Lot 501 | Gavin Evans | The Ai Wei Wei Godpixel #1

Evans, Gavin 
1964 Sunderland, England

Title: The Ai Wei Wei Godpixel #1
Created: 2021. Source photographs taken in Berlin, Germany, 17/01/2018. Camera: Sony A7Rll. Lens: Sony 55mm/ FE1.8

This is a hybrid NFT, ie. the buyer of the NFT also receives a unique, signed "Special Commemorative NFT Giclée print" of the purchased motif. Dimensions: 50x50 cm.

Subject to Change – Hyperreality and the Godpixel

For the past two years acclaimed photographer Gavin Evans has been experimenting with the transposition of his works into the virtual world. With his project "Subject to Change – Hyperreality and the Godpixel", Evans has found a way through the deployment of morphing techniques to translate his iconic portraits into virtual artworks. For each work he started by taking two of his photographs, portraits of the same subject. These portraits differed in time or expression or both. What follows is the creation of 99 frames bridging the original source images. Frame #50 is selected from this sequence. This frame is the precise moment where the two source images collide. This is the Godpixel – the moment of creation, indistinguishable from reality – an image of pure hyperreality.

In "Subject to Change – Hyperreality and the Godpixel" the photograph doesn't stop at the press of a button. For VAN HAM's inaugural NFT auction Gavin Evans presents five 'Godpixel' frames accompanied by a 50x50 cm signed commemorative print. PAN-NFT have minted the 'Godpixel' NFTs, each 58 Megapixels in size, on the Ethereum blockchain. For increased security the images reside on both ArWeave and IPFS/Filecoin. Each Godpixel NFT is accompanied by a one-off commemorative 50x50 cm signed print.

Berlin based photographer Gavin Evans is renowned for his uncompromising take on portraiture. Luminaries of dance and theatre including Lloyd Newson, Carlos Acosta, Robert LePage, Rufus Norris, Tom Morris and Romeo Castellucci have sought his talent. A league of legendary musicians and actors including David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Gary Oldman, Daniel Craig, Massive Attack, Nick Cave, Björk, Terry Gilliam, Jean Paul Gaultier, Derek Jarman, Juliette Binoche, Harvey Keitel and Brian Wilson have come under the scrutiny of his lens. Countless publications ranging from The New York Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Paris Match to Tempo magazine have featured his work. Galleries and institutions such as the Institute for Contemporary Arts, The Victoria & Albert Museum and British Library in London have shown his work.

Gavin's practice in the digital arts started in the formative years of the digital revolution. His prescient 1992 digital project 'dis' envisaged a change from photomechanical to digital processes that would provide new techniques for the imperceptible manipulation of information, images and subsequently society. His digitally manipulated artworks examined the collection and presentation of data for the purpose of control. Esteemed writers including Arthur Miller and Nobel Prize Winners of Literature Wole Soyinka and Joseph Brodsky wrote texts to accompany Evans images. 'dis' was premiered at The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, toured with Fotofeis and was exhibited alongside eminent digital artists of the time including Nam June Paik. 2021 saw Evans and his long time collaborator Kai Davenport form PAN-NFT.com and embed the very first photograph directly onto the Ethereum blockchain. The iconic 1 Megapixel photograph of David Bowie marked a historic moment in the evolution of NFTs and the blockchain.

Owner: Gavin Evans
Token ID: 1
Token Type: NFT ERC-721
Blockchain: Ethereum
SmartContactAdr.: 0x7d9179808e3841c6c00c2351fca35a00ed86c275
Filename: The-Ai-Weiwei-Godpixel©Gavin-Evans-#1.jpg
Format: JPEG
Dimensions: 7680x7680 Pixel
Size: 17 MB

In addition to our GTC, the special conditions for auctions of NFTs also apply. You can find them here.

Condition Report:
Token Type: ERC721
Blockchain: Ethereum
Fixed Supply: Yes
Metadata Storage: On chain (Ethereum)
Media Storage: Arweave (primary) & IPFS/Filecoin (backup)
Additional Interfaces:
* ERC165
* ERC721Metadata
* ERC721Enumerable
* ERC2981

Summary: Excellent condition

The token conforms to the ERC721 standard with no deviations and so can be listed on all NFT marketplaces.

The integrity of the token data storage security is excellent for the following reasons:
- The "tokenURI" method returns a "data:" URL meaning the metadata is as secure as the token itself (i.e. it lives on chain)
- The image is stored on both Arweave and IPFS/Filecoin and so is stored on multiple decentralized platforms.
- The "updateTokenURI" method (callable only by the current token owner) means that the metadata can be restored if needed

The supply of the token contract has been sealed, meaning there is a fixed supply of tokens.

The token will automatically apply a 5% royalty payment to the original artist using the following methods:
- an ERC2981 interface (used by Mintable and other marketplaces)
- the Rarible 0xb7799584 interface
- the Opensea collection has a 5% royalty setting
The contract will allow the royalty information to be updated but will disallow the percentage royalties to be increased from 5%.

PAN-NFT Certificate: https://www.van-ham.com/fileadmin/Redaktion/Auktionen/NFT_Zertifikate/73069-01.pdf