Seven years of love letters to a CCTV manager end on Tezos.
Since 2019 OONA (@madebyoona), an anonymous performance artist, has performed for the cameras of the London Underground and legally requested the footage, writing more than 400 emails to David, the Transport for London data manager who sends it. Dear David: A Surveillance Love Story, curated by Anika Meier, closed with a wedding at Shoreditch Arts Club during Frieze week, an empty space at the altar and a camera ring for a wedding ring. The Ceremony: OONA & David is now on objkt (@objktcom), and all 8 chapters live on Tezos. "They say love is blind. David sees everything."
From Minecraft floors to hand-knotted wool.
Travess Smalley's (@travess) Pixel Rugs began as Appalachian-style patterns he made to furnish his houses in Minecraft, then grew on Tezos from small grids and a few rules, layered until they tip toward order, chance or breakdown. On Nov 13, Galerie Met (@GalerieMet) in Berlin opens the project through Dec 5, curated by Kika Nicolela (@kikanicolela) with objkt: digital works, process animations, prints, woven rugs and a new monograph from Vetro Editions.
Christie's (@ChristiesInc) held MAWASIM on Sunday, the first fine art auction in Abu Dhabi: 70 lots by 58 artists, $8,940,800 in total.
After almost 7 minutes of bidding, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian's Variations on the Hexagon (2006) led at $844,800 against a $150,000 to $250,000 estimate, 1 of 6 mirror mosaic panels she made for the V&A's Jameel Gallery. "For me everything connects with the hexagon," she said.
Ahead in Hong Kong: from Nov 5 to 15 the Hong Kong Arts Centre shows CONSENSUS, a solo exhibition by Liu Jiaying, CryptoZR (@CryptoZR_), curated by Gu Zhenqing.
Fifteen works made with protocols, ledgers and code since 2017, including Red and Blue, 1000EYE and The Consensus, now in the Uli Sigg Collection, plus two new installations. In 2019 she introduced "Crypto Art" to China as 加密藝術, and in 2021 held what is billed as the world's first solo show of crypto art, in Beijing.
Pasts that never happened.
On Nov 14 Emi Kusano (@emikusano) opens End of Nostalgia, her largest solo show to date, at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama, through Jan 31, 2027. Built with generative AI, it turns the whole museum into one installation of new works, sculptures and prints, mining Japan's street cultures, from takenoko-zoku dancers to gyaru and decora, for scenes that feel remembered but never were.
And a history: on March 17, 1960, Jean Tinguely's Homage to New York shook, burned and smoked itself apart in 27 minutes in the sculpture garden of MoMA (@MuseumModernArt).
Built from bicycle wheels, a piano, a weather balloon and a bassinet, all painted white, it ran on a timer made by Billy Klüver of Bell Labs that closed 8 circuits every 3 minutes or so. The piano caught fire and the audience took the wreckage home. The E.A.T. archive counts it among the events that led to Experiments in Art and Technology.