On Tuesday 12 September, the Rui Cunha Foundation and the Macao Association of International Contemporary Art jointly presented a Solo Exhibition by Zheng Yu, called “Change the Rules”. The project showcases 79 contemporary art works, including acrylic paintings, sculptures and NFT (Non-fungible tokens).
With the rapid development of the Internet, blockchain technology and the rise of NFTs have had a significant impact on the contemporary art world. The organizer pointed out that the way people appreciate art is no longer limited to museums and galleries. For artists, methodologies to create and publish art have also become more convenient, faster and more efficient.
In the Western art markets, NFTs do not coexist with physical artworks. If an artist creates an NFT equivalent of a physical artwork, the physical and NFT versions exist independently from a market perspective. Therefore, if a work is to remain exclusively in NFT form, the physical art work will be destroyed.
However, to exhibition curator Bill Wong, each of the NFT and the physical forms have their own unique characteristics.
“Even though in the visual sense the NFT and the physical work look the same, their existence on different media has determined that they are unique independently,” he says.
“They are actually two different artworks. So, why do we have to follow the rules of art made by the West? Why don’t we try to make the rules ourselves?”
The artworks will be displayed until 23 September and admission is free.
