While crypto burns, Madonna gives birth to robot centipedes in NFT series
While the crypto world watched Terra’s stablecoin UST plummet to $0.62, a rather profound announcement slipped through the cracks. Madonna has launched her first NFT collection in partnership with artist Beeple — an eye-opening (and leg-opening) series of videos featuring a digital Madonna graphically giving birth to various flora and fauna.
The NFTs — which quite frankly no one asked for — include strong visuals of a tree, butterflies, and, in a personal favorite, robot centipedes emerging from the singer’s vagina. They also feature Madonna reciting poetry in an ominous tone, a mix of her own words and those of the Persian poet Rumi.
Mother of Creation took a year to develop with Mike Winkelmann (the artist known as Beeple), Madonna says. The three NFTs will be open for auction on SuperRare on Wednesday. While this is the singer’s first foray into designing an NFT, it certainly isn’t Beeple’s. Winkelmann famously oversold a digital collage of past work for $69 million at a Christie’s auction, the house’s first ever NFT sale.
Since becoming a millionaire overnight last year, Winkelmann has been rather bearish on NFTs despite being embroiled in his own controversial B20 token — even calling the market a bubble.
“I don’t want to see people spend money on money-grab garbage,” Beeple tweeted in March 2021. Now, the artist’s NFT collaboration with Madonna is what he calls a “great honor.”
All proceeds will apparently go to three charities supporting women and children around the world. Yet amid a huge crypto slump, it remains to be seen who would purchase the NFTs — particularly considering each video is available for download on the official website with the click of a button.
“I never want to be provocative just for the sake of provocation,” Madonna told the New York Times. “They stand for hope. They stand for technology.”
We’ll let you decide that one.
Do you think NFT Madonna has haemorrhoids after all that pushing?
On a sterile hospital bed, Madonna’s first digital rendering lies back with her legs spread while a tree grows out of her vagina. “It pushes against gravity and flowers bloom,” the website reads.
Madonna’s Mother of Nature recites self-written poetry in a stern voice, likening the life of a tree to that of a woman.
Madonna’s second NFT is a welcome respite
Compared to a tree, watching butterflies emerge from Madonna’s vagina comes as something of a blessed relief. Alone, the video is enough to question one’s sanity, yet given that I’ve watched all three, I actually like this one.
“The butterflies are a metaphor for the paradox that the world is burning down in a post-apocalyptic scene, but there is still evidence of life,” the description reads for Mother of Evolution.
“We continue to give birth, no matter what destruction is going on, no matter what oppression we face. It relays the important message that if you are waiting for the world to be perfect or for your life to be perfect to create art, it will never happen,” (our emphasis).
I wish I had a robot centipede tbh
Finally, the best for last. In Mother of Technology, Madonna queefs out crawling robot centipedes — which apparently represent both the life-giving force and the dangers of technology.
“Technology continues to evolve in the physical, natural and real world; we can do whatever we want, but there are consequences to that,” Madonna writes.
“Nature will ultimately win in the end.”
Read more: The play-to-earn crypto bubble has popped — Axie Infinity leads, down 99% from ATH
Jokes aside, the American-born Madonna’s NFT triptych comes at an important political time for the US, where the rights of women are being threatened by abortion bans and the potential overturning of Roe v Wade. In Mother of Nature, the singer draws parallels between the life of a tree and a woman.
“I’ve taught myself to be supple so that I won’t break. While predators pick at my fruit and scrape my bark, saw off my branches, chop me down, burn me to the ground — they will never destroy my essence, nor take my glory, nor extinguish my soul,” Madonna recites.
While any NFT collection — let alone one as bizarre as this — is unlikely to dissuade Republican white men from deciding what women do with their bodies, the series certainly leaves a strong impression of womanhood. And as long as Madonna doesn’t wash-trade her NFTs like Melania Trump, at least women-centric charities will receive the proceeds.
Madonna and Beeple’s NFT collection launches Wednesday — at press time, in just under 12 hours. It’s hard to tell how popular the artwork will be, however, in the words of Madonna: “Time goes by so slowly for those who wait — no time to hesitate.”
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