As Digital African Group and Monaco’s Karolina Blasiak Art Advisory join hands to launch the pioneering NFT collection by NFT artist “The New Light Monarch”, it is our pleasure to speak to the artist herself.
A fine art creator who goes by the name of Fiona Tan in the physical realm, Fiona has become a renowned personality in the art circuit with numerous solo and group shows in the US, Canada, Germany, and South Africa.
Most crucially, Fiona is that rare artist who straddles the physical and digital world with equal ease. Indeed, Fiona won the Merck Finck & Co Private bank Prize in 2011 and the Futurum Award for her use of digital technology in 2013. Her current project is a path breaking NFT collection that forms part of an all-female venture beautifully bridging art, technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation whilst ensuring transparency and security for artistic creations.
We now turn to Fiona to learn more about this impressive artist in her own words:
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Fiona Tan, and I am a fine art artist. I use different mediums to be able to reflect the spectrum of light and its capabilities upon the world. Art for me is like a tool, a medium that allows me to channel my abilities and empowers me to transcribe the divine through different messages that I receive.
I come from a multi-faceted background. Born in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, I trace part of my heritage to Europe – the Netherlands and Germany – and part to Asia – China and Indonesia. Given my background, I like mixing different angles and perspectives into my creations.
I have the sensitivity to realise reality at different levels. I understand and see things on different planes. This makes bringing my creations to life a complex task – but also makes for a fuller expression. I feel the world has a lot of obstacles and adversity and that my role is to shine light on it and bring life’s true essence and beauty to the fore. I use that understanding and channel it through my work with a combination of layering and complexity.
For me, my art is a journey of self-discovery and I encourage everyone to look at themselves as agents of change. Through my work and creations, I bring a transcending experience to the table so that people can see a different facet of reality. I hope to evolve my viewers’ psyche and understanding of the world by seeing it through my vision – and being privy to something special that is normally not seen through the naked eye.
How did your journey as an artist begin?
For as long as I can remember, I was really immersed into art. I had a fascination with colours, forms, and the view that they created. At the same time, art brought a lot of peace and calm into my life and was a way to channel my creativity.
I channeled all my spirituality and my connection with the divine into my art and creations, and this pursuit provided a shelter for me to feel good and have fun while expressing myself. Art was a great outlet and remained so over the years. Even though I seek to understand the world and broaden my vision from different activities and learnings, I always looked back at art as a way of channeling it through.
In retrospect, it makes complete sense for me to be an artist and use art as a medium to showcase who I am to the world.
Why did you decide to create NFTs?
It started with me trying to figure out how to involve the digital medium in my work through the years. During my studies at the Parsons School of Design in New York (The New School) I found that including the digital aspect in my creations helped me channel through all the different mediums, complexity, and layering that I wished to bring out in my work and allowed me to create a new vision in this sphere that had no boundaries.
When NFTs came around, the question of how I should use this as a medium to further my vision had been on my mind. But, before I embraced NFTs, I needed some reflection on how it would work out in the long run – how could my NFT be different and what could be my vision and philosophy behind it.
I figured I could use the method to create a different reality – and empower people to collect and create their reality within it, in turn. For example, nature and oceans and all the elements of the world are very important to me. It is essential to preserve them and get them back in the spotlight, to bring back a deeper understanding as to why we need them so much and to focus on the beauty behind them at the same time. I decided to create my first collection called ‘The Seed of Life’ so it really plants those little seeds of new understanding and to create a garden in a place where you wouldn’t think about creating it – the Metaverse.
It’s going to be a very thrilling and exciting journey as I have a few plans for the different collections I have, different ways to really showcase who I am and my vision, and to be able to share something that not only brings beauty to the eye but also brings forth a complete transformation of different aspects of your life.
During this journey, I decided to take a new name. As the NFT world is a different, immersive experience, I wanted to rename myself ‘The New Light Monarch’ as a title that connotes a different kind of power for my vision and symbols that are close to me.
We understand that you have opted for Digital African Group, to launch your NFT collection. Why did you choose this platform?
