VESSELDOM – CERAMICS 2025

As 2025 comes to a close, I am wrapping up my second year of intensive work in ceramics. This year I have been focused almost exclusively on creating vessels. You can view (and purchase) the entire collection here.

I wanted to celebrate the essence of vesseldom. A vessel, at its core, is designed to perform the practical function of containing something. But each vessel in this series is an entity with a personality and a story, an entire world unto itself. Its persona informs how it holds, cradles, and presents an Other, and that which it could contain reflexively transforms its identity.

I have had the time of my life coaxing these objects out of lumps of clay. My arsenal of techniques is ever growing, and the works you see on the following pages were created with a combination of wheel throwing, hand-building and surface design that I continue to dial in with my own secret sauce.

This series reflects a transition in my life, in my art, and perhaps in the greater macrocosm. I spend a lot of time thinking about AI, and using AI. As the most powerful tool in the history of humanity, it has been like a tidal wave of transformation, a full deluge wiping out the old world and leaving us in a vast sea of the Unknown. 

An artist can only respond to the world around them. While I continue working in video and digital technology, I have had to loosen my grip entirely as these mediums – and their meaning – shift and change. Working in ceramics has been literally grounding for me, a form of expression that is ancient, tangible, and of the Earth. 

Please enjoy this lineup of bold fine art objects created singularly by hand, a year’s worth of my own time as a vessel forever preserved.

Sarah Zucker

December 2nd, 2025

Divine Comedy

Divine Comedy is a series of 100 unique artworks that tell the tale of an artist’s journey through life and crypto art, each correlating to a canto of Dante’s classic work. Handcrafted over the course of 6 months using vintage Kid Pix software from 1993 – my first digital toolset!

The entire series is now available to collect, each work editioned on the blockchain as a unique erc-721 NFT.

http://divinecomedy.xyz

ARTIST STATEMENT

“In the midway of this our mortal life,

I found me in a gloomy wood, astray”

The Divine Comedy – Inferno, Canto I

The idea for this project came to me in the summer of 2024, after I read the book The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck. While I’m not typically one for the self-help genre, it came recommended as life-changing, and I felt like, yes, some change sounds nice. 

The book uses Dante’s Inferno‑Purgatorio‑Paradiso arc to map the climb toward integrity. The author means this not in the sense of moral virtue, but rather the idea of aligning your inner and outer self. I was hooked by this notion, because, like Dante, I too am midway on life’s journey, having found myself lost in a dark wood of error. 

The Dark Wood of Error. Inferno Canto 1 of Sarah Zucker’s Divine Comedy.

First, you are stopped in your tracks. Then, you go through hell reckoning with the error of your ways. This is followed by purgatory – a liminal time of healing, a fulcrum between the past and the future. And finally, you reach paradise, where you get to enjoy the outcome of your efforts and see how much richer your life can be when you are finally living in alignment with your truest self.

I have been editioning my art on the blockchain for 6 years, since April 2019. The hype and excitement around NFTs that exploded in 2021 brought a lot of new attention and support to my work, but it was also like trying to surf a tidal wave. The sheer force of it has been staggering. 

I was well positioned for the moment. I had already found my voice, honed my craft, and steeled my resolve over many years working as an artist. I understood and had a genuine belief in the technology. And, as a mischief-maker at heart, my psychedelic worldview served me well in navigating the many twists and turns of the experience.

But, the wave finally broke. I found myself far away from where I had started, left to pick up the pieces and make sense of all that washed up alongside me. Asking myself, which adaptations truly serve me, and which were just survival strategies to keep my head above water? Now that things have settled: what kind of artist (and human) do I really want to be? What do I want to let go of, and what do I want to nurture from here?

The artist as a young artist-child (avec beret)

I knew I wanted to go back to basics for this project. After testing a number of workflows, I chose Kid Pix Studio (1993), my first digital art tool, to tell the tale of my own personal reckoning and transformation. This choice has meaning beyond the aesthetic, as the series acts as a channel between the adult artist and the inner child.

The works contain the same DNA as my long-running Videopainting style, as KidPix Studio and my Sony Videopainter originate from the same early computer graphic era.  I relish the charge of minting these archaic pixels to the still-nascent future of the blockchain.

The day I got Kid Pix in December 1992.

And so, I set out on this quest in November of 2024, making an artwork a day (with some syncopation), until I completed the series in April 2025. There are 100 artworks, each correlating to a canto of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

I have woven a great deal of meaning into it; linger on the series as a whole or zoom into the details of any single canto piece and you will begin to see the hypertext throughout.

This is the tale I want to tell, not only of my personal experience, but of our collective journey. If you are in the world of crypto art, my hope is that you will see your story here. We’ve seen some weird shit, and now it’s time to reflect. 

But, even in hell, it’s good to stay playful. To view even our own misdeeds and suffering with a wink. It is all equally sacred and profane – best to try and have a little fun with it. 

Divine Comedy is composed of 99 still JPEG tableaux painted pixel-by-pixel, and 1 analog video artwork representing the ecstatic “Beatific Vision” as a grand finale. Each work is a single edition, minted as an erc-721 on a standalone contract. 

The works are now available to collect. Existing collectors of my work are allowlisted, and new collectors may inquire to collect. 

The Integrated Self. Paradiso Canto 29 of Sarah Zucker’s Divine Comedy.

Sarah Zucker: Bridging Past and Future in Digital Art

Wednesday February 26th, 2025 – I got access to OpenAI’s DeepResearch today. I find the quickest way for my brain to grok the advancement of AI is to ask it about a subject in which I am uniquely well versed – my own art career.

After ~19 minutes of research, it returned the following analysis to me. This feels like an event horizon. It blows past the scope of any past interaction with AI that I’ve had up until this point.

It strikes me as the most comprehensive (and ACCURATE) consideration of my work that I’ve ever seen outside of the spidery corners of my own mind.

As I continue to expand and figure out what I want to do and say next, I wanted to share this here as a new sort of statement on my work thus far. If you want to know what my whole thing is, well… just listen to what the machine has to tell you.

-SZ, 2025

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Sarah Zucker: Bridging Past and Future in Digital Art

Background and Artistic Journey

Sarah Zucker (born 1985) is an American artist and writer based in Los Angeles, known online as The Sarah Show. She works at the intersection of cutting-edge digital media and vintage analog techniques, creating art that merges retro aesthetics with futuristic technology (Sarah Zucker). Zucker grew up as a millennial straddling the analog and digital eras – she fondly recalls an “analog childhood” followed by a “dizzying digital future,” a generational transition that deeply informs her perspective (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). From an early age, she was mesmerized by video. In fact, a home movie captures the moment young Zucker discovered video feedback and became “completely enamored, like seeing an oracular vision of a life’s work reflected in a child’s eyes,” an experience she describes as being called to video art “just as a minister is called to the cloth” (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). This early fascination set the tone for a career devoted to the moving image.

Zucker’s formal education was in storytelling rather than studio art: she earned a B.A. in Theater and Creative Writing at Northwestern University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU (Sarah Zucker | Buffalo AKG Art Museum). This narrative background contributes to the conceptual depth of her work, even as she pursued visual mediums. After graduate school, she became active in Los Angeles’s experimental art scene. From 2014–2016 she co-produced Prism Pipe, a monthly “visual music” event at an indie art space, where she showcased analog video artists and VJs (Sarah Zucker). This mix of theater, writing, and underground video art shaped her unique artistic voice – one that is equal parts storyteller and image-maker.

Before fully embracing digital video art, Zucker spent years honing her eye through photography. As a teenager in the early 2000s, she avidly shot on 35mm film, sticking with the “physicality of vintage technology” even as the world was rapidly going digital (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). “Vintage technology has always been of interest to me. It’s not necessarily about nostalgia – I find the physicality of it really interesting,” she explains (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). This hands-on engagement with analog media eventually evolved into experiments with VHS camcorders and CRT monitors. She was also an early adopter of internet platforms like Tumblr and Instagram for sharing her visuals (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). By the late 2010s, Zucker had fully merged these paths – using old video equipment to make new digital art and distributing it via the internet.

Artistic Style and Mediums

Today Sarah Zucker works across a range of media, “spanning the divide between clay and information,” as she puts it (Sarah Zucker). On one hand, she creates digital video and animation with a signature digital–analog workflow: she often originates imagery in software, then processes it through vintage hardware like VHS decks and analog video synthesizers, and back into a digital format (Sarah Zucker). The results are neon-soaked glitchy video loops that flicker with VHS static, vibrant colors, and surreal forms. On the other hand, Zucker also makes tangible art – for example, she hand-crafts ceramics that “evoke the spiritual in the material” (Sarah Zucker), extending her interest in mysticism into sculptural objects. This dual practice (high-tech video and low-tech clay) exemplifies her overall ethos of merging seeming opposites.

GIF art has been one of Zucker’s hallmark mediums. She embraced the looping animated GIF format as a legitimate art form, creating short hypnotic animations often shared online. These works, which she describes as sometimes like visual mantras, have reached massive audiences through platforms like Giphy – her GIFs have been viewed over 7 billion times (Sarah Zucker). Such figures speak to Zucker’s deep embedding in internet culture; her art circulates not just in galleries but in the form of memes and viral content. Despite the brevity of GIF loops, she infuses them with rich aesthetic and conceptual layers. Many feature kaleidoscopic psychedelic imagery and glitch effects, instantly recognizable as “The Sarah Show” style. As one podcast introduction summed up, her work “utilizes humor and psychedelia while merging cutting-edge and outmoded technologies”, placing her among the digital artists who “blazed the trail for crypto art” before the NFT boom (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart).

