Year: 2022
Medium: NFT(Non-Fungible Token), digital work, endless
Dimensions: dimensions variable
Acquired from Pace Gallery, 2022
This is teamLab’s first NFT work that comes in seven variations: “Black in White,” “Black in Black,” “White in White,” “Gold Light,” “Fire,” “Water,” and “Fog.” This work, “Fire,” displays text that looks like flame letters. According to teamLab, it continuously revolves and rotates, yet the text exhibits three-dimensional rotation within the virtual space. While the words are recognized when they are on a flat surface, the text in this work takes on a three-dimensional form, and its complex rotation seems to prevent accurate reading. The buyers of this work are assured of its authenticity by NFT, but it does not guarantee uniqueness. The work is always accessible online for anyone to download. However, only the buyers are given the right to freely modify the initial statement “Matter is Void”. This modification will also be shared in real-time with anyone who downloads the work for viewing purposes. Based on the traditional value criteria of artworks such as uniqueness and rarity, it can be said that this work has ingeniously achieved a coexistence of both the reproducibility of digital art and the irreplaceability sought by NFT by granting the specific right to owners who value its uniqueness the most. Despite being widely shared, the source of value associated with its ownership is one of a kind. The phrase “Matter is Void” prompts us to question what it is directed towards. It cannot be possessed as matter, which means value is not being placed in matter. If this is the case, its value should be formed in terms of trust, but what is the thing that guarantees the trust? That is exactly something called “aura,” which was once banished by replication technology. Observing at the spinning texts leaves one pondering deeply about the value that slips into the aimless void.
