In April 2020 Ryoma Ito, one of the owners of Makersplace an NFT company based in San Francisco, contacted me about releasing some NFT's on their platform. At that time I knew a little about the blockchain concept but had to learn fast about the idea of a non fungible token - which came with an entire theology - that essentially could be 'attached' to an artwork. Above is a picture of one of the later pieces that I dropped with them - Neon Barcode Jesus in a Barcode World - which was a work I felt matched the message with the medium as far as I understood it at the time. A lot of the works sold. Initially I had dropped 'Under Every Desert, A Sea' which sold out - as we progressed along the trail some things sold and as I gained confidence and made actual committed 'artworks' within what I considered to be within the lineage of a art, these did not sell.
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Makersplace & NFT's
2020 - 2022 1: Vida 1976 - 1981
2: Transition 1981 - 1982 3: Triple Vision/Videomakers 1982 - 1985 4: Triple Vision & Channel 4 1985 - 1992 5: A Trip Sideways to the BBC 1988 - 1990 6: Cinematography & Scripts 1992 - 2006 7 Academia 2007 - 2016 8. CineFest 2015 - 2016 9. Sedition Art 2015 - 2023 10. Makersplace & NFT's 2019 - 2022 11. 2025 and Beyond? |
There's one called 'After Malevich Black Square and White, on White'. And then I went further into self portraits in both the digital and quantum domain - neither of which sold as these were 'too much' for the collectors who wanted small cartoons to identify with. That's not a put down - it's a measure of young tastes - but not just young, these are wilie choices on behalf of the collectors - personally I'm more interested in Art and didn't want to play that game. Eventually Beeple released 13000 days for 70 million dollars (one piece of art per day a measure of his daily output) which was also a measure of the incoming collapse of NFT's as a political goal - this was called: "Barcode Jesus over a world full of Every Day Beeple" a title with a set of references reaching back into the late 60's - (Sly and the Family Stone) the image above is called "Barcode Jesus in a Barcode World".
Later I talked some friends into becoming a group which we later called ArtNovo - and you can see the works available from them here.
"ArtNovo is a collective of established media artists, each of whom has been instrumental in bringing dynamic and influential ideas to life. Each represents a practice that is rooted in experimentation, innovation and invention, and has gained significant recognition. Their works are recognized for challenging cultural norms in defiance of any artistic status quo, and have been celebrated in exhibitions by major international museums, galleries, across the internet and on broadcast television. ArtNovo is Irit Batsry, Robert Cahen, Theo Eshetu, Terry Flaxton, John Sanborn, Guli Silberstein, and Nataša Prosenc Stearns - pioneering artists driven to explore new technology and modes of expression.* Which is why they are engaging in crypto-art’s propensity to operate in a decentralized, self-curating manner without a traditional hierarchy – but fashioning intersections with traditional structures and curatorial thought."
Later I talked some friends into becoming a group which we later called ArtNovo - and you can see the works available from them here.
"ArtNovo is a collective of established media artists, each of whom has been instrumental in bringing dynamic and influential ideas to life. Each represents a practice that is rooted in experimentation, innovation and invention, and has gained significant recognition. Their works are recognized for challenging cultural norms in defiance of any artistic status quo, and have been celebrated in exhibitions by major international museums, galleries, across the internet and on broadcast television. ArtNovo is Irit Batsry, Robert Cahen, Theo Eshetu, Terry Flaxton, John Sanborn, Guli Silberstein, and Nataša Prosenc Stearns - pioneering artists driven to explore new technology and modes of expression.* Which is why they are engaging in crypto-art’s propensity to operate in a decentralized, self-curating manner without a traditional hierarchy – but fashioning intersections with traditional structures and curatorial thought."
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Go here to see some of the work I put out in the spirit of feeling that each and every space could be addressed in a site specific manner - whether it be online gallery or real world platform - that something could be 'said' in each of the areas of exhibition... (and go here for all examples on sale still)
Below: One of my pages on Makersplace - to the right, a best seller, Neon Barcode Jesus |
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NEXT: 11. 2024 and Beyond?