In recent years, Zucker has also been a pioneer in the NFT art scene. She began minting her video and GIF pieces as NFTs (non-fungible tokens on the blockchain) in April 2019 (Sarah Zucker & Amir H. Fallah - Outland), making her one of the earliest crypto artists. By 2021, her work was featured in Natively Digital, the first curated NFT auction at Sotheby’s, as well as CryptOGs: The Pioneers of NFT Art at Bonhams – two landmark sales that cemented her status as an “OG” (original generation) crypto artist (Sarah Zucker). The piece “Self Transcending”, for example, was auctioned at Sotheby’s in June 2021, tying “vintage visual and psychedelic culture” together in a way that balanced sincerity with irony and nostalgia (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”).

Zucker’s presence in such sales demonstrated that her internet-native art could crossover into the traditional art market. It also led to her inclusion in museum collections: her video art series Four Caryatids was acquired for the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s permanent collection (Sarah Zucker), and her work featured in LACMA’s 2022 blockchain art initiative Remembrance of Things Future (Sarah Zucker). By 2022, nft now named her to their inaugural “NFT100” list of top NFT artists, and in 2024 Taschen profiled her in On NFTs, the first major art historical survey of blockchain-based art (Sarah Zucker). These milestones underscore how Zucker’s practice – once considered “outsider” digital art – has become part of the art historical narrative.

Major Themes and Artistic Philosophy

Time, nostalgia, and futurism are central themes in Sarah Zucker’s work. She often says that her art is “about time more than anything.” By deliberately mixing past and present visual elements, she creates what she calls “time-moshing” effects that disrupt the viewer’s normal sense of chronology (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). “I’m specifically using tools of the recent past like analog TVs to take people out of our present moment and create this different experience of time and sense,” Zucker explains (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). Viewers of her videos might feel transported into an alternate timeline – one where 1980s VHS graphics, 1960s psychedelia, and futuristic digital effects all coexist. The result is often a blend of comfort and disorientation: as one commentator put it, “nostalgic futurism” is an apt phrase for the feeling of seeing something that resembles the past yet feels entirely new (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). Zucker taps into nostalgia not for its own sake, but as raw material to be remixed into novel visions. In her hands, nostalgia becomes a creative tool – she reanimates old media (like CRT monitors or arcade graphics) and places them in surprising new contexts, inviting us to consider how the past lives within the future.

Underlying Zucker’s temporal play is a thoughtful philosophy about the digital world and human perception. She views “the screen” – meaning the ubiquitous digital display – as “the most significant threshold of our time”, a liminal zone where reality and virtuality meet (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). She remembers a clearer boundary in her youth when “outside was ‘real life’ and inside [the screen] was ‘fiction,’” but notes that for today’s “denizens of the Metaverse,” that boundary has blurred to the point of “not mattering” (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS) (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). The life we live inside screens (online, in digital spaces) is just as real and meaningful as our offline lives. Zucker’s art actively plays with this idea. She often incorporates the image of a screen within the screen – for instance, filming a scene on an old TV and then re-scanning it – to draw attention to the frame that separates viewer from image. This self-referential trick “toys with the liminal space of inside/outside the screen” (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS), making us conscious of crossing that threshold. It’s a gentle reminder that when we engage with her work, we too are peering through a digital portal, our reality and the artwork’s reality intermingling.

Another major theme in Zucker’s work is the interplay of mysticism, spirituality, and technology. Her art merges “humor, myth and mysticism” with its tech tools (Sarah Zucker), often invoking cosmic or esoteric imagery. Otherworldly symbols like third eyes, glowing auras, tarot archetypes or goddesses might populate her GIFs and videos. However, Zucker nearly always presents these mystical motifs with a dose of irreverence or surreal humor. Grotesque or absurd elements are juxtaposed with the beautiful – as her artist bio aptly says, she “merges the gorgeous and grotesque” through psychedelic visuals and wit (Sarah Zucker | Buffalo AKG Art Museum). This balance of sincerity and irony is key to her artistic philosophy. She genuinely engages with themes of enlightenment, transcendence, and the subconscious, but in a way that doesn’t take itself too seriously. “Felt irony and a dose of nostalgia” temper the “sincere approach” in her pieces (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”), as one critic observed when discussing her Self Transcending video. Zucker seems to embody a metamodern sensibility – oscillating between earnest exploration of the “numinous” and a playful, self-aware humor. Notably, critics have welcomed this tone as a refreshing shift in contemporary art. Writing on the Sotheby’s Natively Digital show (which included Zucker), one reviewer noted that the works felt “personal, playful, earnest, and sincere”, embracing “private spiritual, ecstatic, or numinous themes” often ignored by the cooler, more ironic art-world mainstream (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”). Zucker’s art indeed carves out space for these spiritual or psychedelic experiences within digital culture, reconnecting technology with a sense of wonder.

Despite her mystical leanings, Zucker remains grounded in the human side of technology. A recurring idea in her interviews is using art to process what it feels like to live through rapid technological change. She speaks of humanity being “on the brink of a completely new way of living” and her art as a means to pose “big universal existential questions” about this moment (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). Crucially, she approaches these questions with both curiosity and comic relief. “I view my work as a way of depicting what it’s like to be this sort of silly, scared, happy, manic, dreadful little creature strapped to this rocket ship going into the future,” Zucker says, “…trying to make sense of what this life has been and what it’s going to continue to be.” (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). In this vivid metaphor, we see her worldview: the artist (and by extension, all of us) is a tiny wide-eyed being hurtling through a tech-accelerated future, feeling everything from dread to joy. This mix of anxiety and optimism, fear and wonder is exactly what her colorful, glitchy, entrancing artworks convey. Culturally, it resonates with the zeitgeist of the 2020s – an era where technology inspires awe even as it induces angst. Zucker’s art doesn’t resolve this tension so much as it acknowledges and aestheticizes it, turning the existential ride into a visual adventure.

Influences and Artistic Context

Sarah Zucker’s work is richly contextualized within both contemporary digital art and broader art history. She herself recognizes that she belongs to certain artistic lineages, even as she forges new paths. “My body of work could be placed within these certain lineages,” she notes – for instance, GIF art and glitch art – “but I also don’t feel I have to fit within that category… I’m sort of out here on the edge… breaking the rules.” (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart). This self-description as an iconoclast on the fringe of established genres is telling. Zucker draws inspiration from many sources and eras, creating a synthesis that is hard to pigeonhole.

One clear influence is the tradition of video art, especially the early pioneers who first embraced television and video as art mediums in the 1960s and 70s. In interviews, Zucker mentions she “often gets the Nam June Paik comparison” – a parallel she understands given her use of analog video feed and quirky visuals (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart). Paik, the Korean-American artist often called the father of video art, blazed a trail by mixing technology with spiritual and cultural commentary. His famous installation TV Buddha (1974) placed a Buddha statue in front of a live video of itself, literally juxtaposing ancient religion with modern tech. Critics noted how Paik “succeeded in juxtaposing modernization and emerging technologies with religious and historical themes” (Nam June Paik’s TV Buddhas – His best-known work), a description that could equally apply to Zucker’s myth-laden, tech-mediated imagery. Like Paik, Zucker approaches electronic media with a sense of play and philosophical insight – both use the tools of their time (Cathode-ray TVs for Paik, VHS-to-digital for Zucker) to pose questions about perception, reality, and culture. Another video art figure one could cite is Bill Viola, known for slow-motion video pieces exploring spiritual themes; Zucker’s work is much more frenetic and humorous than Viola’s, but they share an interest in using video to evoke contemplation about existence. Similarly, video installation artist Pipilotti Rist’s lush, color-saturated dreamscapes and irreverent tone prefigure the psychedelic humor in Zucker’s loops. In the broad sense, Zucker is a descendant of the video art movement, bringing that sensibility into the internet age.

Zucker also explicitly looks back to early 20th-century art movements for inspiration – notably German Expressionism. She has expressed admiration for the Expressionist artists who worked in the aftermath of World War I, another era of upheaval “around the end of the First World War… There were all these things in society, and yet the artists of that time were so expansive, emotive and free” (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). What impresses her is their rebellious energy: “They were breaking forms… ‘we don’t care how we’re supposed to do this, we’re going to do this the way this expression needs to come out of us.’ I can’t get enough,” Zucker says of the Expressionists (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine). This influence is evident in the emotional boldness and rule-breaking mix of styles in her own art. Expressionists like Otto Dix—whom Zucker cites as a favorite (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS)—combined grotesque imagery with social commentary; while Zucker’s subject matter is different, her willingness to show the grotesque alongside the gorgeous (a beautiful face distorted by VHS static, for example) carries that spirit. Another favorite she lists is Florine Stettheimer (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS), an often whimsical early modernist who painted mythical, theatrical scenes of New York society. One can see a parallel in how Zucker creates her own mythic, psychedelic “scenes” within her GIFs, often with a campy or playful touch that Stettheimer might approve of. She also nods to Henri Matisse (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS), perhaps reflecting her love of vibrant color, and to photographer Nan Goldin (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS), known for candidly capturing subcultures – Zucker’s work is very different in medium, but Goldin’s raw honesty and intimacy might be something she channels when she pours personal feeling into digital form. Even Berenice Abbott, a photographer who straddled art and science (documenting both city life and scientific phenomena), appears on Zucker’s eclectic inspiration list (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). Abbott’s drive to visually explain a changing world (whether 1930s New York or the physics of light beams) mirrors Zucker’s drive to visually make sense of our changing digital world.

