Ghanaian artist Tachie-Menson does not want to be an NFT artist
Prior to this year’s edition of Art X Lagos, 24-year-old visual artist Nyahan Tachie-Menson did not know what Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) were or how they worked.
Growing up in Accra, Ghana, Tachie-Menson discovered early on her passion for art, thanks to her art collector mother; and provided with the freedom to paint, draw and sketch, she began creating art as a 14-year-old and performing as a visual artist at exhibitions.
In 2016, she experimented with digital graphic design before continuing to study Integrated Designs at the Parsons School of Design in New York.
A few years back, Tachie-Menson created Folding bag, a magazine that centers young African women, and she has worked women – centered on the digital album cover of musicians such as Ghanaian singer Amaarae and Nigerian alto musician Lady Donli. The attention she received from her project with the musicians caught the attention of the organizers of Art X Lagos, and she came on board to work on an NFT exhibition project entitled, Reloads…
Reloads… Is a project organized by Art X in collaboration with the digital art market, SuperRare, in an effort to support the unprecedented rise of NFTs – a blockchain technology that allows artists to sell digital copies of their work.
The current revolution in NFTs in Africa was triggered by Nigerian artist Osinachi, who sold NFTs worth $ 75,000 in just 10 days in March this year. Osinachi, who uses Microsoft Word as his canvas, was the first African artist to appear at the British auction house Christie’s 1-54 Art Fair with his Different shades of water collection.
Tachie-Menson, now a visual artist, sculptor and digital artist, uses art to immerse her audience into an alternative reality called “Nyahan’s World”, where she reveals her fantasies, dreams, nightmares and visions. She created this space where she could exercise control over her art because she was not content to just create client-based work.
“I needed to create another space where I could rule. Even though I still do client-based work, I now have this new space that I can go into, do what I want and feel fresh.
“I do not see myself as an NFT artist”
NFTs allow digital objects such as photos, music, tweets and journalistic works to be traded on online marketplaces such as Opensea.io and Niftygateway.com. Although traditional auction houses like Christie’s have made one of the biggest sales of digital artwork to date – a JPG file, “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by Beeple, sold for $ 69 million – there have been major sales.
A piece from the earliest NFT collection, CryptoPunk, can sell for as much as $ 532 million or 124,457 ethereum. In the third quarter of this year, the NFT market exceeded $ 10 billion in transaction volume, revealed DappRadar, a company that tracks data on crypto-based applications.
This year marked a potential boom for NFTs in Africa after Osinachi, as South African artist Norman O’Flynn sold the country’s first NFT ever for about $ 35,000 in March; and in April, Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge sold highlights from his career as NFTs for $ 50,000.
Three weeks ago, Tachie-Menson coined her first NFT art and her artwork, “Fantastic Argos,” sold earlier this week for 1ETH— $ 4,140. Still, she does not see herself as an NFT artist.
“The direction I take my work in is not NFT based. I did not start making art because of NFTs. I have been making art for a very long time, ”she said, explaining that she also makes sculptures and would prefer to push her work in that direction.
After tracing her artistic career, Tachie-Menson said she started with traditional art styles such as painting, drawing, etc. before going into digital animation and developing an interest in sculpture two years ago.
She did not intend to go into NFTs, but when the Curatorial Associate at Art X Lagos, Maurice Chapot, reached out to her to participate in Art X’s first NFT project, she said yes because she also wanted to try something. new.
She said that Art X created a mentoring relationship where all the artists were given resources and guidance to shape their NFTs.
Artist not grocer
Tachie-Menson thinks NFTs are interesting, but have a hard time understanding what there is to gain in technology beyond money. She went on to say that she prefers to work only as an artist and not as a grocer or product maker.
“Being an artist for me is not based on being able to sell a piece. Long before I knew what an exhibition was, I made. I have had the desire to create and it gives me joy and makes me happy. It does something for me, it does something for the people around me. ”
“Fantastic Argos”, Tachie-Menson’s auctioned work, is a digital 3D version of a physical work of art she had made with clay. To transport her audience to an amazing reality, she decided to use 3D instead of an image – which she called “boring”.
Her NFT art was inspired by Argos, the Greek demigod with a thousand eyes. Tachie-Menson loves to use eyes in her work. By giving human qualities to inanimate objects, her work comes alive.
“I use a lot of eyes in my work. One of my goals is to create objects that feel like they are alive, feel like they can move and have their own agency. “
She took a picture of a sculpture she had made with clay before asking a senior from high school, Kwab, to help her model it in 3D. Tachie-Menson explained that she wanted viewers to have a complete picture of the image, taking the sculpture home and adding more colors to it, which she believes made the art more beautiful. “I love colors. More colors make me very happy. They give me joy and hope, and it’s just very playful.”
A desire to make inclusive art
Going forward, Tachie-Menson said she wants to offer a physical experience of her art in her own way. She will do this through installations and experiential work that people can interact with directly through touch, smell, sight and engagement.
She believes that even at art fairs, art is mystified, and she hopes to create art that even people who are not very proficient in art would be interested in.
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