I was deeply honored and humbled, while also quite scared, to be invited to create a piece for the 23Artists' collection "On a Sunday Morning." As an explorer and performer at heart, I embraced this theme wholeheartedly, though I must admit that creating works based on specific themes can be quite challenging. This particular theme pushed me to think and reflect beyond my usual boundaries and norms for my piece titled "who said Sunday is the fun day?". While most may gravitate towards a peaceful time, the theme took on a slightly darker perspective.
My work often revolves around the concept of how technology is becoming a part of us, embracing the irreverence and silliness of life, and typically includes or begins with a picture of me. Fittingly for this piece, titled "who said Sunday is the fun day?", I started from a self-portrait that took transformation into a clown.
A bit of back story is helpful for fully understanding the piece.
Recently, I've been reflecting on the evolution of artists in the web3 space and how most of the current cycle seems to be hodling onto memes, meme tokens, and incentives to fill one's bag. This trend made me hyper-focus on the opposite: the projects and artists that are true to art but often get overshadowed by the hype cycle.
Out of frustration and a desire to reclaim the narrative, I helped birth a ridiculous community-owned token called "assclown." Its purpose? To grab attention from the hype chasers and redirect the spotlight to those doing meaningful work that often goes unnoticed amidst the absurdity.
Shifting that attention into the development of my piece for 23Artists, I wove in my frustration and disheartening view of how the genuine and progressive often fails to surface, compelling many of us to resort to playing the clown.
Don't get me wrong - I'm a clown at heart. But even clowns shed their characters when they leave the circus tent, returning to their authentic selves even if still in full makeup.
This moment of reflection is what I aimed to capture. While most of my work might appear silly at first glance, I hope that those who delve deeper into my portfolio will uncover the layers of depth and vulnerability that are as much a part of me as my playful side regardless of the piece being viewed.
Yet, this particular piece for the 23Artists' curation conveys a sense of solitude, a disconnection from the technology we typically embrace, and the feeling of having given all our energy to the public sphere. It captures that moment when we're left alone with our thoughts, even if we are still in our performer's outfit and face paint.
I hope viewers sense these emotions as they look at the piece. As @EpikNFT beautifully noted, the work is "so quiet but screaming so loudly at the same time." It's in this duality I believe the true essence of "Who Said Sunday is Funday?" resides.
