"Who Am I ?" is part of the Mask Ephemera exhibition by SearchLight/NFT's Tips held during the NFT.NYC 2021 conference in Edison Ballroom and Palladium Center in Times Square, NYC and metaverse galleries in SearchLight Gallery in Spatial.io and Pranksy's Gallery in Decentraland.
Mask Ephemera exhibition artworks explore the role of NFTs in shaping our identities in the increasingly prevalent digital masquerade of social media and entertainment on the blockchain.
Masks have played a central role in our lives during the covid pandemic. They have become a highly charged artifact in the public discourse. The rise of art as NFT's has included a parallel cultural phenomena with the use of avatars that function as masks for alternative digital identities. It becomes as no surprise since humanity has been using masks for time immemorial; in ritual, as disguise, for protection and to mark a social hierarchy.
Some of the most expensive NFT collectibles as well as many original works of art have functioned as a means of enacting a side of us that seeks expression - a mask for the digital masquerade. It has taken us to the realm of theater, where anything feels possible, especially with the lure of financial sovereignty that the environment offers. In the emergent world of cryptocurrency, DeFi and the new world of art as an NFT, we get to try on new masks, explore different worlds and explore a different way of relating. Through the ritual of minting on the blockchain we expand ourselves.