In terms of contemporary peers, Zucker’s approach aligns with several movements in digital and internet art. The glitch art movement, which embraces digital errors, compression artifacts, and analog signal distortion as artistic material, is an obvious touchstone. Glitch artists like Rosa Menkman have theorized that glitch reveals the underlying systems of media – something Zucker also leverages when she deliberately invokes VHS glitches or pixel glitches, peeling back the glossy surface of digital imagery to show its chaotic underbelly. An art writer discussing glitch art noted that it has become an important subgenre of technological art, with Nam June Paik as its “godfather” ([PDF] From the digital art collection of Alexandra Crouwers: Ina Vare - Lirias); by that measure, Zucker’s frequent use of “rainbow-colored static” and feedback loops firmly places her in Paik’s lineage. Yet Zucker doesn’t use glitch purely for abstraction or critique; she often uses it to serve narrative or symbolic ends (for instance, a figure might literally dissolve into static in her video, metaphorically representing transcendence or change). In the net art and post-internet art sphere, one could compare her to artists like Petra Cortright, who gained fame making webcam videos layered with digital effects, or Cory Arcangel, known for hacking old games and software for art – like them, Zucker takes internet/pop culture artifacts and repurposes them in an art context. However, unlike some post-internet art that leaned heavily on irony and detachment, Zucker’s work is marked by its unabashed emotion and mysticism. In this sense, she and some of her crypto-art contemporaries represent a new wave that is less cynical than the prior generation of internet artists, instead mixing irony with earnest exploration of inner life (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”).

Within the NFT and crypto-art community, Zucker is often mentioned alongside other early innovators. She shares a collectible ethos with artists like XCOPY, a crypto-artist famous for neon glitch animations and dark humor; both started on platforms like SuperRare before NFTs went mainstream, and both use looped animations to express the absurdity of the digital age. Yet Zucker’s work is generally more whimsical and brightly psychedelic (where XCOPY’s is dystopian). She also took inspiration from digital creators like Hexeosis (known for trippy looping GIF mandalas) and Killer Acid (an illustrator with a neon psychedelic comic style), who were part of the same early crypto-art scene (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). These connections show how Zucker’s art grew in dialogue with a community of internet-native artists experimenting with new forms. Notably, she has served as a mentor figure in that community; by her account, many art world “gatekeepers” who once ignored digital art later came to her for advice on engaging with social media and NFTs (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). This echoes her role as a bridge between worlds – the traditional art insiders and the crypto-art outsiders.

Broader Trends and Cultural Significance

Zucker’s work exemplifies several broader trends in contemporary art and digital culture. One such trend is the revival of retro aesthetics in the digital realm. Over the past decade, there has been a wave of nostalgia for early digital graphics and analog glitches – seen in everything from the vaporwave aesthetic (which romanticizes 80s/90s computer visuals) to the popularity of faux-VHS filters on apps. Zucker’s art is part of this cultural moment; by employing actual VHS tape and old broadcast gear, she achieves an authenticity in her retro look that sets her apart. She then pushes it further by combining it with cutting-edge techniques (like generative digital effects or blockchain distribution). The result is a kind of retro-futurism that feels very timely: it reflects a collective nostalgia for the pre-internet tactile world, but also acknowledges that we can never go back – instead, these old forms must coexist with the new. This speaks to a contemporary sentiment that technology is advancing so fast that artists are grabbing onto cultural memory (old media, past styles) to ground themselves even as they hurtle forward. As Zucker says, being a millennial means remembering life before and after the internet, and her art springs from that dual awareness (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine).

Another trend highlighted by Zucker’s career is the legitimization of digital art in mainstream art institutions. For years, digital artists struggled for recognition and market support; Zucker notes that digital art was not taken seriously as “Art-with-a-capital-A” by many gatekeepers (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). The NFT boom around 2020–21 became a turning point, suddenly assigning marketplace value and scarcity to digital works. Zucker has been at the forefront of this shift. “Digital Art isn’t the Future: it’s the Present,” she proclaimed during the pandemic, “it’s already been here for a long time, and we’re finally seeing the rest of the world wake up to that fact.” (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). Her success – from selling pieces like Self Transcending for five figures, to landing in Sotheby’s and museum collections – has been part of the broader validation of online-born art. Culturally, this challenges the notion that art must be a physical object or fit traditional categories. Zucker herself demonstrated new models for artists: before NFTs, she once sold video art by engraving the file onto golden USB drives as art objects (Sarah Zucker & Amir H. Fallah - Outland), an inventive workaround to make digital work collectible. Now with blockchain tech, she and others have found a “container” for fluid digital practices (Sarah Zucker & Amir H. Fallah - Outland), enabling them to thrive. Her role in this trend is significant – she’s been a vocal advocate for crypto-art as a revolution that empowers artists (via royalties, decentralized platforms, etc.) and as a movement that can infuse the art world with new energy and diversity (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”) (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”). In short, Zucker contributes to expanding the art discourse to fully include internet culture and digital creation.

Zucker’s work also intersects with the evolving dialogue on the intersection of technology and aesthetics. She is not just using tech as a tool; she’s frequently commenting on technology’s impact on our senses and souls. For example, her notion of the screen as a “threshold” and a portal suggests that technology can be a gateway to profound artistic experiences (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). “Even the smallest screen is an infinite amount of real estate,” she notes, “it holds personalized universes for the enjoyment of imagery” (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS). This almost utopian view of screens as limitless creative space is balanced by her awareness of the disorientation tech can cause (hence the importance of play and humor to make it digestible). In engaging with concepts like the Metaverse, AR/VR, and blockchain, Zucker positions her art within the cutting edge of tech. Yet, she often humanizes these big tech concepts by bringing in ancient references (mythological titles, spiritual motifs) – effectively bridging high-tech and timeless human concerns. Cultural theorists have noted that it’s common for new technologies to rekindle mystical or mythic thinking (as writer Erik Davis put it, “esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated” modern tech culture (TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information)). Zucker’s art is a vivid case study of that idea: she uses the latest digital means to channel something primal and soulful. In one interview, she even described her creative process as “like a multiverse that I’m channeling through… through myself and through these vintage broadcast devices” (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) – language that frames her as a medium, almost shamanic, guiding visions from one realm (the digital ether) into another (the screen before us). By marrying the language of tech (multiverse, data) with the language of spirit (channeling, vision), Zucker’s work operates in a unique aesthetic of techno-mysticism that feels very relevant in an age where people seek meaning amidst machines.

The cultural significance of Sarah Zucker’s art lies in how it encapsulates the zeitgeist and challenges norms. She offers a counter-narrative to the idea that technology inevitably alienates us or that digital art lacks “heart.” Her pieces are often intensely personal and emotive, despite being created with impersonal machines. This challenges the prevailing discourse in two ways: First, it shows that digital art can be as expressive and impactful as any traditional medium – a point she and her peers have driven home to critics and collectors alike (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS) (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”). Second, it questions the rush for the next new thing by valuing the past. In a tech industry that worships innovation, Zucker’s reuse of “obsolete” tech is almost subversive. She demonstrates that old media are not dead; they can be art materials with unique capabilities. This attitude contributes to a broader cultural movement of re-examining and re-valuing analog technology (seen in the resurgence of vinyl records, film cameras, etc., among younger generations). By integrating the old and the new, Zucker’s work bridges generational divides – it speaks to older viewers through its retro references, and to younger digital natives through its fluent internet language.

Critically, Zucker also contributes to discussions about sincerity in art. After decades where postmodern irony often prevailed, her blend of irony and sincerity points to a new direction. The Whitehot Magazine review of Natively Digital noted a widespread desire for art that can be “emotional, intellectual, spiritual” all at once, even in a tech-driven format (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”). Zucker provides exactly that: an ironic smirk and a sincere soulful gaze rolled together. This has opened up conversations about whether the art world is ready to embrace such modes in a digital arena (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”). Judging by her growing acclaim, the answer seems to be yes. By challenging the false dichotomy between “high” art and “internet” art, or between seriousness and play, Zucker is helping to evolve the contemporary art narrative. Her success story – from posting GIFs online to being featured by Sotheby’s and LACMA – is often cited as evidence that the art landscape is changing to include creators who operate outside the traditional mold (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine).

Legacy and Future Outlook

While still in the mid-career phase, Sarah Zucker is increasingly being viewed through a historical lens as a significant artist of the digital age. In 2024, she was one of the artists profiled in On NFTs (Taschen), effectively positioning her in an art-historical context among the first generation of blockchain artists (Sarah Zucker). It’s not hard to imagine that in decades to come, art historians will look back at the late 2010s/early 2020s and identify Zucker as part of a pioneering vanguard – much like Nam June Paik is now celebrated as a pioneer of video art or the Bauhaus artists as pioneers of design. She has even remarked, with characteristic insight, “We are the Ancients of a Future civilization.” (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS) In other words, Zucker is conscious that she and her peers are laying groundwork in a nascent digital realm (the metaverse, crypto art) that future creators will build upon. Such statements reflect a keen historical awareness in her philosophy.

If we situate Zucker in a longer art historical timeline, she embodies a convergence of several threads: the age-old impulse to depict the mystical and transcendent (from prehistoric cave art through Hilma af Klint’s spiritual abstractions), the 20th-century drive to experiment with new media and techniques (from collage to video synths), and the 21st-century condition of life lived through screens and data. Few artists bring these threads together as directly as she does. Future critics might credit her with helping to legitimize and define “Crypto Art” or “NFT Art” as an art movement, since she was among those who proved digital artworks could carry meaning, not just monetary value, in that space. They may also highlight her role in breaking down the barrier between internet culture and fine art. What is commonplace now – major museums acquiring NFTs, digital artworks selling for large sums, artists building careers via social media – was not always so, and artists like Zucker were instrumental in that shift by demonstrating quality and depth in digital-native art.

