Meet the 3D artist using afro-futuristic characters to challenge the white-dominated NFT space
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
From falling into the creative industry by accident, digital artist and musician, Serwah Attafuah, is using art to create dream-like alternative universes.
Courtesy of @dianeguais
NAME SERWAH ATTAFUAH
AGE 23
LOCATION Dharug Land, Western Sydney, Australia
STAR SIGN Pisces sun, Aries rising…like RIHANNA.
May Garland: Hi Serwah! What are you currently working on?
Serwah Attafuah: I'm currently working on some music-based commissions at the moment as well as some upcoming NFT exhibitions and shows.
MG: Did you always want to pursue a career in the creative industry?
SA: Honestly, no. I was making art and designing things constantly all my life, but fell into full-time creative work by accident. It's not that I thought I couldn't have a creative career, I just sort of went with the flow and this is where I've ended up. I left high school real early and tried to get into mortuary school but they shut down the school the year I wanted to enrol. Maybe in an alternate universe I would have been a mortician, real estate agent, props maker, automotive painter; all things I wanted to do but didn’t have the focus. My mum sort of picked this design course for me at technical college even though I wasn't vibing the sounds of it at all, but maybe that’s the start of my professional creative career.
MG: Where does your inspiration come from?
SA: I really try not to go out of my way to be inspired anymore and try to draw from within or from memories and experiences. I guess subconsciously I'm really inspired by renaissance and rococo art. I don’t really watch any anime but there's definitely an element of that style in my work too.
MG: Walk me through your creative process from initial idea to final 3D digital product…
SA: There really is no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes inspiration and the drive to make something strikes in the shower or when I'm deep into another project. I used to sketch things out then make them then get really frustrated because they didn’t look like how I planned them to. Now I get a rough concept of what I want to do then sort of go into auto pilot and make it. I guess because I never have a solid picture of what I want to make I end up making dozens of iterations to the lighting, colours and overall concept. I work really well under pressure too, I get super creative like four hours before a deadline is suppose to be…
MG: How do you create the different textures in your digital artwork? What software do you use?
SA: I use CINEMA 4D with OCTANE, DAZ STUDIO, CLO3D, ZBRUSH and most Adobe products. I don't model or texture everything I do 100% by myself, it would take me too long and it's not something I want to focus on anymore, so some things are downloaded and bought.
MG: How did you develop from oil paintings to futuristic, cyber dreamscapes and graphic design?
SA: I was super into cyberpunk literature and media as a teenager so naturally I tried to recreate some similar scenes of my own that could have existed in those worlds. Growing up in the early 2000’s there was a heavy focus on futurism, and I felt like I was promised futures that never happened so I try to create ones of my own.
MG: What was the last dream you can remember?
SA: Most of my dreams are wayyyyyy too psychic, prophetic and scary or just weird and boring about daily life. I think if I shared most of them I'd get myself into some trouble with my friends and family. Recently I had a dream of someone I know who took me for a drive in a Hot Wheels car and then dropped me off at Seven Hills train station. 70% of my dreams involve Sydney trains, not sure why…
MG: Do you have a favourite character or universe you’ve created?
SA: My first real goal in 3D was to make a version of myself which I managed to create in 2018 that looked really similar to me! Then I thought creating an exact duplicate of myself was pretty boring so I sort of anime-ified her and distorted her. You can see her in most of my work like VOIDWALKER 2020, and Creation of My Metaverse.
MG: Creation of My Metaverse is simply stunning! What message did you hope to convey with this?
SA: It was sort of about my own personal art journey and NFT story, and how breaking down the structures of both new and old technology has bred this fantastic new platform for us to share art. It's also about the importance of creating your own space or universe within the Metaverse.
MG: Futuristic conceptions of human existence in the NFT space are often white-dominated, how do you hope to challenge this narrative with your afro-futuristic characters?
SA: As I've always done, I'm going to keep including black voices in my art and I hope by doing that I can set a good example to the rest of the community. I hope to encourage and inspire other artists or collectors to support black people and to include black people in their art.
MG: You're hosting a party. Which three celebrities, dead or alive, do you invite?
SA: CORPSEGRINDER, Keanu Reeves and RIHANNA. The party would probably end with us all creating some kind of alien cult.
MG: Which artists inspire you right now?
SA: I’m really enjoying Edvard Munch’s drawings and lithographs at the moment.
MG: Let’s talk about your music - how would you describe your sound in three words?
SA: Blackened, Soft, Angry.
MG: Do you think there is a possibility of combining your music with your physical and digital art?
SA: Definitely. As of now, the extent of my music and art crossover would be the album artwork I created for a punk band I did vocals for called NASHO. I'd love to dive deeper by creating a virtual musician that would combine my music with some of my character work.
MG: Any final thoughts on our purpose in the universe?
SA: I heard we are in a simulation designed by AI to learn about their creation story. It sounds really depressing, but I’m not sure why in my mind it seems like the most logical answer…