Art that sucks

Art that sucks is a series in which we bring attention to the worst parts of the space. We don’t encourage you to see out these projects.

The World Health Organization estimates that over 6 million people have died of COVID world-wide–the virus has taken a tangible toll on everyone. But like most things real and serious, a base mistrust of authority and a genuine dose of healthy skepticism in the populous have been manipulated into conspiracy theories by fringe politicians, and social media platforms with hyper-personalized algorithms operated by tech giants have contributed to the reasonable doubt to tin hat pipeline. COVID conspiracy theories are still everywhere, even after three years of doing this thing, and interacting with them is just a regular part of being a person with an online presence. But when I saw a request to promote this project sitting in the SuperRare Editorial email, I still found myself asking what the fuck?

Enter COVID BAD PEOPLE.

At first I thought this had to be a scam, or maybe someone was just trolling us. The website (which I won’t be linking to) describes the project as “COVID BONDS: Repackaging the debt to society incurred by the perpetrators of COVID fraud and commodifying that debt as an asset.” The “bonds” are NFTs–each is essentially a trading card featuring a public figure the project’s creator believes is behind the fictitious COVID conspiracy. Some of them are exactly what you expect, and a few feature art that is alarmingly racist (so also, exactly what you would expect). As of writing, the website states that there will be 1000 NFTs in all–a ticker shows that 12 have been minted, but OpenSea only lists 4 owners.

The purveyor of this project links to his Instagram at the bottom of the project page–his name is Jay Revelle and he describes himself as an “Individualist, non-conformist Mindset hacker/matrix deprogrammer.” He posts wannabe self-help content and graphics with phrases like “Being lazy is greedy” and “Why lying is communistic.” Revelle thinks of the project as “the world’s ONLY such commemorative NFT bond certificate. Their DEBTS to society can now become your ASSET.” I’m convinced he’s serious.

Oh, and did I mention? There are plans for a DAO and a token. It’s tempting, but I don’t think I’ll be buying in.