Exploring the history of #objkt4objkt as a community event, turnout from the third iteration, and spotlighting a few artists who participated.
One of the many unique facets of the Tezos community expands into its uniqueness towards blockchain art. Ever since the introduction of hicetnunc (H=N), we’ve seen an experiment turn into a community of passionate art appreciators for the sake of art.
Tracing its roots back to the first-ever #objkt4objkt event in 2021 on H=N, the third iteration of the community event brought the Tezos art community together and helped artists become more discovered across OBJKT and social platforms.
As we explore the history of #objkt4objkt as a community event and the impressive turnout from the third iteration, let’s also take a moment to appreciate the diverse range of artists who have made this event so special by highlighting a few.
What Is #objkt4objkt?
Poster by Stu Sontier
The first #objkt4objkt event, held from March 26 to 28, 2021, was a collaboration between DiverseNftArt and H=N. During this event, artists were invited to mint their NFTs, referred to as OBJKTs, at no cost on the now-defunct H=N platform.
The purpose was to encourage artists to exchange their NFTs with others, fostering a more diverse digital art collection. Ameliemaia and Tais Koshino, the founders of DiverseNftArt, launched the organization in March 2021.
Following this, in 2022 we saw the event change to #tezos4tezos from May 6th — May 8th. Edition sizes were capped to 100, with prices ranged from 0.1–1 tez in order to rally as much support for artists as possible.
The concept of #objkt4objkt drew inspiration from zine festivals, where artists exchange their works without monetary transactions. These festivals promote community building and personal connections among artists. Participants could freely explore and enhance their art collections by eliminating the financial aspect.
In particular, this concept of discoverability has been the main driver behind #objkt4objkt. To understand why this is the case, I contacted Kika Nicolela, curator at OBJKT, who provided thoughts around how the events have continued to garner discoverability for artists.
#objkt4objkt is a way to energize and get the community more active. That’s one aspect of it. The other aspect of these events, mainly, but all of the events actually, is discoverability. We tend to collect from the artists we know and then from the artists that those artists know. And so even if we are researching a lot and trying to expand our, you know, when we are collecting, we try to broaden the artists we know. And if you want to discover other artists, it’s always hard to get out of the circles and the active artists on Twitter.
But many artists don’t have followers, don’t know how to talk on Twitter, or don’t even have a Twitter account. Or it’s not active at all and has brilliant work. And how do we find those people? And so with an event, you know, if everybody’s using the hashtag of the event and you see all the pieces with the hashtag on the page of NFTBiker or on OBJKT because you can search by tag, then you see all types of people. And you are exposed to, I mean, to artists sometimes that you don’t know.
You just see the art, and you go like, this is beautiful. I want to get to know these artists. What happened to me a lot in this event was discovering artists I did not know much about because I know a lot of the artists, but also because of my job as a creator. So I all the time, but I did discover maybe five. Or six artists that I didn’t know; I had no idea they existed. And I went after the other pieces that they had as well. You know, not only the OBJKTs for OBJKT, but I went to see what they have minted before. And then you discover this whole body of work, which is fantastic.
And that often, if I don’t know, it means that it’s somebody who is very shy on Twitter and hasn’t sold much at all. And so it was a pleasure to collect and to also talk to other people about those artists and see more collectors discovering them as well and being excited about, yeah, this, because, you know, sometimes people complain that collectors don’t like to always collect from the same people, but they love to discover. Sometimes, it’s hard, you know, to find. Well, there’s no sort of set tool.
The third iteration had a great turnout. According to data provided by NFTBiker, over 900 artists participated, and 41,000 editions were sold on primary and secondary markets. Talk about quite the participation from a simple hashtag!
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the diverse range of artists who have made this event memorable by highlighting a few below.
Darkestdollx (Dollx)
Dollx is an NFT artist on Tezos. This particular piece, “Take Me To Hell,” was a special edition of just nine made exclusively for #objkt4objkt. Curious about what motivates one to create such a piece, I reached out to chat with her and explore some of her motivation behind it.
I created this work previously but hadn’t minted it for the collection I made it for. The collection is sold out, so I made this drop as a special edition for #objkt4objkt. Nine editions for .09 tez, so whoever saw them first got a great deal! I was onboarded to Tezos by Jburn during one of his random Twitter spaces, where he would sit and chat with whoever about web3. One of the other guys in the chat even sent me some Tezos to start. I was sold immediately on such a welcoming community. ❤
I feel this is the case for a lot of Tezos artists. It’s amazing to hear more stories like these, how something as simple as a Twitter space can onboard a new artist.
Empress Trash
Empress Trash is a popular NFT artist on Tezos. This particular piece is titled “Much Too Revealing”. Having seen a few of her works floating around in the Tezos art community on Twitter, I was curious to learn more about her as an artist. What I discovered was there’s a unique layer to her work, one deeply rooted from personal experiences.
My works are a series about going through the stages of grief and how deep in despair there is almost another world of divinity that comes with emotions. My mom committed suicide about five years ago, and I’m just coming to the end of mourning her loss, which was difficult because she abused me horribly as a child, and she was one of my biggest monsters, but I also love her still dearly. This series is about it all, like existentialism and a lot of horrible feelings of it all, while finding myself connecting with things much bigger than myself because of the pain and confusion.
Her Tezos story is unique as well.
I’ve been around causing trouble since 2021. I’m the one who asked the hen exploiter a dumb question in an AMA that led to #objkt4objkt being started and declaring #teztrash every solstice for all trash artists or trash adjacent artists to create trash art. Specifically, I call it on the solstices because then it goes over Christmas too, and it helps me, and others who have rough family lives to kinda get through the holidays while just having fun and making art with no rules. I still mint regularly on Tezos while I’m very much a cross-chain maxi, and my work has been in all the fancy places like Sotheby’s, Super Rare, and all over the world.
Even more unique, she rewards her Tezos supporters with a “Full Moon token.” Essentially, for the past two years, she has airdropped Tezos art to holders of this token. The mechanics of the token can be explored further here.
Violet Bond
Violet Bond is another popular NFT artist on Tezos. This piece minted for #objkt4objkt is titled “Life in the long grass.”. If you’ve been involved in the Tezos community or are remotely associated with the NFT community, you’ve probably seen some of Violet’s works on Twitter. Curious about what motivated her unique style, I decided to reach out to her.
Most of my work asks people to examine their connection (or lack thereof) to the wild. The works also contain elements of colonialism, environmentalism, and activism. I have several interviews listed here that cover this in more detail.
Speaking on one of her pieces highlighted at STELLAR in NYC earlier this month, she shared a few words about her “Spider in the Web” artwork.
The primary motivation for the piece that went to NYC was marking a seasonal moment — talking about the dry season in outback Australia and seeing whole galaxies in the small things. This piece is about Australian Orb Spiders, who create huge webs and sit like queens over their domain. I love how the fog sits on their webs; it makes them look like huge constellations.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out some of her interviews and give her work a look here!
Final Thoughts
As we can see, events like #objkt4objkt are important in aiding the discoverability of many talented artists on Tezos. After experiencing yet another fantastic turnout this year, we’re reminded once more of the power of the Tezos art community and how events like #objkt4objkt help bring them closer together. I can’t wait to see the turnout next year and look forward to collecting more pieces myself!
Highlighting The Third #objkt4objkt Community Event was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
