xxnft
Gretchen
Andrew
Gretchen Andrew hacks systems of power with art, code, and glitter. Crypto Mermaids is a PFP project that supports “Crypto By the Pool: Demystifying male-dominated knowledge topics in a fun, female, and approachable way.”
Which was your first NFT ever?
I consider my Thirst Trap Glitch Gifs to be my first NFT series, it was the first time I made work I consider to be medium specific to NFTs and Crypto Art.
Which is the last one?
How did you start your career in crypto art?
Cautiously. It takes a long time to build trust with collectors and I value that trust above all else. As a technologist I didn’t feel comfortable getting involved until I understood the entire technology stack and wrote a little in Solidity myself.
How can we increase the involvement of women in crypto?
Let me introduce to you Crypto Mermaids: Having more fun than Crypto Whales since 2022. We are on Yachts... but totally not bored. We are launching at Art Basel Miami with pre-events in Dubai and London this fall. You can learn more about the project and get whitelisted here.
Last project?
The Crypto Mermaids is a big focus for me right now. The PFPs are really just the membership and funding aspect with most of the work going into crypto education through a book, a mini series, workshops and a book club.
What are the main guiding principles behind your work? Can you step outside
yourself for a moment and let us know what you see?
​
As an artist, I have built a career around looking like a dumb blond while blowing people’s mind with my technical power. I’ve created a community of women who feel empowered through my work and a critically respected and successful art
career around demystifying technology through absurdly approachable. People see me and think, if she can do this, then I can too.” This is the same approach taken in Crypto By the Pool which is supported by the Crypto Mermaid PFP project. We
believe that Rose All Day is a commitment and so is educating women about crypto. We take both very seriously. More widely in my practice I have three guiding goals:
1. Be celebrated and get paid lavishly for being myself. Often seen as the privilege of the artist, I believe everyone in the art world and in tech should have this same opportunity.
2. My long term career goal is to, “Rule the Artworld with a Bejeweled Open Palm.” I want to inspire and create a future based on the world we want.
3. I aim to make work that is Subversively Mission Driven. The mission is to reclaim technology as a positive and more inclusive space.
What are the main guiding principles behind your work? Can you step outside
yourself for a moment and let us know what you see?
​
As an artist, I have built a career around looking like a dumb blond while blowing people’s mind with my technical power. I’ve created a community of women who feel empowered through my work and a critically respected and successful art
career around demystifying technology through absurdly approachable. People see me and think, if she can do this, then I can too.” This is the same approach taken in Crypto By the Pool which is supported by the Crypto Mermaid PFP project. We
believe that Rose All Day is a commitment and so is educating women about crypto. We take both very seriously. More widely in my practice I have three guiding goals:
1. Be celebrated and get paid lavishly for being myself. Often seen as the privilege of the artist, I believe everyone in the art world and in tech should have this same opportunity.
2. My long term career goal is to, “Rule the Artworld with a Bejeweled Open Palm.” I want to inspire and create a future based on the world we want.
3. I aim to make work that is Subversively Mission Driven. The mission is to reclaim technology as a positive and more inclusive space.
Do you get any particular source of inspiration for the visual styles of your works e.g. do they arrive in relation to the place (physical, psychological, or situational) you were located at the time?
I use party and craft materials to create a feminine and trivialized aesthetic which clashes with the male-dominated worlds of AI, programming, and political control my work also lives in. I like to think of it as daring people to find my practice trivial. I am, after all, reprogramming the AI of the global internet to give me everything I want. The Crypto Mermaids in particular draw inspiration from paper dolls, which are a physical and girly version of how PFP projects are created. I love Cindy Sherman’s “Doll Clothing” and how the ideas of dress up coincide with what we want to do with Crypto Mermaids, creating a fun “try it on” approach to crypto for women.
Can you dive a bit into the technical aspects of the works? Software or hardware used (in the wide sense; it could be thoughts and bodies), as well as the editing process? What are some of the particular challenges you and your team have faced in realizing the works?
In creating the Crypto Mermaids I wanted to dismantle the Profile Pic (PFP) process into a form that would help explain how it works. To do this, I actually made physical paper doll mermaids and clothing. Just like with my community vision boards where I invite visitors to museums to add their own dreams, I want to focus on the
ways in which the technology isn’t so complicated. Sometimes it can be more challenging to figure out how to make the process less technical but still qualify for the forms we are alluding to, in this case the PFP punks and the concept of a Crypto Whale.
Can you tell us about the relationship you want or aim to have with the viewer? What is the underlying approach to this relationship?
For the Crypto Mermaids I’m particularly thinking about how male-dominated knowledge topics, especially in technology and finance (crypto), are often presented as more complicated than they really are. The world needs more women who have the confidence to discuss and shape the future in technology. Crypto by the Pool is a wide-open door to that process. If you can’t discuss it while sipping on a Pina Colada it can’t be that difficult.
Tell us a secret about your work. Even a small one.
The metadata contains valuable secrets that no one has discovered yet.