Since NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) became trendy last year after Beeple's purely digital work set a record in March, selling at $69,346,250 USD, many people - maybe too many - jumped on the non-fungible token bandwagon. There is undoubtedly some great digital art out there, but there are also cringing commercial experiments. One of the latest and most unexpected supporters of non-fungible tokens is, surprisingly, Melania Trump. In December the former First Lady of the United States announced she was going to release from then on NFTs in regular intervals.
"I am proud to announce my new NFT endeavor, which embodies my passion for the arts and will support my ongoing commitment to children through my Be Best initiative," Mrs. Trump claimed in an official statement.
The first NFT was entitled "Melania's Vision" and consisted in a watercolor of her eyes by Marc-Antoine Coulon. Available for two weeks in December 2021, the limited-edition digital artwork was sold at 1 Solana, a form of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, or $150, and also included an audio message from Mrs. Trump ("My vision is: look forward with inspiration, strength, and courage"). Melania's NFTs are currently minted on the Solana blockchain, but a representative of Solana spoke to disassociate the blockchain from any political connection and explained that the former First Lady's project was not part of any Solana-led initiative.
A new item became available earlier on in January - "The Head of State Collection". This package is a commemoration of the Trump Administration's first official state visit and it actually includes three items: the white broad-brimmed hat Melania donned to receive President Macron of France (the French president and his wife were the first official visitors to the White House in April 2018), described on Melania's site as "iconic" and "one-of-a-kind" and designed by Hervé Pierre, the French-born, New York designer-turned-stylist; an original watercolor on paper by Marc-Antoine Coulon portraying Melania in the hat and a non-fungible token of the same watercolor with a detail in motion (Download Melania_NFT_Hat). The starting bid was set at approximately 1.800 SOL or $218,160.00 for the group.
Melania is apparently trying to do some good through the sale as a portion of the proceeds derived from this auction (even though they don't tell us how much...) will provide foster care children with access to computer science and technology education.
NFTs, considered as dubious artworks by skeptical art critics, are already controversial, but you wonder why Melania jumped on this bandwagon. It's not rare to see biographies or even documentaries about former first ladies, recounting their time at the White House, but Melania seems to be hoping to profit opting for a completely new approach.
Who knows, maybe her next NFTs will be interesting from a fashion point of view: the former First Lady often had many of us wondering what was she thinking when she opted for specific ensembles, such as colonialist evoking attires when she visited Kenya and Egypt; inappropriate super high Manolo Blahnik stilettos to visit the Hurricane Harvey victims and the army green hooded jacket of "mass distraction" by fast fashion brand Zara that featured on the back a painted slogan that read, "I really don't care, do u?" when she went to a Texas border detention centre to visit immigrant children who had been separated from their parents.
Maybe Melania's next NFTs will feature a selection of her most bizarre and puzzling style choices with some audio explanations that may shed some lights about them. Or maybe she's just releasing the NFTs to get distracted from the Capitol Hill riots investigations or the possibility of her husband Donald Trump running again for president in 2024 (the metaverse is a safer and fun place compared to this scary possibility...) or this is just a way for her to build a crypto empire and disappear before Donald comes back. For her sake, you can just hope this new and ephemeral venture will not end like her jewelry line or her "Caviar Complexe C6™ with Lipid Matrix Receptor™ Technology" skincare range that never got into the shops.
Comments