins” will also be featured alongside a number of new collaborations celebrating the beauty of nature.

Around the same time I got started, David minted “I Can’t Breathe” in honor of George Floyd - David’s work is about social justice and giving a radical contemporary voice to these important issues in society regarding diversity. So I would like to pay respects to my fellow poetic warrior and give him the space to tell his story here:

George Floyd's death sparked an outcry heard around the world. 

Actor / Poet David Bianchi’s film, “I Can’t Breathe” (directed by Award Winner Ryan LeMasters) gives an honest and painful portrait of a man of color’s view on America’s new civil rights movement and the pain of black history in America.

The film was broadcast live on KTLA 5 News Award-Winning Series “Breaking Bias” and was covered in the elite Hollywood trade Deadline. The film has roused critical acclaim across the country.

"A gut-wrenching view at the pain of America. A Cinematic poetic force of nature."

                                               - Deadline - Hollywood.

--Poetry Excerpt--

Is it really not enough when the rubber bullets fly

When the world is enraged from watching a black man die?

Gasping for breath and says I can’t breathe

His esophageal tube collapsed under a man’s knee.

Is it really not enough to wake in wake of hate

Perpetuated by a system dating back to negro slaves

Beat that black man make him pick cotton

Shoot that black man he looks like he’s up to something!

Is the American fury not enough for you

Crowds plowed by vans driven by the men in blue?

Who do you call when the cops are the killers?

When the body camera footage shows you murdering my brothers and sisters

Is the execution of man still not enough for you

Jury judge and executioner by the man in blue!

You look down at us for behaving like an angry mob

If every man is created equal what gives you the right to play God?

---

"These times are calling for understanding. The global movement to abolish racism is here," said Bianchi. "I tell the story honestly to offer a hopeful perspective on why the fury runs so deep."

David says, “Spinema is the culmination of all things I am as an artist. I am an actor, a poet, a screenwriter, film producer and film director. Spinema at its roots incorporates the rhythmic poetic word that operates as the script. It uses all the languages of cinema (picture, light and sound) while evoking elements of sometimes subtle, sometimes visceral performances through evocation of the rhythmic deliveries. Spinema requires a specific kind of on-camera-poetic-talent that can affect the nuances of the language, while being modest to the sotto nature of cinema. 

 There are no limits to how these important stories can be told in both traditional cinema and in the metaverse. The metaverse provides a unique never before utilized platform for Spinema that is yet unknown. This is a new, but not final frontier. However, it promises the deepest possible interaction with audience members like never experienced before.” 

David has a library of completed films and his next mint is a film starring Malcolm-Jamal Warner alongside him.

His films will continue to be minted and very auction will donate money to a charity associated with the theme of each film. 

Sold for 5ETH to MetaPurse: WATCH - I CAN’T BREATHE - HERE > https://ephimera.com/tokens/i-can-t-breathe-a-spoken-word-film-by-david-bianchi-267

FIVE FAMILIES - THE FIRST FEATURE FILM NFT

The first ever Feature Film NFT. Offering participants the opportunity to be a part of the filmmaking process through the crypto and Blockchain world. Launching on Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/five-families

NFTs have disrupted the art world, now people are calling for film to step in, we agree. It is the natural progression to this technology. We see so much potential here for artists to make something on their own terms, and to make the films they really want to make. Independent film has been a wild west sector for so long, it can take years to find a home even with a world class script, but bump into the right person at the right bar at Cannes and suddenly your life could change. It shouldn’t be that way, we’re hoping this lends more of an organized ecosystem to the film development process. More of a meritocracy for the best projects to gain traction and build a community of participants who are all rooting for its success.

Five Families, like Whiplash before it, started its life as a short film and a festival favorite. Critics and audiences responded to the timely themes of police corruption, the new generations surpassing the old, the authentic cinematography, carefully underwritten screenplay by Adam Cushman and Barry Primus (The Irishman), David Proval (The Sopranos), Christopher Redman (The Purge) and Laurence Fuller (Road To The Well.) New comer Joe Blute was Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Award in the film. Unlike many films focused on the mafia this piece relies on the drama, the storytelling and the performances to drive the narrative.

