...and Duchess’s latest wacky way to boost her finances? Virtual art
SARAH FERGUSON has had an eclectic career as an entrepreneur, having been a children’s author, film producer and writer of romantic fiction.
She has even sold blenders on television and has been an ambassador for Weight Watchers.
Her latest venture is another radical departure. Last week, the Duchess of York launched a gallery of digital art, which features her own spoken-word poetry overlaid with a visual interpretation of the verses by other artists.
She has joined forces with Nifty Gateway, a company owned by millionaire US tech entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who set up a forerunner to Facebook.
Nifty Gateway sells NFTs, or non-fungible tokens – digital products that enable collectors to invest in digital art in the same way as they might buy a painting. They can be bought and sold, and each has a unique code to prevent it being copied. Fergie said she wanted ‘to expand my passion for storytelling through art,’ adding: ‘As technology evolves, traditional aesthetics can find a new life in this contemporary viral world.’
In her digital artwork Gateway To The Self, viewers watch a series of paintings while listening to the Duchess and British actor Laurence Fuller reciting the poem.
In a soothing voice, the Duchess reads: ‘Lost and fearful, sometimes tearful, ‘Using your compass, ‘Now you’re not alone, ‘At last, no more abandoned feeling, ‘We are integrated and sated, a new orientation, embrace harmonisation.’ In another of her digital artworks, May We Speak, Fergie asks: ‘Do you think you’re awake?’
Fergie talked about her NFTs in a ‘Twitter space’ last week, and read a poem she wrote when the Queen died: ‘A rainbow appears over the turret so clear, ‘A sign for us all we must stand tall,
‘Whenever you see a rainbow appear, you know I’m near, Never fear. I may not physically be standing there but in your heart I will never fear. Look within and you will see the colours of my rainbow wrapped around, my love for you abounds.’