The Artist:
Whoisit? I'm sure it's nothing.
Well, I would like to introduce you to "it" nonetheless. To her friends, it's Helen. To the world, she's exactly who her art says she is...
Helen is a master of many different art forms, as suggested by the home page of her website, above.
Growing up in Portsmouth, living through the dawn of hip-hop and grime as musical genres in the UK, Helen's artistic style is heavily influenced by her dense cultural surroundings.
A queen of the layers and remixing, Helen has an incredible body of work, one which continues to grow, across multiple blockchains (XCP, ETH, TEZ & MIKA).
She's involved as a developer and an artist in a number of projects, alongside her Fake Rare partner in crime, Indelible. Together, they are responsible for the creation of the megalithic Amatsu-Mikaboshi-Genesis profile picture collection, as well as SeeingRed, the official Mikaboshi marketplace, a marketplace by the artists for the artists. This marketplace is quite unique too, in that you can actually mint & purchase assets there using the native currency, MIKA, so perhaps you should go check it out!
She also is one of only two artists to create a legendary Alcatraz Swim Team Member with accompanying audio.
Some of Whoisit's rarest art, however, is available to peruse on XCP via Dankset - see below for an idea of how busy she's been!
Presently included in Helen's creative collections, are a combination of six fake rares, one fake common, seven dank rares, and a number of other assets spanning multiple projects across multiple chains as mentioned above. However, her Fake Rare pepe journey began with the verrry sexy RAREPEPA.
Since joining the Fake Rare community, not only has Whoisit been a regular contributor, but she's also been one of the most helpful artists when it comes to onboarding new users and collaborating through art. Speaking to a mutual friend Arwyn, I learned of how Whoisit personally took the time to walk him through a complete Voxels set-up - and even donated to him some metaverse-land!
On top of all this, Whoisit was an active participant in the Handprints NFT project - designed and produced by Kane Mayfield, a project which asks:
These sorts of collaborations speak to the character of Whoisit, as someone who, although satirical and sometimes sarcastic with her art, is a genuine achiever and enabler.
As you can see, Helen has been BUSY.
Now... before we move on to this week's art drop, let me share with you just one more asset... This is Helen's third Fake Rare, FAKEANTHEM.
If you know you know... you just gotta put those diamond hands up - click through to hear Helen rap!
The Art:
For Gazette #126, we have an art drop that is truly a magnificent piece of storytelling art.
This is fitting, because if we were to apply numerological reduction, we would get from #126 to the number 9. This number, being that it is the last single digit number, represents wisdom and completion, but not finality. Think of it more in a cyclical sense; it's about the ending of one cycle and the potential it creates for another cycle to begin.
Perhaps, this may be the first time someone is reading about our beloved frog... well, for you, anon, it is just the beginning, but for us, it is PEPEHISTORY.
Whoisit has done simply an incredible job of layering assets, which were first hand-drawn in vector, together before employing a powerful pan and scan technique (sometimes referred to as the Ken Burns effect) along with layered animations, to tell a story which exists entirely in its parts (scattered throughout the internet), together into a single NFT, that really does cover Pepe's origin story.
PEPEHISTORY is absolutely STACKED with what is sure to become (if it isn't already) ancient esoteric wisdom!
With references to frog king, Matt Furie, the lows of 4chan (& highs of Fake Rares), Pepe getting political, appropriation by normies, and even taking some time to highlight a few of the pepe projects that are currently taking web3 by storm... this asset has a bit of everything, and I haven't even mentioned the sound bites!!
It wouldn't be right to discuss PEPEHISTORY without once again thanking some of the greatest minds in the game... Mike, Joe Looney, John, Shawn Leary, Theo Goodman, JDOG, Bench, Scrilla & Indelible, to name but a few cool heads.
Without these people, none of what's happening now would likely be happening at all. For your foresight, and for your density, the culture thanks all of you.
And of course, Helen, we thank you too.
Parting thought:
The last six weeks have been six of the greatest weeks of my life.
Connecting with artists, collaborating on ideas, and generating feedback loops (to enable improvement in artists and their art... but equally, in me as a curator and communicator), is an experience that seems to have given me just as much as I have given it.
Curating is like another layer, on top of the many layers we've already woven in web3, that I never really expected the opportunity to be involved in, but, given it, I've found it to be something that I really enjoy. So, firstly, I'm grateful to Redlion for the opportunity to show up and do some engaging work.
I'm also incredibly grateful to have my name attached to the 7 artists included in the pushin P curation. All of whom, I believe, will continue to create and inspire us all for a very long time to come.
Though we've been focused on Whoisit's PEPEHISTORY this week, there is certainly a bright PEPEFUTURE ahead.
Want to get to heaven, anon? It's quite simple actually, we just need to repent with memes.
My last bit of advice - would be to stick close to the ones who add fuel to your flames, and for me, that is most definitely the Fake Rare Community, who are, despite their name, about as rare as they come.
Check out free NFT ArtDrop by Whoisit here
Associated Projects:
- MikaboshiDAO - Cross Chain NFT Art Community
- SeeingRed - Marketplace for Mikaboshi Art
- Phunchkins - BTC NFT Community
- Fake Frunks - ETH PFP Collection
- Handprints - A Kane Mayfield Joint Production
- I'm sure it's nothing
Additional links:
- WhoisitNFT.com
- pepe.wtf - Whoisit (Fakes, Danks, Commons)
- rlc.wtf - Whoisit (XCP)
- Dankset - Whoisit (XCP)
- OpenSea - Whoisit (ETH)
- Objkt - Whoisit (XTZ)
- Instagram - whoizzitnft
