Each Material piece has a story behind it. The artwork was added to the jeans by a specific person at a specific time and place for a specific reason. That person meant something to me. That moment meant something to me. Every time I mint a new piece in the series, I write the story behind it—a “vignette”—and store it in the NFT’s metadata. The artwork on the jeans and the story behind it are inseparable, and the Material NFTs are a way of etching that relationship in stone. The passage below is the vignette I wrote for the first piece ever added to the jeans. That piece was a sort of thesis statement for the project: “This is good material.” An extended version of that thesis statement in impressionistic narrative form, the vignette was originally featured in the essay I wrote for the launch of Material. I’m sharing here it in an effort to build a digital congregation of my work.
“This is good material.” I repeat it to myself like a mantra.
A breakup? “This is good material.” A sooner-than-expected goodbye. Staring at the floor for like four hours. Leaves falling in perfect little spirals at the cemetery, every October for seven years straight. “This is good material.” Good old-fashioned teenage heartbreak. New York in the fall. Waking up to a phone call too early in the morning, well past the point where it could possibly be a late night dial from some dumb, drunk friend, and never being able to pick up the phone without a racing heart again. Not fun. But good material. Getting punched in the face repeatedly. Falling madly in love. Feeling fucking insane, on account of said falling. All good material. Bursting with feelings of intimacy you don’t know what to do with, so you just stand there and explode instead. How pure. Good material. Acid on graduation day. Great material. Seasons go by in minutes. Material abounds.