M.I.A. is jumping on the NFT (non-fungible token) trend with GIFTY 1, the first part of the NFT GARAGE DANCE series that she plans to release through Foundation. GIFTY 1, which a press release describes as a still image “bookending her 25-year tenure as a digital artist and collected as a GIF,” will be available to purchase for a 24-hour period starting Thursday, April 8 at 4 p.m. EST.
M.I.A. plans to follow GIFTY1 with KALA COYN, her first-ever digital artwork that was created in 1996. “KALA COYN and the GARAGE DANCE series is a living, breathing, psycho-spectral canvas that crystalizes this moment in time for me,” she wrote in a statement. “Visually, it’s a mind f*ck and embodies everything I’ve loved about the digital art arena. It’s only now that the appropriate gallery for my work finally exists.”
GIF THANKX 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/mXFhTjKpGy
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) April 1, 2021