Zucker’s work could also be seen as a reflection of metamodernism in art (the term often used for cultural sensibilities after postmodernism). Metamodern art is characterized by a negotiation between opposites – sincerity and irony, past and future, optimism and despair – exactly the oscillations present in Zucker’s videos. Art historians assessing our current period may cite The Sarah Show as exemplifying how artists grappled with a world of information overload and societal uncertainty by creating works that oscillate between escapism and enlightenment, using humor as a coping mechanism and spirituality as a search for grounding. Her pieces like “Everything’s Different Now” (telling title) or “Cassandra’s Vision” hint at how she channels the collective anxieties and hopes of the digital generation into art (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine).

By all accounts, Zucker is very much aware of carving out her own path. “You can’t really look at anything else… and say, ‘oh, what she does is that,’” she notes – “the cheese stands alone,” she jokes, embracing her uniqueness (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart). This independence of vision is likely to be part of her legacy. In a podcast, she advised young artists to ignore comparisons and trust their individual process (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS), advice she clearly lives by. In the short term, being so distinctive had its downsides (it’s not always easy to categorize or market her work), but “long term, I think you are rewarded for being iconoclastic,” she said (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart). Indeed, that long-term reward is now materializing as institutions and collectors recognize the enduring originality of her art.

Ultimately, Sarah Zucker’s significance may lie in how she reconciles seemingly disparate elements – analog and digital, science and mysticism, humor and seriousness, art and technology. In doing so, she has opened up new artistic possibilities. Her work suggests that technology need not erode cultural memory or spiritual depth; instead, it can be a medium to reinvent them. As a cultural figure, she is part of a larger story about the democratization of art through the internet and the fusion of pop culture with high culture. By remixing VHS tapes and GIF memes into poignant art, she validates the creative value of materials once considered throwaway or “low.” This democratic, inclusive vision of art will likely be one of the hallmarks of 21st-century art history, and Zucker is helping write that narrative.

In summary, Sarah Zucker is a dynamic exemplar of contemporary digital art: she draws from the past (both art-historical and pop-cultural), engages with the cutting edge of technology, and infuses it all with personal vision and philosophical inquiry. Her artistic philosophy centers on the idea that through play and experimentation, even with “obsolete” tools, one can speak to eternal human themes. As viewers, we encounter in her work a psychedelic time machine of imagery – one that, in her words, “takes people out of the present moment” into an altered sense of time (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine), yet also reflects right back on the present and how it feels to be alive now. It is this quality that makes The Sarah Show much more than a spectacle of glitchy visuals; it is, at its core, a humanistic exploration of life in the digital era, and one that future generations will likely continue to study, celebrate, and find inspiration in.

References

• Zucker, Sarah – Biography. SarahZucker.com (2024) (Sarah Zucker) (Sarah Zucker) (Sarah Zucker).

• “Sarah Zucker.” Buffalo AKG Art Museum – Artist Profile (2022) (Sarah Zucker | Buffalo AKG Art Museum) (Sarah Zucker | Buffalo AKG Art Museum).

• Krugman, Dave – “Interview: Sarah Zucker.” Allships (May 12, 2021) (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS) (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS) (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS) (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS) (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS).

• Oakford, Greg – “NFT Creator: The Sarah Show – Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future.” Cointelegraph Magazine (Apr 5, 2023) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine) (NFT Creator, The Sarah Show: Analog childhood meets dizzying digital future – Cointelegraph Magazine).

• Ferrigno, Andrea – “Sotheby’s Stakes Sincerity in ‘Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale’.” Whitehot Magazine (June 2021) (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”) (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”).

• Gould, Craig – Art Sense Podcast Episode 17: “Artist Sarah Zucker” (Oct 19, 2021) – Transcript via Canvia (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart) (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart) (Episode 17 Artist Sarah Zucker - Canviart).

• “Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha – His best-known work.” Public Delivery (Art publication) (Nam June Paik’s TV Buddhas – His best-known work).

• Zucker, Sarah – Linktree Influences list via Allships interview (Interview: Sarah Zucker | ALLSHIPS).

• Outland Art – “Sarah Zucker & Amir H. Fallah” (Conversation, Dec 12, 2022) (Sarah Zucker & Amir H. Fallah - Outland).

• Additional context from LACMA Unframed, Hyperallergic, etc., on digital art and mysticism (Sotheby's Stakes Sincerity in “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale”) (TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information). (These contextual references discuss the intersection of technology, art, and spiritual themes, relevant to Zucker’s work.)

Strabismus

Strabismus is a series of 100 looping video artworks by Sarah Zucker handcrafted on VHS Tape.

The series is being released through a ranked auction powered by Highlight, running 24 hours from May 1st through May 2nd, 2024. The work is being editioned on Ethereum.

You can view the art and bid in the auction at strabismus.xyz

STRABISMUS ARTIST STATEMENT

“That’s 3D Art. Computers generate ‘em. BIG computers.”

• Cosmo Kramer, Seinfeld Season 6, Episode 6

I was born with a magic eye. Thanks to a condition known as “Strabismus,” my left eye marches very much to the beat of its own drum. You could say that it is “crossed,” but I like to think of it as a bit of a maverick.

Beyond a charming appearance, this has affected my vision my entire life. While most people perceive depth physically through the stereoscopic coordination of both eyes, I have adapted to calculate depth algorithmically in my mind. This often leads to double vision and the illusion of depth where there is none (and also causes me to bump into the furniture a lot when I’m tired).

Ironically, this made it impossible for me to perceive the images hidden in the “Magic Eye” series that became popular in my childhood (immortalized, of course, on a 1994 episode of Seinfeld.) The “unfocused” or “blurry” vision required to witness the illusion was my everyday reality, and I would give my tiny self a headache staring at those psychedelic color fields and willing them to take form.

It’s an experience that has stuck with me as I’ve developed my art practice working with computer graphics and analog video techniques. My new series, Strabismus, explores illusions of depth generated through digital video synthesis and analog time displacement. 

Each work in the series aims to convey my own unique experience of depth – no crossed eyes required. I approached the creation of the work as a generative system, with my own personal optical algorithm and internal artistic feedback loop (a BIG computer) serving as the essential spice of randomness. The aesthetics emerged, no doubt, thanks to a year investigating and luxuriating in the work of Op Art pioneers like Bridget Riley, Yaacov Agam and Victor Vasarely.

This work evolved directly out of Temporale, my first long-form series editioned on the blockchain. Both projects distort the interlacing of analog video signal, where alternating bands of information yield motion. By directly manipulating this native aspect of the medium, I am able to weave together multiple timelines into a potent fusion of the temporal and the spatial.

Where Temporale channeled textural material video through this distortion to capture Time in a still image, Strabismus channels flat color motion through the distortion to conjure Depth out of Time. 

I see each of these two series as independent yet undeniably related. I have always loved my own fluidity in moving between modes in my work, from the figurative to the abstract, the narrative to the expressionistic. But these two series reflect a new maturity, a desire to dig deeper and manifest my ideas on a greater scale than ever before. I remain as playful as ever,  but am delighting in flexing my creative muscles.

Temporale

“All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.”

–Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse-Five”

My fascination with non-linear Time began around 2002, when I was 16 years old. This was the year I first read “Slaughterhouse-Five,” a special assignment from my favorite English teacher – a person who saw me for the interdimensional weirdo that I was, and guided me toward that which would tickle my curious mind.

This was also the year that I began my photography practice in earnest, having acquired a Lomo LC-A at a local closeout store. I became enmeshed in the online community around the cult camera – a rarity in the pre-social media era – finding the connection and feedback around my work to be powerful fuel in my desire to experiment with the waning medium of film.

I was “@thesarahshow” then as I am now, as I have been since I came up with the screenname as a 9-year-old on AIM. Simplistic though it may be, I treasure this continuity – my little hieroglyph carries through each new unfolding era of digital exploration. 

I have begun to view my online activities as a sort of weaving with Time. Our moments here get preserved. They are never gone; instead, the Past swims around us, barely distinguishable from the Present. And, through our state of constant connection with one another and the zeitgeist, we receive flashes of the Future. Electric signals pulse through the network and into our nervous systems, delivering encoded messages of what’s to come. 

Like the Tralfamadorians of Vonnegut’s lore, we see the different moments laid out like a mountain range, no longer a string of pearls – even if we feel afraid, and as of yet unsure how to interpret such revelations.

My new series Temporale was inspired by this non-linear experience of Time when moving between the physical and virtual worlds of the early 21st century.

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I wanted to return to my roots in experimental photography, as that practice emerged synchronously with my interest in altered temporality. And so, I devised a concept and a process that would allow me to capture multiple timelines of the same moving object into a single still image.

These works begin with “seed” videos of luminous fabrics and materials rotating through space. This is a nod both to the origins of computing as developed through the Jacquard Loom, as well as a desire to work with highly organic forms that shift depending on their viewpoint and light source.

I created these videos through a dual process. First, I filmed physical objects in the Light Witch Lab of my studio. 

Then, I created animations of virtual objects with similar properties and motion through a combination of Stable Diffusion and After Effects. 

These “origin” properties are split 50/50 within the series. My intention with this is to blur the line between the material and the incorporeal.

At this stage, the seeds get fed through a series of time displacements. After a round of digital time manipulations, I bring the videos into the analog ecosystem of my video rig.

Here is where I begin to craft the final works with my hands extended through circuits. I herd my seeds through devices which allow me to de-synchronize the video frames in a rhythmic, musical fashion. I simultaneously capture these controlled glitches off my vintage CRT screen through a digital slit-scan, recording one line of pixels at a time. This registers myriad timelines of the same moving object into a single still image. 