On Digital African Group, I must admit that I learnt about the platform just this year! However, I was really impressed with the founders as they have a very powerful feminine voice, and they also like to empower other women. As another important aspect, they have a very innovative way of looking at NFTs and bring to the table a ‘bulletproof’ legal perspective which makes them a perfect fit for me. I knew whatever answers I didn’t have; they would have not just the answers but also the tools for bringing my creations to life in the Metaverse.
At the same time, by learning about them, I found that we have much in common – we are perfectionists who aim to do things at their best, and to find new ways of going about things – and all the while, we harness very strong ethics.
Crucially, Digital African Group has an extremely robust point of view on security and transparency and a most holistic view on what the Metaverse needs.
Is there something specific that you like to divulge about your new collection?
Let me tell you how this new collection started. Around a year ago, I had a conversation with the divine where I felt impelled to look into what people should see and get from nature. It really brought me back to my first love – nature and flowers. This started the whole journey of creating the different elements for ‘The Seed of life’ – and it also planted the seeds of my own NFT journey.
‘The Seed of Light’ not only depicts digital images by representing the light but also creates awareness of nature and the ecological environment and the planet. With this collection, I seek to create an artistic index of fauna and flora by which my viewers can calmly contemplate the complex relationship between nature and culture; humans and technology; as well as man-made and tech-made creations.
The result is a compendium of light and color that narrates my passion and respect towards nature and the divine. With ‘The Seed of Light’, I invite collectors to plant their own virtual garden, one seed of light at a time.
As a woman, do you find it harder to be taken seriously as an artist?
I feel very blessed to be a woman. At the same time, I feel very blessed to be an artist as well. For my own creative process, being a woman has been a tremendous help and has only been filled with attributes that I consider my unique strengths as an artist. For my part, I don’t find myself competing against men or women – I am competing against myself. I always try to challenge myself and bring forth new ideas, and new ways to go and expand further on what I have done and find a literal or physical form of expression from it.
However, when you look at the art world and the NFT world as to how women are perceived, it is true that their presence is meagre, and they don’t have much of an expression out there. Having said that, I don’t see why gender norms should be dictating how the creative platform, or the arts scene, should be fostered. It remains a fact though, that men have dominated the world art market and the NFT world.
So there needs to be a change towards more inclusiveness, for women to be more empowered, and to be able to share their unique vision with the world. That is something which needs to happen across platforms, and that is happening as well, albeit slowly.
What matters most to you as an artist?
What is very essential for me, before any of those questions of gender or race, is the belief that the world needs more light, more truth, and more true essence to be brought in. There needs to be a change in the perspective of how we rate things. That is what matters to me most as an artist.
This clarity really fosters me and helps me go further on this journey and bring forth much more character and a sense of mission to my work. As I sojourn into the world of NFTs, it is going to be very interesting for me to see how this new journey is going to come forth.
What I have learnt over the years is that, as a woman, when I fully embody and embrace who I am – as a person and a being – and listen to guidance from above, I have seen countless miracles in action. I feel very blessed, and I find that whatever needs to happen on my journey in a small space and time will work out, so I have faith in that. Whatever we come across in life, we need to have faith in ourselves – and believe that we are guided by a higher power.
What would be your last piece of advice to our readers?
Everything you do, do out of passion. With your heart in your work, you can bring your own uniqueness into the world.
Finally, you can ask mentors for advice of course, but it is also fine to ask for guidance from a higher power above.
—————————————————————– ENDS ————————————————————–
‘The Seed of Life’ collection launches on 17th June 2022 on Digital African Group.
Consisting of 209 unique artworks which will be NFT’d, each of the brilliant creations depicts a flower in a fantastic new way. The impression of a flower in various spectrums of color remains unequivocal – the flowers are simple yet bold, vivacious yet relatable, and universally celebrated by those in the art world and beyond.
You can find four ultra-rare NFTs, which have moving content and sparkle beyond belief. Five other unique NFTs bring depth and glow in a new type of still life. The three final ones create larger mosaics consisting of 50 or 100 variations, which give the collectors a chance to create their own mosaic, by having a part or the whole of the artistic creation.
Interested to learn more about Fiona and her NFT collection?
You can click through to the website at: www.artceuticals.com/ or buy the NFTs from https://digitalafricangroup.com from 17th June 2022 onwards.
