British street artist destroys own mural
British street artist Nathan Murdoch contemplates the mural he has just spray-painted, a giant image of two hands wearing rainbow-coloured gloves and joined in prayer, then hurls white paint straight at it from an open tin.
The destruction of the freshly created mural is part of an artistic project straddling the physical and virtual worlds.
The original image will not survive, but two versions will, one a print and the other a digital file called an NFT.
“We’re going to do a singular print which will go to an eBay auction, and then after that we’ll do a singular NFT print, which will also go to auction, which is essentially crypto-art,” Murdoch said.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, a type of digital asset verified using blockchain technology.
NFTs are increasingly popular in the art world because they make a file unique by allowing it to be permanently authenticated, regardless of copies. In a record-breaking auction at Christie’s, an NFT by US artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold for nearly $70m (R1bn) in March, raising the profile of NFTs which some artists and collectors see as the future of the art market.
For Murdoch, the decision to immediately destroy his mural is a new departure from his previous projects.
It allows him to transfer the status of original work to the print and the NFT.
“I essentially create art in the real world, but then I’m going to convert this to be used in the digital space ... opening to a much larger and worldwide possible audience.”
The image represents a praying doctor or nurse, and the coloured gloves are a reference to pictures of rainbows many British people displayed in their windows during the first Covid-19 lockdown as a sign of solidarity with hospital staff.
Murdoch plans to donate the proceeds of the sales of the print and NFT to Britain’s National Health Service.