Artnet : Sculptor Maya Lin will release her first NFT project, a generative art series based on the root systems of trees, this spring
In 2021, Maya Lin planted 49 Atlantic white cedar trees, each destroyed by saltwater flooding, in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park. Ghost Forest was the name of the project; it was, in typical Lin fashion, part sculpture and part memorial – a symbol of the power of the natural world and a reminder of its precariousness in the face of climate catastrophe.
But while the rest of us looked up at Lin’s forest, the artist found himself staring down and wondering about the activity of the trees beneath the surface of the earth. Now she’s taking it a step further to visualize trees’ underground behavior—and she’s turning to the NFT world for the first time to do so.
In June, Lin will release “The Secret Life of Trees,” a series of generative art NFTs that recreate, through complex algorithms, the organic growth patterns of underground root systems.
“When I created Ghost Forest, I thought about how each tree, through its root structure, begins to communicate with each other,” the artist told Artnet News in an email. “This project stems from the realization that underground tree roots begin to grow and intertwine and communicate with each other, forming a hidden and intricate living interconnected system beneath the earth’s surface.”
Maya Lin, Three Seed Multi (2023). Photo: © Maya Lin, courtesy of Pace Verso and Art Blocks.
Organized by Pace Verso-Pace Gallery’s crypto art arm and characterized by the generative art platform Art Blocks, Lin’s NFTs will take the form of tiny seeds. But they won’t stay that way for long: growing roots will quickly transform the digital artworks into what Lin calls “unique, multi-stemmed organisms of different colors.”
“I was interested in exploring organic growth patterns in computer-generated works, which tend to be more based on fractal patterns and have much more geometric aspects,” she said. “I was very keen to explore a more organic living growth pattern and one that with each seed would reflect a unique time frame in which the seed grows. Some will grow quite slowly, encouraging owners to hold onto them and be patient as they grow. ”
Lin’s project is one of three Pace Verso plans to be released this spring and summer through the ongoing collaboration with Art Blocks. The first of the bunch is “PRELUDES”, an experiential NFT series by Trevor Paglen that combines graphic graphics with music inspired by composers such as John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, who experimented with algorithms in their own work.
Hidden in Paglen’s digital creations are Easter eggs related to CYCLOPS, his new “speculative reality work” that looks at the history of PsyOps in America. Collectors who can crack the hidden code will be rewarded with a vinyl record related to the project, as well as a gelatin silver print made by the artist.
Paglen’s “PRELUDES” will be released on April 5, while the rest of CYCLOPS will be revealed a little more than a month later in his dedicated exhibition at Pace’s gallery in New York.
Trevor Paglen, “PRELUDES,” Mint #0 of 250 unique NFTs. Photo: © Trevor Paglen, courtesy of Pace Verso
and art blocks.
Also on the pack for Pace Verso is a new series of 195 unique NFTs by John Gerrard, each depicting a different nation’s flag in a desert setting. Titled “World Flag,” the piece ties in with the artist’s two previous NFT efforts, including his 2022 project “Petro National,” which was among the first artworks released through Pace Verso’s partnership with Art Blocks.
The gallery has produced about half a dozen Art Blocks projects since the collaboration was announced last June. Among them are pieces by Tara Donovan, Loie Hollowell, teamLab and Robert Whitman.
For these artists – all of whom were new to the world of crypto art when they started their respective projects – generative art and its potential provided the appeal, explained Pace Verso CEO Ariel Hudes. She called it the “most exciting space in Web3.”
“That’s where form and content really meet,” Hudes said. “There is no reason why a JPEG or an MP4 needs to be on the blockchain, while generative code cannot exist in quite the same way anywhere else.”
“I really think generative art is here to stay and will be a tool that many great artists will utilize for a long time to come,” Hudes concluded. “To be at the beginning of it is very exciting.”
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