Author: Danielle Paterson

“13 Dreadful and Disappointing Items” were initially meant to be the first digital collectibles for Decadent, a brand created by me, Olive Allen. In the process of creation, I realized that they have much deeper meaning both personally and conceptually. Put all together they are the actual artwork…

Each item is a “token” of appreciation of what there’ve been and what yet to come.

13 items are about being young; fears of growing up, being excluded and misunderstood. They are an attempt to connect, an odd way of saying “let’s play”. Fads and consumerism themes that connect the objects are not viewed as dreadful — they are merely band-aids for loneliness and the way “in” is an ultimate “cure”.

Each object has a story and names are the “book covers” hinting on their plots.

The artwork is divided into 196 pieces.

Each of them is called ‘A Piece of Something’ and represented by a non-fungible token (NFT). All the metadata is recorded and stored on blockchain. These “fractions” represent the ownership of the both digital and physical piece.

If one wishes to own the entire physical 1:1 painting he/she/it must collect all the tokens (The remaining 104 available on the market, since they still represent the majority vs. 91 pieces that are currently in Olive’s possession).

One can request the hi-res image of the piece they own with the artist’s digital signature.

If one collects 13 ‘Pieces of Something’ he/she is entitled to a signed fine art print (UPDATE: 91 Pieces were exchanged for 7 fine art prints). 7 signed limited edition ‘Something’ prints have been released together with 1:7 digital NFTs that represent them.

‘A Piece of Something #196’ is a final and the key piece of the artwork. 

It has been auctioned off on Nifty Gateway Platform on September 25.

The winner of the auction was offered two chooses: accept ‘A Piece of Something #196’ as his prize or receive the animated Golden HYPEBIRD 1:1 scarcity instead. The winner chose the digital bird, so the painting will forever be missing a piece (and its final image has been updated accordingly). The collector’s choice has determined the fate of the artwork and its final look.

This digital painting was a part of the digital group show THE ARTIST IS ONLINE. Digital Paintings and Sculpture in a Virtual World on view at KÖNIG GALERIE in Decentraland (36.100).

These little creeps have been haunting me and you for a while… Is this a trap and I’m becoming a part of mass culture? Or have I always been a derivative of it… This is my attempt to think about the direction in which popular culture is heading and to reconcile with the inevitability of me joining a procession in one form or another.

The UnBearables are essentially horrifically cute collectible bears, as well as an odd manifestation of hopes and anxieties of the present moment. 

Coronavirus threats and potential consequences are unbearable.

Oil prices and their impact on the global economy, especially my homeland, are unbearable.

The toxicity of the media and disinformation are unbearable.

Isolation and loneliness are unbearable.

Economic recession and its inevitability are unbearable.

Dysfunctional government is unbearable.

The deficit of hand sanitizers and respiratory masks is unbearable.

The prevailing feeling of uncertainty is unbearable.

Tomorrow is postponed indefinitely. And it’s unbearable.