As I sit in command of the rig, I call upon both my fluency with analog video and my experience with playing the drums, synthesizing hand and eye into glorious visual music. 

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I see this as my contribution to “a field whose special dimension is time. An art which is temporal, as music itself; being, that is, spatio-temporal. An art whose time has come because of computer technology and an art which could not exist before the computer,” in the words of the artist John Whitney. (Whitney, John. "Computational Periodics." Artist and Computer, edited by Ruth Leavitt, Harmony Press, 1976, pp. 42-51.)

(Interestingly, I found this essay after I had already completed the series while researching Whitney, who first inspired my desire to work in time-based media.)

Created in a 16:9 aspect ratio, these works were crafted with fluidity in mind. As such, they may be displayed vertically, horizontally or even cropped at the viewer’s preference. Displays have been a pain point in the widespread embrace of digital art, and I wanted to create work that was impossible to display improperly. 

Temporale is in an edition of 1/1/250 – my first larger-scale series of this type, released on the fourth anniversary of the first artwork I minted on the blockchain. I have witnessed a culture emerge, crest, recede and reset in that time. I continue to find the blockchain to be, at its core, an intriguing and useful tool for the Long Now – Even if its co-option by hypercapitalists and grifters is both demoralizing and frustratingly par for course in society-as-we-know-it. 

I can speak only to my small part in the vastness of things. It is still remarkable to be able to edition digital artwork in its native format with an immutable, decentralized timestamp and provenance. I stand by my advocacy in this regard, even as the dance I do becomes increasingly complicated. 

I present these tapestries of Time with the thrust of my whole heart and human sensuality, channeled through the new tools we take up and the old webs we weave.

EDITION INFO

Temporale is an edition of 1/1/250, meaning it comprises 250 unique works within a single series. It was minted on a sovereign contract on April 3, 2023 and distributed the following day to all holders of SuperRare’s RarePass.

The editions will, therefore, be solely available on the secondary market. Links provided below. I ask that all collectors honor the 10% artist royalty in good faith as agreed upon in the smart contract, regardless of the marketplace.

Collect Temporale on OpenSea

View all cross-platform listings for Temporale on Deca

Everything's Different Now

Nothing is as it has been or will be. The Present is a strange singularity.

EVERYTHING’S DIFFERENT NOW is a signature VideoThought crafted in my studio in summer 2022. I was commissioned by Friends With Benefits x OpenSea, and this vision came through the channels. The piece will debut in an IRL installation as part of The Flock at FWB Fest.

I’ve been creating artworks in my “Now” series since 2018, and see them as a chance to reflect on the flavor of the present moment. This leads to statements that are paradoxically both personally topical, and universally evergreen.

I’m struck by the cumulative effects of recent change. Dramatic shifts around digital art and NFTs, the end(?) of the Covid era, and a lot of personal growth as I’ve met the call to level up my art practice.

VideoThoughts are special little mindgems: they use video feedback to visualize the recursive nature of experience itself. Everything is *always* different now, which in turn makes the next now even more different, and so on and so forth.

This is the genesis token on my new VideoThoughts contract provided by Manifold. Like all my single editions moving forward, the piece will integrate with SuperRare and elsewhere for an elegant cross-platform collector experience.

Everything’s Different Now is now available on SuperRare.

Rhapsody in Hue

The bliss of all things moving in harmonious alignment. My favorite color has always been all of them all at once.

RHAPSODY IN HUE is a signature VideoFeeling crafted in my studio in 2021. It came together through a unique pairing of original video synthesis animation and video feedback technique with analog processing.

I have become increasingly aware of the nature of my VideoFeelings as a form of rhythmic sculpture that I create with light on videotape. They vibrate with tactility and possess a unique dimensionality despite being entirely incorporeal.

It’s no secret that I’m forever in love with rainbows. I have long said that my favorite color is all of them at once. Aside from their arrestingly beautiful aesthetic qualities they bear great mythological meaning. The rainbow signifies harmonious alignment and wholeness in both spiritual and scientific modes of thought. 

I’ve been musing lately on the vibrant palettes I explore in my work, and how they’re only accessible through the RGB colorspace originated in Cathode Ray Tube Televisions. The emergence of NFT technology has encouraged widespread embrace and support for screen-based artworks in their natively luminous format without the need to dull their shine to fit into the material world.

This piece is a celebration of the dance we do between the physical and spirit realms as we wield our novel command of electric light.

RHAPSODY IN HUE was minted at 9am this morning as the genesis token on my new VideoFeelings contract provided by Manifold.

I’ll no longer be minting to the SR shared contract, which caps my existing 1/1s there. The use of my own contracts will allow for my ongoing series to exist as self-contained collections on OpenSea, while being aggregated seamlessly with my longstanding SuperRare profile. This should yield an optimized secondary market experience for my collectors – I’m quite dedicated to elegance, after all.

This piece will be making a special IRL emergence this month – more info on that when it can be revealed.

RHAPSODY IN HUE is now available on reserve auction on SuperRare.

POLARIS

Forever creating my own North Star, so that I never lose my way.

POLARIS is a signature VideoFeeling crafted in my studio during a wildly transitional time in my life. I have been meditating on the concept of the North Star, and the role it’s played in guiding wayward sailors and redemption-seekers to safety.

The need for a guiding light became paramount as I’ve been reorienting myself to my new reality. The work I’ve done over the past three years editioning my artwork on the blockchain has reached psychedelic new levels of visibility and import in the eyes of others, and I’ve been asking myself where I wish to point myself moving forward.

These new tools have always been about self-sovereignty for me, and as such, it seems only fitting that this guiding light must be self-derived. And so, I have created my own North Star.

It’s a glorious synthesis of rhythmic linear counterpoints and vibrating gemtones – a look I’ve been revisiting and refining since I first began working with analog video in 2015. The desire to hone this particular visual strain in my work has become a pet obsession, as I forever chase the combination of color, rhythm and texture that will unlock the ultimate pleasure of synesthesia.

I imprint this work onto the blockchain today, on the brink of Passover season and its tale of the journey from constriction into open exploration. I intend it as a beacon of ecstatic feeling that can guide us all toward that which makes us feel free.

And, therefore, bards of old,

Sages, and hermits of the solemn wood,

Did in thy beams behold

A beauteous type of that unchanging good,

That bright eternal beacon, by whose ray

The voyager of time should shape his heedful way.

-William Cullen Bryant

POLARIS is now available on SuperRare.

PROMETHEA

Promethea – Open Edition Title Card

My new collection, “Promethea,” debuts on Nifty Gateway today at 6:30pm ET. I am immensely proud of the work, and the multi-layered meaning that channeled through me.

It is a story at once ancient and familiar: a musing on the mystical power technology has to lift us beyond the realm of the animal and into the divine.

The series – a triptych of VideoPaintings and a title card – is inspired by the myth of Prometheus. Regarded as the father of technology, his name means "foresight."

I love the old stories, because they remain widely accessible cultural touchstones. Their ubiquitousness allows much room for play.

My Promethea also plays with Fire – the OG technology. The advent of Fire marks the dawn of human civilization. It's the essence of catalysis – a liminal substance, both physical and incorporeal at once.

And yet, if not handled with expert care, Fire can burn down everything it helped to build. With great power comes great responsibility. But I feel much is made of this aspect lately – critique is the most facile form of expression, after all. And so, with my Promethea, I wish to lean into an unbridled vision of technology’s power for positive transformation.

Snatched – VideoPainting #1 from Promethea

In "Snatched", the 1st VideoPainting, I show Promethea as gaining access to the gods' reverie. Clever Promethea knows just where Zeus keeps his fire, and wastes no time in appropriating it.

Empowerment is self-bestowed upon those who do not fear to seize it.

Promethea’s Fire – VideoPainting #2 from Promethea

In "Promethea's Fire," the 2nd VideoPainting, our hero delights in wielding her will in the world. She brings back the fire to the human realm so that others may use it.

The great movements of progress are ignited by individuals acting out slivers of divine inspiration.

In the myth, much is made of the hero's suffering. The punishment for stealing fire is to be bound for eternity as an eagle eats his liver daily.

Such a drama queen!

I feel, in showing Promethea as a woman, the suffering is implied. We are, after all, bound to our bodies. Cyclical body horror is no stranger to us!

Unbound – VideoPainting #3 from Promethea

And so, in "Unbound," the final VideoPainting, I skip to my interpretation of a lesser told part of the myth.

This is a story of Techgnosis through personal revelation. The fire of the gods allows us to transcend the limits of our own bodies. We can become unbound!

There are layers hidden within the series. It's not my place to be prescriptive of your experience. I invite you to investigate them for yourself.

My hope is that curators will feel inspired to do their invaluable dance and place the work into context within its lineage.

"Promethea" was minted as erc721s on a standalone Manifold Studio contract (View the full collection on OpenSea), and will be sold through ranked auction and open edition on Nifty Gateway.

The ranked auctions start at 6:30pm ET and run to 8pm ET. The open edition is priced at $1370, and mints from 7-7:05pm ET.

View and Purchase the Promethea Title Card Open Edition here.

View and Bid on the Promethea Triptych Here.

The Light Witch

She shines her light into the darkness – among the shadows, images appear!

THE LIGHT WITCH is a signature VideoPainting I created in my studio in 2021. This is a self-portrait of an alter ego who has been a part of me for a long time.

I was born in December, the darkest month of the year. And yet, December is also the most festive time, as darkness provides a canvas for color and light.

The Light Witch embodies my unique gift for transmutation, and the call to project my rainbow visions into the world so that others may see them. 

