This is a guest post from artist Super Buddha, a creator on Blockparty.
Hello Flow community! My name is Super Buddha, and I am a Contemporary Artist currently working in both the United States and China. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, but I consider my "hometown" Shanghai.
I was one of the first artists to tag buildings in Shanghai, often risking life and limb to help establish a new style of street art and culture that didn’t exist yet in China. As a non-native Chinese artist living in Shanghai, I began creating art in a hybrid environment of new and old, where the constant influx of Western pop culture clashed with the strict and rigid ways of the Hukou System. Coming of age as one of the pioneers of the graffiti scene in Shanghai, I found myself straddling two very distinct art worlds — iconic Eastern art and urban art culture.
As I embrace a new avenue of artistic expression, I’ll be partnering with New River Fine Art and Blockparty.co to launch three new NFTs on August 13, 2021. These new NFTs flip the script on gaming by animating my 32-bit buddha as a token of enlightenment that brings blessing to retro-inspired video game worlds.
Not only will these pieces highlight my love for ‘80s and ‘90s video game nostalgia, they are culturally relevant. Super Buddha fights against oppression of all kinds, and these NFTs highlight the power that cryptocurrency has against repressive regimes. Gamers and politicos alike can relate to these works.
My artwork features “Baby Buddha” as a contemporary spokesperson that captivates the audience with witty one-liner blessings. He is exhibited as a repetitive and reductively minimalistic bust of a bubbly cheeked, large-eyed, bald Chosen One. His eternally cheery disposition and signature long earlobes symbolize a conscious rejection of the material world in favor of spiritual enlightenment.
What are some of the past accomplishments you are most proud of?
A few of my key accomplishments as a professional artist include working with the Pope, Floyd Mayweather, and Miami’s Lincoln Road.
My first monumental public art installation happened last year on Miami’s Lincoln Road. My five-foot tall “Good Fortune” Buddha was cast in bold red resin and loosely modeled after the traditional laughing Buddha. The public art program was designed to spread the power of art in this highly-populated tourist destination. Fernando Botero and Romero Britto are the other artists who participated in that program. With “Good Fortune Sculpture,” I wanted to produce a figure that evokes the notion of providing good fortune to all those who are near it, while also uplifting the energy that surrounds it.
In 2019 I was presented with an incredible opportunity to create and present my artwork during the Super Bowl. After the event, Floyd Mayweather and his camp auctioned it off. The piece was in honor of Kobe Bryant, painted a year before his passing. The positive energy still resonates with me and shows how art can transcend time and space.
In art, it’s all about the message and how far you can spread it.
In December of last year, I traveled to Rome for an audience with His Holiness, Pope Francis. I had the incredible opportunity to receive his blessing and work with his foundation, Scholas Occurentes. This incredible organization’s work goes hand-in-hand with the positive messaging I do in my own art. This experience was surreal. When the Pope himself acknowledges that your work has made an impact, you know you are on the right path.
What are your thoughts about the NFT ecosystem, and how do you think it can evolve in the coming years?
I believe NFTs and blockchain are the future and give artists a new dimension in which to create with almost no limit to what they can do. Artists that are sharing and selling their work on blockchain are pioneers of this emerging market; a fundamental part of the first wave of the genre. I see a large crypto native ecosystem that will blossom over the years to become a proven digital asset in a diversified financial portfolio.
Tell us about your upcoming NFT drop and what inspired you?
In Super Buddha World: Forbidden City, the first of the three new NFTs, we witness Super Buddha, complete with his cape and ambitious smile, crushing and destroying negativity through superpower strength. He navigates his way through temples and avoids pitfalls, all while exploding scrolls of Envy, Jealousy, Self-Doubt, and Negative Thoughts. Super Buddha is on a quest for spiritual teachings.
I wanted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for retro video games that started this whole movement. Through these Super Buddha video game NFTs, I bring a positive Super Buddha flair of good fortune, positive consciousness, and enlightened blessings.
The Buddha Man NFT is a clear example of a multilayered social and political content. In the NFT, the floating deity head devours the cryptocurrency balls and gains super strength gulping down the dollar sign money bags while avoiding bad vibe ghosts. There is a subtle but evident political context waiting to be discovered. In the storyline, I used my iconic character to show a clear correlation between how repressive governments are currently treating crypto miners and the hunger they have for freedom, while being chased and prosecuted by their oppressors.
In the NFT narrative, the crypto enables Buddha Man to turn the tables on his tyrannical antagonists. I made this intentionally clear with clever symbols and moves that speak volumes of today’s international cultural climate.
Buddha’s Grand Blessings (Shanghai Edition) mimics free roaming, role playing, and first-person perspective games. Grey and anonymous people wait for Super Buddha to bless them with enlightenment by awakening their spirituality, activating their colorful chakras, and giving them purpose through healing. I imagine this bestowment of wisdom as a counteracting weapon to the current video game controversies of addiction, aggression, and violence.
I see my artwork as a positive propulsion strategy to spread the message that there should be positivity and consciousness in every facet of life. I see so many things wrong on the spiritual and humanistic level, so my art's intent is to shed more light on consciousness and provide good fortune to everyone.
Thank you so much for learning about my story and inspiration. My Super Buddha video game inspired NFTs will be available on Aug 13, 2021, at www.blockparty.co