Upcoming Exhibitions in 2024
Exhibitions & Releases in 2024: - United Kingdom, Bristol, RWA Open, November, Testing to Destruction (2017 - 2024), Prisoners (1984) September 2024 - January 2025 - Sedition International Online Release, Entangled /Travelling Faster than Light: The Human Gaze in an Age of Quantum and Tachyonic Entanglement Part III, November - Sedition International Online Release, In Paradiso, September - CIFRA International Online Release, August, The Golden Apples of the Sun - United Kingdom, The StoryHouse in Chester, July - CIFRA International Online Release, July, The Mechanism - Italy Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, Venice | June 07 - 21, 2024 San Marco Art Space, Venice | June 20 - July 04, 2024 Anima Mundi, Exhibition titled Visions, A Sad and Divine Comedy, June - Italy Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello Venice, Anima Mundi, Exhibition titled Consciousness, Hearts of Oak, May - Sedition International Online Release, Mexico: Landscapes of the Heart, April 2024 - Sedition International Online Release, Un Tempo Una Volta, April 2024 - - Sedition International Online Release, Hearts of Oak, April - Germany, Berlin Paris Recontres, Haus der Kulturen der Welt 9 - 14th April April 2024 - Germany, C.A.R. contemporary art ruhr Photo/Media Art Fair at Zeche Zollverein, March 2024 - Italy Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello Venice, Anima Mundi, Exhibition titled Rituals, Un Tempo Una Volta (Once Upon a Time in Venice) May 10 – 24, 2024 - Germany, Berlin, Director’s Lounge, C.A.R Contemporary Art Ruhr, March 2024 - Germany, Berlin Paris Recontres, Haus der Kulturen der Welt March 2024 Between 2008 and 2023 Terry exhibited work in the China, USA, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Korea, Portugal, Iran, Turkey, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Norway, Malta, Madeira and the UK - some of these countries many times. A complete list of Exhibitions between 2008 and 2023 follows beneath the section on exhibitions beneath 1978 and 2007. |
Latest Retrospective - Bath 2023: Terry Flaxton: A Life in Video Art
From 6th October through to 5th November 2023 28 Roseberry Rd, Bath BA2 3DX EXHIBITIONS Between 1978 onwards
In 1978, the Fashion show, (made in 1977) was exhibited at the Long Beach Museum by Kathy Rae Huffman, (curator of moving image work). Next came the Fourth Tokyo Video Festival where Flaxton, Cooper and Dedman's piece (written by Flaxton) Talking Heads, won a prize. From then on Flaxton's work was shown at many festivals, notably the Worldwide Video Festival in Den Haag, Netherlands, but many, many other places including Moscow, Tokyo, Algiers, San Francisco, Locarno, Montbeliard, Paris, Milan, Rome, Seoul, Amsterdam - and many other places around the world. In 1986 the British Film Institute as well as Channel 4 asked Flaxton to Shoot “Out off Order” the 3rd electronically produced and released on 35mm ‘film’ in history (after “Harlow” starring Ginger Rogers, 1965 and 200 Hotels, 1972). Though travelling as a cinematographer and occasionally exhibiting between 1992 and 1998 there was a hiatus in Flaxton's work between Zagorsk (1992 and Skin Deep (1999) Flaxton in fact worked on many artists pieces and brought a high level of lighting to many people's work. Having come across HD in 1990, between 2000 and 2007 Flaxton concentrated on HD as a developing production form and tested cameras for Panasonic and Sony and by 1999 he had shot an HD work in the US which was mastered as a 35mm output at Du Art Labs in New York - and from then on spoke at many seminars including the NFT to speak about the transition form Standard Definition (720 x 576 pixels) to the then low level HD Standards of 1280 x 720, the faux HD of 1440 x 1920 and finally the full 1920 x 1080 standard that we all know today (2023). So in eventually entering academia in 2007 with an AHRC Creative Research Fellowship - where the candidates charge was to discover how technical and creative innovations feed upon each other, Flaxton then began a second wave of production as an artist - where, having spent many years on moving camera cranes and dollies - Flaxton chose to use HD and the camera itself as a window, a portal on, not only the world - but importantly on the very thing that looks: the self. By 2015 Sedition Art had arrived and was a perfect fit for what Flaxton later called his 'Chamber Works’. Flaxton also began producing long form moving image artworks during this period characterised by “Myth and Meaning in the Digital Age” (began in 1992 and finished in 2018) , “To Sand and Stare: A Somerset Landscape” (2011 to 2018) and latterly “Mexico: Landscape of the Heart” (2023). |