“Five Families finds its drama without the need for hits, beating, and gunplay. For a mafia film, acting is its primary medium… Well worth ten quick minutes of your time.” - Film Threat ****

Adam Cushman’s vision is savagely poetic and nuanced yet is unrelenting with its tension, akin to that of Animal Kingdom or The Irishman.

“A tense and terse little piece, Five Families sits somewhere around a genre I'll call 'upstate noir'. The slightly more than suburban desperation of The Place Beyond The Pines, the rust and regret of Blue Ruin, the tinnitus and tedium of Copland.” - Eye For Film ****

“Adam Cushman wrote an incredibly powerful script blending a poetic literary style with a traditional gangster film aesthetic, he’s taking the best of that nostalgic gritty Seventies cinematic values and updating it for our time. There’s no doubt the themes in this piece regarding our relationship to the police and when lines are crossed is incredibly timely. I loved working with Adam on this and the feature screenplay that he sent me afterwards takes the story to another level entirely. How he managed to the underworld with such poetry is beyond me.” - Laurence Fuller

Laurence Fuller is an actor and screenwriter with lead roles in feature films including Road To The Well, Apostle Peter & The Last Supper and Paint It Red. In the last year Laurence has won 8 awards as a screenwriter for his biopic script about his late father Modern Art, which has now been picked up for development. His first venture into NFTs with the fine art and poetry collaborations at Elysium Verto Collection quickly expanded into his passion for film and he brought together filmmaker Adam Cushman, crypto influencer and trading expert Crypto Tony and Blockchain entrepreneur Louis Messmer. Find him on Twitter @laurencefuller

“When the guys approached me with the idea of making movies through the NFT community, I got excited. No profit margins, development meetings, casting ultimatums, turnaround, or any of the typical bullshit that goes on in the world of traditional movie making, just art generating art in a community of artists and art lovers. I'm thrilled to be connecting with the NFT community in the creation of Five Families. This story is close to my heart and it began as a short film that we made two years ago. Most people who see the short agree there's a larger story here and can see it as a feature film. Five Families isn't a typical gangster picture. It's not based on a true story and it doesn't have anything to do with the real life Five Families on the east coast. Our story is about the last generation of Jewish career criminals, those who are on the fringes of organized crime in Southern California, who were associated with OC, but for the most part labored among the middle class. It deals with themes of family and heredity, darkness and inner violence, as well as history, identity, and the current epidemic of police violence against civilians. It asks who the real criminals are in a time where law and order has been turned upside down.” - Adam Cushman

Adam Cushman is a writer and director whose recent work includes the feature films The Maestro (starring Xander Berkley) and Restraint, and the short crime drama Five Families. He's the founder of Film 14, and his books include Cut and Critically Acclaimed. Find him on Twitter @Film14Trailers

“When Laurence approached me because he recognized a sense of keen appreciation for the innovative new world of NFTs, our initial conversation was only about his projects in the space and to compliment my curated collection of digital art. We quickly realized though that a shared vision existed and the plan was hatched to bring me on as a producer working with Adam and his remarkable vision regarding “Five Families.” For me, nothing could be more motivating than a new innovative approach to filmmaking that gives unlimited power to the creative essence of collaboration. It is a method that resonates with my belief of artist integrity first and foremost and I truly believe we will find a pure form of art through the energy that an entirely community funding film project will produce. I am so confident in Adam’s talents and of the remarkably talented cast in this production there is little doubt in my mind we are about to witness a historic success for independent film and the genesis of a true innovative work of art. Every investor in this project will become intimately tied to it in a way that has never existed before, and this is what our project will encapsulate in essence. Untethered creative expression combined with the power of community spirit and support.” - Louis Messmer

