Editorial is open for submissions: [email protected]

March 31 – May 1

THE ARTIST

KATSU is a new media artist working out of New York City. His works involve technology, public intervention and include commentary on commercialism, privacy and digital culture. As a result, his practice includes drone painting, sculpture, digital media, conceptual works and crypto art.

THE INSTALLATION

DARK TECH 1 is an immersive artwork housed at Ever Gold [Projects] in San Francisco and will exist from April 31 – May 1. The show is an attempt by KATSU to express his creative narrative and to examine the notion of NFT’s IRL. How does crypto art live beyond the wallet? How will digital works be mirrored in reality?

THE MAQUETTES

The series DARK TECH 1 appears as four digitally sculpted and composed busts of Elon Musk as himself and as his demonic mirror self. They will be exhibited offline at Ever Gold [Projects] and online as NFTs on the SuperRare platform. The CG sculptures reference contemporary society’s obsession with titans of technology. The tech industry’s takeover of all things has warped our perception of those that should be worshiped in the arena of demigods and heroes. We’ve lost our admiration to those fighting for good. Elon and the few at the top of the technocratic pyramid have brought us to our knees. This is not right. These are mere industrialists creating products with materials torn from the same planet which is dying and disenfranchising those below the API.

The demonic caricatures of Elon are drawn from the mythical Japanese creature the “Oni”. This fabled horned and evil ogre like creature has been used to represent the dark side of things for centuries. Much of KATSU’s work draws from his Japanese heritage and is heavily influenced by Japanese culture.

Each of the 4 versions of the busts take from as different exotic elements: Gold, Igneous, Kryptonite and Platinum.

THE CUBES

Paired with the NFTs are four machined cube sculptures housing replicated versions of each individual NFT. Each cube projects one of the four DARK TECH busts allowing for its viewer to consider the physicality of digital work. These sculptures operate as a clear reference point for the existence of a cryptographic artwork living beyond a cold digital wallet. The cubes are part of an ongoing exploration KATSU pursues merging traditional art with technology.

THE STATEMENT

For much of my artistic stumble I have been both mystified and ashamed of technology. Its ability to liberate and imprison has baffled me. This tension has pushed me to work closely with hackers, creatives and inventors, that are trying to make sense of what technology represents today. This has also motivated to portray and examine the tech elite. I love and hate technology.

KATSU is a new media artist working out of New York City. His works involve technology, public intervention and include commentary on commercialism, privacy and digital culture. As a result, his practice includes drone painting, sculpture, digital media, conceptual works and crypto art. His visual and digital projects question notions of reality, fiction, and ‘graffiti,’ by conceptually integrating ideas of vandalism with commercialism and technology. KATSU was a research fellow with Free Art and Technology Lab, a collective of creative technologists and hacker artists (2007-2015). Recent solo exhibitions include; DOT at The Hole, New York City (2020); DRONE at Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles (2018), Memory Foam at The Hole, New York City (2018); AI Criminals at an unknown location, San Francisco (2017); and Remember the Future at The Hole, New York City (2015). He was included in Beyond The Streets (curated by Roger Gastman) in Los Angeles, CA (2018). In 2015 he created Dronescape Summer for Coney Art Walls (curated by Joseph J. Sitt and Jeffrey Deitch), and was included in Born in the Streets – Graffiti at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France (2009-10). He earned his BFA from Parsons School of Design, NY (2005). The artist works between Brooklyn, NY and San Francisco, CA. His work has been written about in publications from Wired to the New York Times.

with the NFTs are four machined cube sculptures housing replicated versions of each individual NFT. Each cube projects one of the four DARK TECH busts allowing for its viewer to consider the physicality of digital work. These sculptures operate as a clear reference point for the existence of a cryptographic artwork living beyond a cold digital wallet. The cubes are part of an ongoing exploration KATSU pursues merging traditional art with technology.