Her dreams come true ”- COOL HUNTING®
The expansive white walls of New York City’s Oculus now glow with striking science fiction fantasies, compelling portraits and hilarious illustrations that make up the distinctive building’s first NFT exhibition, Women In Web3: Her dreams come true. The exhibition features five female artists, and is the first show hosted by Oculus operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s new platform, The Drop at Westfield. With Her dreams came true, Westfield (to which the device is referred) enters the web3 room thoughtfully and efficiently. Not only do they adorn the Oculus, but their extensive exhibition will be shown on 500 screens in 17 different locations across the country until July 17, and the NFTs will be available for purchase during the same period.
Art consultant and dealer (as well as the occasional contributor to COOL HUNTING), Afrodet Zuri curated the exhibition, and compiled a varied selection of art in terms of style and background. “Color people and especially women are often underrepresented in the art world, and unfortunately it also extends to the NFT area. I pitched and curated a diverse and female identifying show of artists who represented a wide range of artistic styles,” she says. Twice Emmy Award “winner of motion graphics Emonee LaRussa and 18-year-old artist and curator Diana Sinclair are among those on display.”Her dreams came true showcases a collective of top talents and wildly creative fantasies from the entire NFT area. These artists do more than create art, they inspire revolutions and we are excited to have the opportunity to show this message on Westfield’s iconic screens, says Zuri.
On one screen, the extraterrestrial depictions of Sydney-based interdisciplinary artist Serwah Attafuah sparkle. Attafuah combines modern and ancestral themes to create surreal cyberdream landscapes intertwined with afro-futuristic abstractions. She contributed two pieces to the exhibition – “Within Reach” and “Distance” – depicting a cyborg woman holding a planet in her hand in the former and the same figure relaxing in a solar system garden in the latter. The works of art present digital dream worlds where past and future coexist with the real and the imaginary.
Attafuah delves into fantasy, while Sinclair’s work “The Race Talk” is firmly rooted in reality. NFT has a portrait of a young, tear-soaked black girl who, as the title suggests, learns about the depths of racism. She is surrounded by other close-ups of a face: an unshakable eye, a cheek framed by a depressed gaze and a hand raised in anxiety. Convincing and gripping, it frames the world’s tough, inequality in a new, intimate way.
Further along the screen Delaware-born Shaylin Wallace’s kaleidoscopic “Happy Doodle” makes a refreshing and bright departure from the other works of art. Flooded with colors and surrealistic composition, the doodle swirls and charms while the abstract lines and spirals hide a crooked smiley face.
Using the 100-yard screens on the Oculus, Westfield brings the digital artwork to life in a shiny display that competes with the 350-foot-long steel columns that extend across each wall. Westfield not only activates art in an effective way, but they also reinforce the work of female artists. As such, they partnered with the web3 creation and fundraising platform Blockparty to enable people to purchase works through every screen and online.
“Web3 gives women the opportunity for a voice that has otherwise been denied by traditional gatekeepers such as institutions, museums, galleries, etc,” says Zuri. “Women In Web3: Her dreams come true is a chance for little girls to see their resemblance on screens across the national Westfield network and be inspired to dream bigger for themselves and for the world. “
Images courtesy of Jason Crowley / BFA.com