Louis Messmer is the CMO of BME (Blockchain Music Entertainment.) Through two assets MP3 (for musicians) and MP4 (for videographers, creatives of all kinds and influencers) BME uses cutting edge bonding curve technology on the blockchain to revolutionize direct fan to artist funding. With a set of soon to be released social media dapps (decentralized applications) BME will put the power to create back in the hands of the people and not the industry. Louis has also been a curator of gems and minerals for the past several years with his business The Mineral Collective as well as a collector for over two decades, helping source fair trade specimens and geologic oddities for thousands of top clients worldwide. You can learn more at www.mp3finance.com/ and https://mp4.social or find us on Instagram https://twitter.com/LaurenceFuller/status/1379984073347633152?s=20 and Twitter. @mp3finance & @mp4social

Five Families - The First Ever Feature Film NFT launching on Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/five-families

Tony has been trading Cryptocurrencies for several years, becoming one of the top crypto influencers and loves every minute of it. Find him on Twitter: @CryptoTony_

Five Families - The First Ever Feature Film NFT launching on Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/five-families

Adam, Laurence, Lou and Tony will be launching the NFT during a live Clubhouse on NFT.Tips this Saturday, April 10th @ 5pm - Q&A panel including cast from the film and Hollywood Legends Barry Primus and David Proval.

Fine Art & Poetry NFTs

The Rhinocervs, 1515: its Frankenstein like appearance patched together from a chain of whispers, the stories of others who voiced their experience. The sailor, the merchant, the aristocrat, on the journey across new lands to discover and seek fortune, but more-so to seek a story. Dürer pieced those stories together and out of it formed the beautiful image of a Rhinoceros. It’s not perfect by any standards - it’s a completely imperfect mongrel of a creature, and that’s why it is the best Dürer woodcut. For the strangest of lockdown circumstances I found myself at Caeser’s Casino and Resort on the Vegas strip staring at an iconic woodcut on the walls of the new Park West Gallery. 

A tweet pops up on my iPhone screen, news of Philip Hoar’s upcoming release of his book “Albert and the Whale,” about Dürer’s mission to see a whale with his own authentic eyes. Looks brilliant. I scrolled down to see I had sold my first NFT, Part I of a collaboration with the oil painter Sima Jo and my poetry, called “Childish Force Of Nature.” The buyer was another artist, Cr24ti7e. An amazing feeling, every artist of any medium should experience this! I asked myself “what questions would people have asked in the time of Dürer’s woodcuts about reproductions on paper?”

Above are Parts I-VI of Childish Force Of Nature (as well as an exclusive look at part VII), most of the NFTs are sold to NFT collector JAX13579 (our other collectors include Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokno) but you can still check them out here https://opensea.io/collection/elysium-verto-v2

I scrolled further, John Cleese has released the most hilarious NFT of all, a ridiculous sketch of the Brooklyn Bridge - which must have taken all of five seconds to make. Not that brevity got in Picasso’s way. But I hope Mr. Cleese the comic, and cultural icon whose work across several mediums has more than inspired me since childhood, doesn’t mind me saying that his talents have yet to extend to draughtsmanship, in this case and that was certainly not his intention here anyway. But I still bid on it. I have since unfortunately been outbid by an NFT collector named JeffBezosForeskin to the tune of $36k. 

I scroll further to see two of my favorite art critics chiming in on the huge Beeple NFT sale at Christies of $69M splashing across the headlines, they say the price is ridiculous, these are bubble prices and it can’t possibly be worth that much. Makes sense. They end by with the message that maybe eventually NFTs will be a good thing and more of a stable market that makes sense, but it will take time. 

I sell the first ever Shakespearean performance as an NFT for $600 to collector NFTBUZZ. Here’s why: One of my favorite characters in any story, Iago is the master of manipulation and pulls apart the house of cards he sees around him. I wouldn't want to be his friend for all the world, but it's delicious to watch him weave his web around Venice and around us.

