Brendan Dawes
The Art of Form and Code

That Was The Week That Was – 29th November 2020

This week I found myself filled with equal parts excitement and nervousness. On the Wednesday was my debut drop on NiftyGateway – an NFT Art platform centered around the idea of a timed drop. Nifty had got in touch with me soon after my appearance in the Cryptoart scene back on June, and before I knew it the date was upon me.

For the drop I had created three pieces of work as a collection, based around Virginia Woolf's The Waves, one of my all time favourite books which I've read multiple times. Each of the three pieces made use of a Lissajous wave and were my own interpretations of certain passages in the book.

Two of the pieces were stills, and would have a fixed price, whilst the 4K motion piece was going to be put up for auction.

Quiet Ordinary Things
Quiet Ordinary Things
An Unsubstantial Territory
An Unsubstantial Territory

Leading up to the date I had some great video calls with Ashley from Nifty, working out the best way to approach the drop. It's really evident that the Nifty team want to work with artists to help grow their fan base and create their best work. We decided it would be good to explain a little bit about myself and my career, which became a short film I put together answering question sent through from Ashley. That seemed to get some nice reactions before the drop went live.

With all the assets uploaded, the time came for the big drop. As the release is done at 7pm ET, I watched at midnight from the UK, wondering if anyone is going to like and buy this work. I typed the web address at midnight. When the page appeared, staring back at me were the words "SOLD OUT" on the two fixed price works. Yet it was only twenty seconds past the hour. How was this possible? Both pieces, totalling twenty five editions, had sold out pretty much instantly. I was in shock. I was also extremely happy and grateful.

Over the next few days it took me a while to process what had happened. I never get complacent about people deciding to spend their hard earned money on my work, so it really means a lot when people do. Then my thoughts turned to the auction, which was due to end on the Saturday at 11pm UK time.

During the week a few bids had come in. Then in the last hour of the auction things started to heat up, with a little bidding war between a few collectors. By the time the auction ended the third and final piece from The Waves had been sold for $4000. I was more than happy with this result.

Right now I'm putting ideas together for my next Nifty drop happening in the New Year.