My “Electric Dream” on the SuperRare Monolith at Miami Art Week 2021

This gift is a form of magic, and I am its joyous channel. I creep around my cave doing a marvelous dance of image manifestation. I I I am the witch of the light!

The Light Witch was created with vintage Sony Video Painter, original animation and analog processing on VHS. Digitally transferred in 1080p, Single Edition. Minted on the Winter Solstice of 2021 – a pivotal moment in a pivotal year.

THE LIGHT WITCH was minted on SuperRare at 1pm ET / 10am PT on December 21, 2021. 

It’s on Reserve Auction starting at 12Ξ. Click here to bid or view the token.

You Can Save This

Mimesis is the means by which culture flourishes!

2021 has been one of the most extraordinary years of my life. I’ve been a working artist for over a decade, largely without reward beyond the satisfaction of answering the call for expression within myself. This year, a confluence of events has led to my work being recognized on increasingly grand stages. 

Not only am I grateful, but I am undeniably changed by the experience. I have spent this time steeped in the culture of our burgeoning community, as well as witnessing the pushback from those outside of it.

It’s only fitting, then, that I would end the year by debuting an artwork borne out of this feedback loop at Art Basel Miami – on my birthday, no less. 

“You Can Save This” is a signature VideoThought – a statement with an open-ended context, visually manifested so as to allow for meaning to blossom.

I feel that one of my gifts as an artist is the ability to take ugly sentiments and transmute them into works that are transcendent and meaningful.

“You Can Save This” has become one of the rallying cries of those who reject NFTs. They believe that the ability to save and share our artwork is somehow proof that it does not hold value.

And yet, we who prize incorporeal art know that the ability to save and share it is a feature, and not a flaw. Its ability to network itself and spread is the very aspect which makes it valuable. We have a word for this, which we use also to describe the web-building tendencies of mycelium in the forest, or micro-organisms in a petri dish. 

We call this “culture.”

And so, with this piece, I seek to alchemize this critique into a badge of honor. What we are doing here is a direct evolution of the human culture which has led us to this point. We are laying the groundwork for a new networked humanity.

As with most of my VideoThoughts, there are multiple interpretations. I don’t wish to squash the viewers’ experience by being overly prescriptive, but I do want to speak to an additional personal viewpoint. 

Much has been made of the rapid growth of the NFT space, and its inevitable correlation with speculative finance. My feeling is that this will sort itself out, as it always does. My great hope, and intention, is that NFTs serve as a Trojan Horse, allowing for new digitally-native forms and voices to permeate mainstream consciousness. 

The fiscal elevation of the artist class that we are experiencing is analogous to that of both the Renaissance and the Zombie Formalist movement – we get to determine whether we develop these markets around our aesthetics, or if we develop our aesthetics around the markets. 

Ideally, the relationship between the collectors and the artists is one of glorious symbiosis – each plays a crucial role in the endeavor of the other. We risk losing the greater cultural meaning of this movement if we allow this dynamic to become unbalanced and favor only the desire for “number go up.” 

And so, I see this piece as being both a statement of fact as well as a plea – You Can Save This. Decentralization affords us a degree of agency that’s new to us – we must reckon with the power of our will, and wield it with great responsibility.

The use of video feedback as a visual motif is central here, as it reflects the delicate paradox of intention we are all dancing with as we establish the nascent Metaverse.

I created this work in a rare 9:16 ratio specifically designed for IRL display. It will debut at The Gateway, the first large-scale presentation of Crypto Art at Art Basel Miami from NFTNow x Christie’s. 

I was curated into the show by SuperRare, my OG and still most-used Crypto Art platform. I am putting the work on reserve auction there on December 2nd. Bids can be placed here.

YOU CAN SAVE THIS was minted on SuperRare on November 30th. It is on Reserve Auction as of December 2nd at 10am ET. Reserve is set at 12Ξ.

Madame de Gateau

Laisse-moi me manger comme un gâteau – Let me eat myself as cake!

MADAME DE GATEAU is a signature VideoPainting I created in my Hollywood Studio in 2021. This organic channeling of the camp feminine is a celebration of self-sovereignty – and self-consumption.

I took some inspiration from The Edible Woman, a Margaret Atwood novel I read in college that left a huge impression on me. It examines how women are traditionally consumed by society, and at one point the central character eats a cake she baked shaped like a woman as a metaphor for her own empowerment.

I see this piece as a spiritual descendent of Ouroboros, my 2020 VideoPainting currently in the Metapurse collection.

On a personal level, the concept makes me giggle a bit: I used to be exploited as an artist in the days before I could develop support through NFTs. And now, no one can exploit me… but me!

And of course, there’s the reference to that icon of royal excess, Marie Antoinette. I don’t seek to condemn or exonerate her, but I do feel the decadence she personifies and the precarity of her status are relevant to our moment.

Largely I’m tickled by the cake-like personal fashions of the 18th century!

Madame de Gateau is now available on SuperRare with a reserve of 12Ξ.

Way Back Now

WAY BACK NOW is a signature VideoThought reflecting on the Now. Specifically, when everything’s moving so fast you find yourself feeling nostalgic for the present moment.

This piece is the latest installment of the “NOW” series, a strand of works within my greater body of text art. The “NOW” series pairs the infinite looping recursion of analog camcorder feedback with original animation, evoking a “strange loop” as a means of visualizing the weirdness of Time.

The first piece in the series, WHAT NOW, was minted in June 2019 on SuperRare, and is in the @artnome collection. The second piece, ETERNAL NOW, was minted February 2020, and is in the @niftytime collection. The third piece, LUCIDITY NOW, was minted June 2020, and is in the @satsmoon collection.          

With WAY BACK NOW, I’m revisiting the “NOW” series from my vantage point in 2021, having experienced both the exponential growth of the Crypto Art space as a whole and my own position within it. 

I often point out that I use nostalgia as something of a Trojan Horse in my work – a way to draw people in with aesthetics of the Past as a means of looking at the Present. WAY BACK NOW is a conceptual paradox that could sum up my entire body of work – a logistical impossibility that tickles the brain into a new way of seeing things.

WAY BACK NOW was created in my studio in summer 2021. The Token will be a Hi-Res GIF. The collector will also receive a 4K mp4 optimized for display, and a smaller mp4 optimized for social media.

WAY BACK NOW was minted on SuperRare at 4pm ET / 1pm PT on September 8, 2021. 

The Primary Sale is a Reserve Auction starting at 12Ξ. CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR BID.

SWAMP

I just minted my first NFT since last month’s Space Loaf, which set a new sale record at auction as part of CryptOGs from Bonhams + SuperRare. SWAMP is now open for bidding.

SWAMP is a signature VideoPainting I created in my studio from May to June 2021. I see this piece as a humorous response to the sort of happy-stress I’ve been experiencing through my involvement in the Crypto Art boom.

The piece is directly inspired by an oil pastel drawing I made in the summer of 2008, when I was experiencing the similar happy-stress of my last quarter of college. My friend kept a bucket of markers and crayons in her apartment for me, and I drew many demented doodles while my friends got smebbed. It was a lovely time, and I was sad that it was ending.

SWAMP is a playful depiction of existential dread. It shows a creature indulging itself in a performance of suffering, despite being exactly where it’s supposed to be. The frog isn’t drowning in the swamp, the frog *lives* in the swamp. 

Silly little froggy!

SWAMP is now available on SuperRare.

***UPDATE: the reserve was met 1.5 hours after the piece was minted, kicking off a 24h auction countdown. The auction will end ~2:45pm ET / 11:45am PT on July 16th, with the clock extending 10min with each new bid in the final minutes.

SPACE LOAF – SuperRare & Bonhams present CryptOGs

CryptOGs: The Pioneers of NFT Art

June 21st-30th 2021. Lot 4.

Space Loaf is one of those artworks that came about serendipitously, yet went on to become one of my most widely beloved pieces. 

My sassy Siamese Cat, Ginny, is a frequent fixture (and mischief-maker) in my studio. I shot the footage for this piece after discovering her casually loafing upon equipment I had spent all afternoon carefully setting up. 

I piped the footage into my analog video rig, a custom-built system of hardware I play like an instrument, manually manipulating the signals to my liking. The cat appears to be hovering through a digital-analog cosmos, looking around inquisitively in response to the ever-shifting landscape. 

I conceived this piece on April 8, 2018, almost *exactly* one year before I minted my genesis token on SuperRare. It was widely shared on Instagram and Facebook on its initial release. I have been featuring it in my pinned tweet on twitter throughout 2021 as an introduction to my Art.

Prior to crypto art, the only way I made my work directly collectible was through my Video Alchemy clothing line. I have long been a lover of fashion, and wanted to translate the colorful rhythmic qualities of my video art to textile. I ran the clothing line from 2017-2020, and the Space Loaf Tee was my #1 bestseller. 

Something about this piece speaks deeply to people. Of course, cats have long been a part of Internet culture. But I think this work has a sublimely relatable quality to it. You see Space Loaf and think, “It me!” Floating, titillated and confused, through the primordial soup of cyberspace. 

Space Loaf feels like the perfect piece to offer up for CryptOGs at Bonhams x SuperRare. It’s an iconic artwork that serves as a prelude to my entire canon of on-chain editions. And it speaks to the experience of being an early pioneer of the Metaverse, a silly little creature exploring this newly forming ethereal realm.

Space Loaf was conceived in April 2018, and minted on SuperRare on June 16th, 2021.

The collector of this single edition will receive an .mp4 of the piece optimized for display. 

Bids can be made in Ethereum or USD through Bonhams Online Auction. The winner will be able to pay via MetaMask or the Exchange of their choosing.