I remember when I was first starting out as an actor being obsessed by the great actor's audition stories, Laurence Olivier's tutor walked up to him afterwards and pressed his finger between his eyes saying that he had an insecurity above his nose. I was so curious to see everyone's audition pieces when it was my turn to do the rounds, the myths that were created in those moments. This was one of my Drama School audition pieces before I got into Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the journey began.

I ask Jerry and Waldemar’s opinion on Elysium Verto Collection, championing Fine Art and poetry in NFTs, they like and wish me luck. I scroll on:

What Jerry says here really resonated with me and I thought about it more today:

Because Andy Warhol blasted Neon across the reproduction market, did it dull the shine of a Matisse lithograph or the emotional impact of a Lucian Freud etching?… 

This movement has been a long time coming, philosophically since John Berger’s Ways Of Seeing. What we found since then was that nothing can replace the value of the original. However, the reproduction has its benefits particularly for non-Squillionaires to participate in the growth of the legacy of already established artists. Nor does the reproduction necessarily take away from the original. NFTs now offer the collector the option of purchasing authentic digital prints of their oil paintings, for instance, so they can take their collections with them wherever they go. Digital galleries are now opening up for collectors and artists to display their work on screens. The possibilities are limitless. 

My enthusiasm must be taken in the context of the reproduction market as a whole, NFTs do what etchings and lithographs have always tried to do. As someone who both currently owns and has previously traded in a private collection of hundreds of etchings and lithographs including artists like Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Goya, Rembrandt, Dürer and Kathe Kollwitz. The purpose of reproductions is to offer greater flexibility to the collector than they might have with their oil painting collection, NFTs solve all those problems. Whenever a new mediums like this comes around there are inevitably the cross overs with artists over more traditional mediums and if they already have a career going it tends to do well, but there are also some like Goya, Dürer and Käthe Kollwitz whose etchings and woodcuts were of a better quality than their paintings and who found greater possibilities for story telling in that medium. Though they are the outliers. 

I remember my interest in Philip Hoare’s novel “Albert And The Whale,” Japan returned to commercial whaling this year. When I first heard the news I began writing a novella called “The Fortune” - about an heir to a modern whaling dynasty who is attacked on board the Nisshin Maru in the Southern Ocean and must escape to Leith Harbor on the Island of South Georgia, where his consciousness is transformed by the whale’s song. It got into a couple of the writing competitions Launch Pad Prose Writing Competition and ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Stories. I also sold it as part of an NFT collaboration with with my mother the painter Stephanie Fuller. The collector was NFT whale LouGainz. I had the chance to speak with Louis on the phone and he told me how he was transforming the music industry with his new company Blockchain Music Entertainment. We began to hatch our next project together…

Waldemar Januszczak taught me (via Twitter) a few years ago, that the vision is the most important thing, not the medium. The medium and the market are external factors that the artist just needs to place a context for their internal vision. Not more important their vision. This is why Japanese contemporary art genius Takashi Murakami’s first NFT drop, leaves much to be desired, as he fell pray to the overwhelming pixel aesthetic of most NFTs instead of honoring his own visions. Let’s see what Damien Hirst brings to the space.

Markets will fluctuate and that’s the only thing I’m sure about in that arena. However, as a medium, the usefulness of NFT’s and the options they provide are too good not to completely disrupt the reproduction market moving forward. Potential investors; do not listen to me, I am a creative entrepreneur not a financial advisor, listen to registered financial advisors, do your research, be sensible - know that the majority of collectors right now have already been in the crypto space. So research the market first. Then, after that, check out some NFTs.

And when you do, click the gif below to check out the my collaboration with Johan Andersson, we found our way into some of the top NFT collector’s wallets including Loopify, Niwin, thefunnyguys, taylor, JeffBezosForeskin, BillyMcSmithers, BobAmor, rssi, artbygabeweis, NFT.NYC and thebeautyandthepunk :