by Arta Raituma
It was a hot and lazy summer’s day involving a casual social media scrolling session. I was lucky to mine a gem on Instagram – Muti collective’s account. Being intrigued and doing a little investigation, I found a post about an open call with funding for artists who work with organic materials and for whose work nature is the central or recurrent theme. I sensed immediately that this could be really something – something that was meant exactly for me.
Moreover, I had been willing to enter, as I call it, ‘the crypto world’, for a long time. I did have some previous knowledge about NFTs and the Metaverse thanks to a few meet-ups and conferences, I even had a profile on Open Sea already. Yet I had been feeling that the waters were literally too deep for me to dive in just by flapping on my own. I wanted to come across the right community with whose values and philosophy I could truly resonate. And it did happen!
Linking the physical and the digital, the traditional and the innovative – that is one of the goals of my artistic practice as a contemporary visual artist. My works have been made using a self-developed wood-burning technique and plywood. This technique can be perceived as ‘drawing with fire’ – a poetic contradiction between fire and wood that suggests a recollection of a once growing and living element. Usage of candles and matches serves in creating hazy, nuanced visual effects – subtle grey hues. Whereas with a pyrography tool various textures and patterns are created, leaving dark brown scorch marks on the surface.
Fire is a catalyst of transformation, purging what it encounters.
With the help of this element, I am giving a second life as artworks to the trees that were once growing and forming a landscape but now have been turned into plywood panels. I have been creating a continuous series of works called ‘The Soul Garden’. It is a dedication to those plant species that have gone extinct, those organic elements that have been swiped out of their natural habitat leaving just a fading memory of their presence. This process is a part of global warming that intensifies wildfires and other abnormalities. Therefore, part of the works serves as imprints of abstract plant silhouettes, souls of plants that no longer exist due to these issues. The other part of the works depicts vast, parched landscapes – soil that once hosted millions of sprouting greens but now can only be a garden of souls. However, there is still a possibility for a new life to emerge.
A positive turn can be achieved with deliberate actions and comprehension of our interconnectivity with nature. Quoting philosopher Michael Marder: ‘If we perceive the distance between ourselves and plants as something insuperable, it proves that we have been under cultural repression in a length of millennials. But even in the history of Western philosophy, some insights can be found about something vegetal in the constitution of the human psyche. [..] For Aristotle, the structure of the soul relies on a principle that vegetal life is the basis of everything.’ Therefore, if we realize that we ourselves have vegetal roots in our very being and that we have to stand up for those species that are our siblings yet don’t have a voice, we have the power to prevent abuse.
Consequently, I applied for Muti’s open call suggesting a project investigating all of the stated above. It was to my great surprise and joy when I received the confirmation that I was one of the two artists chosen!
After setting a date for our virtual meeting, I firstly met Tabea – one of the Muti’s council members and a wonderful person. She explained everything in a very detailed and patient way: how the Near Protocol works, how to set up the Near wallet and how to operate on Astro Dao in order to get the stipend paid out. And not only that, she also sent a very helpful guide about exchange platforms and conversions.
It is not a secret that a financial support fuels the artistic practice and gives an extra boost to materialize those ideas that might have been put down deep in the shelf. Thanks to Muti’s stipend I was able to give a physical shape to numerous wooden babies in ‘The Soul Garden’ series, for instance:
‘Nucleus. Contraction’, ‘Nucleus. Expansion’, ‘Vastelands’, ‘The Hopeful Branch’ and ‘The Gone Ones’.
(More of the works can be found on my website www.artaraituma.com and Instagram @littlefirebunny)
Furthermore, I was delighted that our collaboration did not end just at this point. Tabea invited me to take part in a physical + NFT group show in Cacilhas. On the 24th of September I had the pleasure to participate in the exhibition ‘Out of the Frame’ together with 6 other great artists. We had more than a casual opening – it was a fun event with live music, delicious snacks (carrots with mint sauce were mind-blowing!), laughter, and even fresh plants from Raiz farm. I got to know other members of Muti and I must say that they are all kind, friendly and super creative, passionate community builders (and that surely takes a lot of energy and enthusiasm). Plus, I was truly amazed to see my work being turned into an NFT (which can be found on Muti bazaar).
The warm and cozy after-feeling has followed me. Muti has ‘initiated’ me successfully and I believe that this is just the beginning and that delightful, artistically challenging, and fiery surprises are just around the corner.
Links
Arta: https://www.instagram.com/littlefirebunny/
muti: https://www.instagram.com/muti.collective/
Physical NFTs: https://www.mintbase.io/contract/mutibazaar.mintbase1.near/token/57
NEAR: https://near.org/