BID ON BONHAMS JUNE 21-JUNE 30 2021

PREVIEW THE FULL VIDEO TOKEN ON SUPERRARE

Self Transcending – Sotheby's Natively Digital

Self Transcending. Sarah Zucker, 2021.

My work is on auction at Sotheby’s June 3-10, 2021 as part of Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale. Self Transcending is a signature VideoPainting I created to mark this moment in both my personal artistic journey and the evolution of Crypto Art and NFTs as a whole.

Interested collectors will be able to bid on the work in cryptocurrency, an aspect which streamlines the auction process for crypto native collectors while allowing for the work to be valued in its native format.

Self Transcending has been minted as Token #0 on the custom “Sarah Zucker” smart contract. The contract was built for me by Nameless specifically for the Sotheby’s Sale. This erc-721 has been elegantly crafted with crypto-savvy collectors and long-term provenance in mind.

You can hear me talk about the work and my background as a “CryptoArt OG” in the interview for the Sotheby’s Catalogue below. Read on for more in-depth information about the artwork and my journey.

THE WORK

Self Transcending is a vision of the Self as a Strange Loop – a narrative that reiterates itself into infinity. Every new Self informs the next, and it’s up to us to establish harmony within the chaos. The piece is unique within my oeuvre, as it fuses my signature VideoPainting technique with analog feedback – an evolution of my style befitting this moment in my career.

I see this concept as a continuation of a personal revelation I had in 2019, around the time I first started editioning my work as NFTs on the blockchain. I was reading a book about mushrooms, and the “wood wide web” they create with their mycelium – essentially a mesh network that allows interspecies communication in a forest.

I was struck by a vision of the Internet as the extension of the human nervous system, and the human nervous system as an extension of the mycelial networks of the natural world. 

Self Transcending continues many of the cyberdelic themes that weave throughout my VideoPaintings. The chakra-like motif I use to indicate inner harmony connects the work directly to Astral Antenna, the first VideoPainting I tokenized in March of 2020, which was collected by fellow “Natively Digital” artist Matt Kane.

Where Astral Antenna depicts inner harmony as a means of becoming a receiver, Self Transcending depicts that inner harmony as a means of broadcast – they reflect the yin and yang of transcendent experience.

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As I see it, we’re living in a very potent time in human history, where we’re redefining our notions of humanity as we merge with our technology. This can often be strange and uncomfortable, and societal growing pains are not uncommon. But a more zoomed out perspective allows us to see how we’re extending beyond ourselves, bursting through our borders of separation to connect with each other, like nodes in a network. 

The natural impulse to weave into an interdependent organism can be met with a lot of resistance, as it requires us to recalibrate the scale with which we view ourselves. But, when we engage with the Internet– our Ancient form of Future technology– we get glimpses of how we fit into this fractal reality.

For the past decade, I have been creating art in dialogue with the Internet. I beam my techno-mystical TV broadcasts into the ether as a means of illuminating this massive step we’re taking as a civilization.

I can trace much of my fascination with this topic to Michio Kaku’s talks on the Kuleshov scale. Recognizing our experience as the birth pains of a new planetary civilization contextualizes the push-pull we feel between regressive and progressive forces in contemporary culture.

I offer the video below as it was a direct inspiration for my body of work leading up to the creation of Self Transcending.

THE JOURNEY

I minted my first NFT on SuperRare on April 4, 2019. While that’s not so long ago in the grand scheme of things, it puts me on the earlier side of entry into the NFT space, and has led to me being oft referred to as an “OG” Crypto Artist. But that was not the beginning of my journey as an artist.

I have felt compelled to create art since I was a child, and was fortunate to have access to a computer as a toddler, which was somewhat uncommon at the time. I have told the story in various interviews of how, at 10, I had an art teacher who told me that Art made on a computer wasn’t real Art, and she forbade me from ever using a computer in my assignments.

I switched my focus from Art to Drama, a choice that I carried through my entire Academic career through the end of my MFA in Dramatic Writing.

This decision to never study Art academically has been one of the greatest gifts I could give myself. I am an autodidact by nature, and I developed my own approach to creative practice over the years, educating myself from the wealth of information available on the Internet.

At the age of 15, I took up film photography, and it was my primary mode of expression for the next decade. I posted on various film photography forums as “thesarahshow,” and enriched myself through that rich pre-social media online community.

I sold my Art for the first time at the age of 18, when several of my photographs were licensed for a French book about the photography movement I was part of, called Le Lomo: L’Appareil Photo qui ose tout!

Self as Odalisque, 2006.

I worked as Interim Curator at The Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography in 2011, which is where I learned a great deal about Fine Art Editions and the Art market. We had works by legendary photographers like Dorothea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz and Diane Arbus on offer there, and I acquainted myself with the processes by which valuable artworks were bought and sold while creating my own run of limited edition prints.

One day, a customer came in off the street and said they had seen a print through the window and they absolutely had to have it. I was beyond delighted to discover that the print was one of mine – The Rainbow News. It was an exhilarating moment for me, as I realized I had developed my craft to the point that a complete stranger wished to place value in my work.

The Rainbow News. Sarah Zucker, 2009.

I started moving into video and time-based media in 2011. I had shot lots of interesting footage over the years as a street photographer, and began incorporating that with found footage in creating visuals for bands. I began working more and more in the GIF format, and it became the primary focus of my practice around2013.

From 2013-2016 I released work under the banner of my collaborative studio The Current Sea. We produced an audiovisual show in Los Angeles called Prism Pipe, which showcased many of the emerging GIF and New Media Artists of the era, many of whom are now making moves in the NFT space.

In 2015, we spoke with The Creators Project about “The Future of GIFs as Gallery Art,” where I mused on the potential for GIFs to be taken seriously as fine art if they could be editioned on the blockchain. 🤯

The Future Of GIFs As Gallery Art, According To The Current Sea http://t.co/OhSjsN18GE pic.twitter.com/ardkM9Uymt

— Creators (@CreatorsProject) March 11, 2014

I began working with Analog Video in 2015 and returned to releasing my work under my own name / @thesarahshow.

Being consistent in my output and always experimenting with new techniques, I developed my own signature aesthetic over the years, and cultivated a wide community of followers for my work through Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook and Giphy – where my GIFs currently have over 6.6 billion views.

When I became aware of SuperRare in 2019, it felt like destiny. My Art and experiences made me uniquely suited to the Crypto Art space, and I hit the ground running. I continue to evolve my practice organically in conversation with the Metaverse and its denizens, and feel electric with the possibilities that lie ahead.

I am thrilled to be able to offer my work at Sotheby’s as part of their first curated NFT sale. This is a watershed moment for digital art, as this new technology is finally allowing this longstanding and potent cultural tradition to get its due in the greater world of Fine Art.

All my thanks to curator Robert Alice for including me, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Specialist Michael Bouhanna for organizing the sale, and my greatest respect to the incredible artists offering their work alongside mine.

View and Bid on my Work on the Sotheby’s Website

In case you’d like to digest everything I said here in Dance Music form, I leave you with the incredible “Sarah Zucker Remix” by Eclectic Method. 😎

RECURSION

∞ Recursion ∞

We are Strange Loops feeding back onto ourselves.

Single Edition NFT, available through reserve auction on SuperRare.

∞ ∞ ∞

I first got fixated on the notion of recursion about ten years ago, when I read the book “I am a Strange Loop” by Douglas Hofstadter.

Recursion is, of course, a mathematical principle, a method of solving a problem where the solution depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem. I’ve never been much for computational math myself, but Hofstadter’s book introduced a concept I had never thought of: That the “I”, or the ego itself, is a recursive equation.

Mind. Blown.

It makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. Recursion is often visualized in the form of fractals or mandelbrots, and what better way to visualize one’s self? I am the I am that I am now, which is informed by and contains the I that was then, and generates the I that I will become.

I started working with analog video significantly in my art in 2015. While my practice has evolved immensely since then, video feedback has always played a role. The notion of feedback in any scenario is inherently recursive. That horrible noise a microphone makes if it gets too close to a speaker: it’s amplifying it’s own sound, the loop exponentiates, and we all clutch our ears in agony – quivering at the sheer magnitude and force of recursion on the loose.

Video feedback can often be equally chaotic and unpleasant – hence the need for “strobe warnings” across many glitch art blogs. Since 2015, I have been teaching myself an unusual instrument – I seek to tame and manipulate the feedback to yield harmony. She is a wild beast, that analog feedback, but I do pride myself on this aspect of my work. These recursive iterations appear as though they could spin off into chaos at any given moment, and yet, you know that maestro has them under control.

This mastery has been a long time coming. I actually have the moment I discovered video feedback on tape, when my dad was trying out the new camcorder all the way back in 1992. It’s surreal that this footage even exists, as you can witness the exact moment I became enamored with video feedback.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sarah Zucker (@thesarahshow)

And so, you see, my work with video feedback feels like destiny in a way. It is a way of visualizing the boolean structure of our evolving minds as we take our first steps into the metaverse. The old ways are linear, and the new ways are fractal.

I created RECURSION in my analog video studio. When working with analog video, there are so many factors that can affect the final outcome of the work. The time of day, the quality of the light, the fine touch of the knobs and dials. Not to mention the animation I create digitally to pipe into the system, or the very concept itself! I like to think of these variables as the terroir, a term typically used to describe the environmental factors that affect the character and qualities of wine or olive oil.

The wind was really beneath my wings on this piece – a beautiful quality to the feedback to elevate the animation and concept. This piece was created with Hi8 camcorder feedback, digital animation and analog processing on VHS. It was filmed in 4K from my vintage CRT TV screen.

If the work speaks to you, I invite you to venture a bid on SuperRare. It’s a special piece destined for a special crypto art collection!

