If you weren’t sure what would take the cake for most bizarre celebrity story of the day, may we present to you Madonna’s latest art?
The Like A Prayer singer has us heading to church to confess our sins after viewing a series of incredibly NSFW pieces of NFT – that is, non-fungible token – art which consists of Madonna in 3D animation form-ish with various things coming out of her vagina.
It’s a real trip.
Yes, Madonna is selling NFT works apparently made from real scans of her vagina, should you be interested, working with artist Beeple to also create space-age, n**ed.n**ed depictions of herself giving birth to trees, butterflies, and aforementioned robotic centipedes.
The bidding on the pieces is currently underway, with the three tracking along with bids between $12,000 (£9K) and $28,000 (£22K), at time of writing.
The explains the star is ‘giving birth to mother of creation’ in the ‘NFT triptych’ with the works designed to ‘represent a different form of birth in our contemporary world’.
It goes on to state: ‘These 3 NFTS are a labor of love a year in the making, as both artists partnered to connect to the idea of creation and motherhood through these visualizations. [sic].’
The first artwork – Mother of Nature – begins with a branch that transforms into a full vibrant tree, growing from Madonna’s you-know-where.
Mother Of Evolution is the second work in the series, with the site explaining ‘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’ as they emerge from the singer’s avatar.
In the third, Mother Of Technology, the art ‘takes place in a beautiful forest, depicting the way science can also give birth light into the world, but only if used with the right consciousness’, as robotic arthropods venture out of the singer.
It’s noted the proceeds from the sale will benefit three nonprofits focused on supporting women and children around the world.
In a conversation with Beeple posted to her Instagram, Madonna remarked: ‘Not often a robot centipede crawls out my vagina.’
You can say that again Mads.
She added that it was important for people to know ‘a lot of thought and conversation’ went into the making of the artworks.
What is an NFT?
Following in the footsteps of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum, NFT stands for a ‘non-fungible token’ and is hailed as a way to ascribe real-world value and scarcity to digital artwork and assets.
Or in some cases, real life examples, with everything from GIFs to Boy George on board.
Things that are fungible can be swapped for an asset of the exact same type and value – traditional currencies such as the pound work like this.
When something is non-fungible, it cannot be changed this way because it is unique. Think of it like a famous painting or a rare trading card – there will only be one original, no matter how many copies are made.
An NFT is a distinct cryptographic token that cannot be replicated, which acts as a certificate of ownership for virtual items.
The blockchain protocol, though wrapped in complicated maths and terminology, is a publicly available document that proves no two NFTs are the same. If you owned an NFT, it was indisputably yours.
Physical works of art and other rare memorabilia have long been sold for large sums of money but if you create something digitally it is hard to make gains.
So NFT offers a chance for artists in the internet age to make some money by selling ownership to anyone who wants it.
Selling a digital asset does not mean the original creator loses copyright either, unless it is explicitly stated as part of the sale.
Of course, this does not stop the image being easily copied by anyone online, but an NFT provides someone the honour of knowing they ‘own’ the original image.