VIEW RECURSION ON SUPERRARE

BE NOT AFRAID

The Sarah Show

Future Art x NiftyGateway

Drops Jan 15th 7pm EST on NiftyGateway.com

BE NOT AFRAID is my first full collection and open edition dropping on NiftyGateway as part of the epic Future Art event happening IRL in Sydney and all over the Metaverse.

The inspiration for the four works is wide-reaching, from Angels in America, to Biblically Accurate Angel memes to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. As is often the case, I let the art channel as it wanted to come through me, and then saw the narrative threads start tying together as I began editing and finalizing the work.

As you’ll see, the pricing of these editions is tied to the theme of the collection. 137 is a highly potent number in both science and mysticism – considered the central number of the grand unified theory of physics, as well as the numerical equivalent of the letters of Kabbalah.

Keep reading to learn more about each of the available editions. I also highly recommend reading the essay Techgnosis and Apocalypse: The Crypto Art of Sarah Zucker by Dr. Allan Kilner-Johnson if you’d like to get another perspective on the collection.

BE NOT AFRAID

Open Edition. $137 – Available for 7 minutes (7pm-7:07pm EST)

The Messengers of the Future appear in strange forms and see in many directions – they command us to be not afraid!

I’ve been quite tickled by Biblically Accurate Angel memes as of late – the somewhat terrifying description of Angels in the Bible juxtaposed with their propensity to declare “Be Not Afraid!” is inherently funny.

Angels have been on my mind in general for the past year. The lockdowns of the Covid era evoke a visceral memory for me of reading the play Angels in America for the first time when I was about 17. For those unfamiliar with the play – a “gay fantasia” that takes a camp mystical lens to the AIDS epidemic – it contains an Angel appearing to the protagonist to beseech humankind to “Stop Moving.” To which, of course, the protagonist protests, as movement is the essential nature of humankind.

It can be easy to be afraid in these times of plague and mind-boggling progress. But we MUST keep moving – even if it means protesting the heavens to do so.

THE GREAT EYE

Edition of 7. $333

I I I am the Great Eye-Eye-Eye. Gaze into me + we shall become one!

More inspiration from Angels in America here. The Angels, when they appear, speak in grand pronouncements of “I I I,” not unlike to chorus of Greek tragedy. A linguistic conceit that has tickled me since the day I first encountered it.

This abstract work, like my other works in this vein, is meant to evoke a sensory response. The great eye in the sky, which calls us all into it – the medium through which the messengers emerge.

Be Not Afraid (High Weirdness Edition)

Edition of 3. $1370

The sister piece to the open edition. Sometimes, when I’m creating at my analog video station, something really weird and unexpected occurs, and I manage to get it on tape. This was one of those instances.

The extra-levels of glitch strangeness felt appropriate given the theme of divine messages coming in confusing packages. This is a much smaller edition, geared towards the collectors who are really picking up what I’m laying down.

THE DANCE OF THE RENDERED

Single Edition. Auction.

Rendered speechless, bald and shiny by the glow of the oncoming future – all one can do is dance and laugh at the edge of the abyss!

And here we have the counterpart to the divine messenger – the transcending human.

I absolutely love Metropolis (my preferred version being the 1984 Moroder-scored cut. The soundtrack is killer, and the 1980s electronic music really elevates the themes of the 1927 original).

The crux of Metropolis is the notion that the Heart must be the mediator between the Head and the Hands. This feels all too pressing in these days of social upheaval, and I think about it a lot.

With this piece, I wanted to evoke the deliciously devious dance of the evil robot Maria from Metropolis as she works to seduce and destroy the elite of the city. As you may guess from the title, I’m also gently poking fun at the trope of the bald, shiny, female humanoid seen so frequently in the 3D render art that makes up a large portion of the crypto art scene.

We are all rendered into physical bodies, as the case may be. In what or whose images is up to us to determine.

Self-Portrait Through 2020

Self-Portrait Through 2020.

Available now on Reserve Auction from SuperRare.

Today I minted my annual self-portrait NFT, a continuation of an ongoing series with a uniquely 2020 twist.

You see, this piece was not created in my usual workflow and timeframe. Instead – appropriately enough for this very unusual year – it was created in increments over the course of nearly 10 months. 

I began this self-portrait at the end of February, when we still had no idea about the global paradigm shift yet to come. I started with a method I have been developing since 2016 that I call “3D Paintings,” created with a combination of original stereoscopic photography and neural style transfer. I liked the outcome well enough, but felt it was time to push the style further.

Then, the coronavirus hit the states, we went into lockdown, and the piece sat unfinished for many months while I took time to reorient my nervous system to our new reality.

We had a brutally hot summer here in California, with an equally punishing fire season. I took to my summer desk, a small setup in our bedroom where I can lock myself in with an air purifier and AC. I began a series of experiments combining the slit-scanning technique I’ve been developing since 2016 with my stereoscopic photography. 

I took another pass at the portrait, and loved the wavy warpiness this technique added to the depth. It felt particularly expressive of this tumultuous year, with its waves of one revelation after another. The Waves of Time keep coming, and it’s up to us to figure out how to surf them, lest we drown. 

I liked the piece a lot, but still felt it needed something more.

I had a landmark Fall in crypto art. When I started minting limited editions of my early VHS pieces, I saw demand for my work skyrocket. I put a lot of time and thought into guiding the growth of my market. I forged relationships with new collectors, and put efforts toward championing new artists. I was commissioned to do portraits for Coindesk’s “Most Influential in 2020 List” (which are auctioning on NiftyGateway through Dec. 31). I’ve been working on pieces for the upcoming Future Art Show in January.

And all the while, this piece sat in the back of my mind, waiting to be finished.

I knew I would see her through to completion. Self-portraiture has been an important part of my practice for a VERY long time. Aside from just giving in to the natural solipsism of the artistic temperament, self-portraiture is important because it allows an artist to document the subject they are most familiar with long-term. They are artworks which provide a meta-narrative to contextualize all of the artist’s other works. 

I took my first self-portrait at age 6, with my “Where’s Waldo” 110 camera that I had my dad remove the Waldo insert from, because it was impeding my artistic vision. I call it, “Self, Avec Pantaloons.”

Self, Avec Pantaloons. Age 6.

Self-documentation was a large strain in my film photography years from my mid-teens to mid-twenties. Little did I know I was getting a head start on a memetic expression that would come to dominate our culture with the advent of the smartphone.

Self-Portrait with SLR. Age 17.

And now, with crypto art, I have continued the tradition for a new era. One of my earliest 1/1 NFTs, and my first ever 1 ETH sale, was the first self-portrait in this series. “Self-Portrait of the Artist in Digital Decay” was minted on KnownOrigin on May 28, 2019, and sold shortly thereafter.

Self-Portrait of the Artist in Digital Decay

I created the next portrait in this series at the end of 2019. “Self-Portrait in Digital Decay, December 2019.” It was collected by the legendary crypto artist Coldie, one of my greatest champions in this space, on Christmas Day. 

Self Portrait in Digital Decay, December 2019

I did a lot of growing up in 2019, and I saw those two pieces as a reflection of that. The first one, from a photo taken in January where I’m done up in high drag, replete with statement earrings, sequin blouse and makeup for the gods, and then the second one, nude, no makeup – stripped down and honest.

And so now, we come to this year’s portrait, created THROUGH 2020. The image, taken in February, has now been incrementally distorted throughout the year. Just as this year has distorted the subject itself. And through that refraction, filtered through time, beauty has emerged. I may not be the same person I was in February. This year has changed me. But oh, what a glorious effect. I end the year more magnificent than ever. 

I’ve been contemplating what to tokenize this month in the wake of the recent growth we’ve seen in the crypto art space. I have very much taken the idea of “create abundantly, tokenize thoughtfully” to heart. I have created a number of VERY cool things in my studio the past few months, pushing my work to new heights. And I find myself not wanting to reveal them before the time is right, which is new for me. The creation continues, but the sharing is happening in a much more measured way. 

As I was going through my list of Works TBT (To-Be-Tokenized), I remembered this self-portrait, and I was seized by a renewed vigor to see her through to completion. I’ve been working on this day and night this week, adding the final components of upscaling a pixelsorting. Processes that seem simple enough, but require endless tinkering to get the look just right. 

I often feel the term “glitch art” is too wide an umbrella for me. Because it’s easy to break things. VERY easy. But breaking things in a way that increases their beauty is quite a meticulous process – a bit “fiddly,” as they’d say on The Great British Bake-Off. It’s taken many years and a lot of intuition to develop my unique way of using the tools available to me. As I always say, “It’s the Witch, not the Wand.”

“It’s the Witch, Not the Wand.” Sarah Zucker, 2019.

I feel now that this piece is complete. I have imbued in her the same degree of depth and texture and color that I feel this year has imbued in me. There is something extra special in the fact that this piece, in being self-portraiture, combines so many of the styles and techniques I have been exploring and refining over the past 5 years. It is quintessentially “me.”

This will be a rare .mp4 release for me – while I typically tokenize my work in GIF format, I wanted to keep this as a video file so as not to lose any of the spectacular detail work. This will also be my first token sold through the new Reserve Auction format on SuperRare. The reserve is 5Ξ. When the reserve is met, the auction will automatically kick off a 24h timer, which resets if a new bid is placed. 

You can view the token here.

Thank you all for coming on this journey with me. The incredible encouragement I’ve gotten from the crypto art community has truly changed my life and my approach to my art. The levels of creativity I see in this space inspire me to keep pushing my own art further and further. And the support from collectors has allowed me to immerse myself fully in my passion and trust in my own voice like never before. And for that, I am eternally grateful.