Q&A with Artist Lucie Davis
AWS Galery Team
Photograph provided by Artist Lucie Davis
Blending the digital and fine art worlds, the AWS Gallery Team speaks with artist Lucie Davis (@luciedavis) on her latest ‘Bit Coin’ series. The physical and NFT series can be seen via the Imaginarium Virtual Art Exhibition as well as on the AWS x Voice Storefront.
Read our Q&A with Central Saint Martins Graduate, multi-awarding winning designer as well as artist Lucie Davis to learn more about her artwork:
What made you want to become an artist?
This might sound crazy, but I think I was made to be! I’ve always been drawn to art and design – even from as early as 4 years old. When my mum introduced me to a box of crayons (or any kind of utensils) they were all I ever wanted to play with. A piece of paper, a pen or just handling any kind of material for that matter, was always my version of a ‘playground’. I feel quite lucky in the sense that I’ve always kind of known that creativity was what felt most natural to me in terms of freely and fully expressing my thoughts, feelings or ideas. The fact that I spent all my time more concerned over creating the best decorated or inventive cover pages of my school homework books more than actually doing the homework of others subjects themselves might of made it somewhat obvious to my teachers too that I was going to follow a more creative path.
“Young Lucie”
Photograph provided by Artist Lucie Davis
2. Do you have any artistic influences? If so, who are they?
Of course – many, but I’ll name two that have always been at the forefront of my mind. For one, the genius that is Ai Weiwei. His work is so simple but also subversive and has such power in its symbolism. From an iPhone carved out of Jade to a re-creation of Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ re-made out of ubiquitous Lego bricks - I’ve forever been fascinated by his constant questioning as to what we deem valuable in our world of mass-production and consumerism. Through our material culture he explores the tension between past and present, hand and machine, what is precious and worthless, the familiar and unfamiliar– all things I like to toy with within my artistic practise as well.
I also want to mention the ground-breaking and unforgettable visionary, Alexander McQueen. His conceptual brilliance influenced my life and work in so many ways and made me feel a whole array of feelings I didn’t even think possible to happen all at once. He was so ahead of the game and one of the first designers that really took me by utter shock and then pleasant surprise, made me experience all the joy and then all the sadness whilst also totally transporting me into all kinds of dimensions and possibilities. From dresses painted on via robots to ghostly holograms of Kate Moss, he didn’t just design fashion garments but rather created walking artworks and extraordinary spectacles. He really thought about the bigger picture. He was also a true master in his craft, learning all the traditional skills to then break every possible rule he could. His forward-thinking and experimental ways of doing things (like constructing and deconstructing) and merging all disciplines within his practise had me stretching my mind beyond my most unthought-of capabilities. This encouraged me to continually challenge my ideas as well as take on this multi-disciplinary approach within my work too. I now try to find ways of seamlesslyconnecting art, design, fashion, advertising or illustration whilst also marrying up the physical with the digital world. This is how I’ve been able to meet and reach out to a wider audience in new and surprising ways too.
Photograph provided by Artist Lucie Davis
3.What Art School did you attend (what did you study)?
Central Saint Martins – It was my dream to go there! Once my mum had told me about it and said that’s where Alexander McQueen went and then I just made it my mission to go there. It truly is the most inspiring place and the most ‘at home’ I’ve ever felt was in their workshops just making things!
I did my foundation course there initially and got to try all kinds of disciplines such as fine art, graphic design, fashion, 3d design and then ended up specialising in jewellery design for my BA degree. And although it was essentially ‘jewellery’ I studied, I saw it as a golden opportunity to really challenge a subject which naturally we associate with value, and thus question what ‘jewellery’ could actually be. Could jewellery be valued as wearable art? Could it incorporate technology? Was jewellery just miniature sculpture or tiny architecture housed by our bodies? Why does it need to be made of precious materials? What IS actually ‘precious?’
I found that jewellery essentially was a subject that I could really explore so much with and invite expansive new outlooks to. I wanted to also make it a more accessible subject as sometimes high jewellery can be deemed as rather intimidating. And Central Saint Martins truly welcomed and encouraged this form of conceptual, different ways of thinking with open arms - they embraced non-traditional ways of working which really allowed me to thrive in feeling good about doing something totally unexpected.
Photograph provided by Artist Lucie Davis
4. Could you describe your ‘Bit Coin’ project? What inspired you to explore the world of cryptocurrency as a Fine Artist?
Funnily enough once I created this artwork and brought the ‘Bit Coin’ concept to life via hand-carving bite marks into euro coins, people just assumed I was really into cryptocurrency! But the truth is, I just get a lot of inspiration from everyday objects (like loose coins in my pocket!) or everyday sayings such as “Bit Coin” (which became quite the buzzword - people almost became numb to hearing it!) – essentially I explore all things that are often overlooked or ‘throwaway’ and begin to play with them. I always found the word itself ‘Bit Coin’ rather random – what did it even mean in relation to what it was? I studied it, thought about it and it just sparked off the idea of simply biting into a coin.
I essentially just wanted to re-define something that became rather relentless in conversation and offer new meaning, a spark of freshness, enjoyment and somewhat make it more accessible to a rather complex growing topic which mirrored our daily interactions and society in this moment in time. Themes of the hand-made and machine-made are often present within my artwork too so I liked the fact that I was working with a concept that was ‘online’ and wanted to bring back into the ‘real world’. This way people could (I hope) re-connect or re-think the notion of it. It’s interesting because the concept then sparked off so many themes and interpretations: Brexit, our somewhat becoming cashless society, inflation, a growing digital world...
When I shared the image of the first one I made to Instagram, people then asked to buy them. I sold a limited edition series of them framed, signed and sealed. 40/50 were sold out. But then took the last 10 as an opportunity to develop the idea even further, to make them even more ‘valuable’.
So with the last 10/50 ‘Bit Coins’ I decided to transform the tangible back into the digital world and see what that looked like. They are now re-birthed into my first ever NFT digital art collection "Bit Coin". A series of unique collectables. Only 10 of these individual bitten digital euro coins are available and in circulation (With one already being sold, so leaving just 9/10 now). Each 1/1 NFT animation is a spinning euro coin from 10 different European countries all missing a “bite” and have different imagery on the back of each coin. Collectors of each NFT will receive the last remaining matching physical ‘Bit coins’ – hand-carved, signed, numbered and sealed in a floating frame. I then priced each NFT at one tenth of a Bitcoin in real-time, the moment that specific NFT was minted. Here I got to further play with and merge the worlds of crypto and fiat, inflation and deflation, the machine-made with the hand-made, the digital and the physical. I hope you enjoy them!
Physical ‘Bit Coin’ Sculpture
Physical ‘Bit Coin’ Sculpture
5. How did you discover NFT’s?
Funnily enough – it was thanks to some of my Instagram followers whom I am so grateful for! When I posted the initial photograph of my physical hand-carved ‘Bit Coin’ artwork that I made for sale, lots of people commented on the post saying “Make this into an NFT now!” or “Sell this an NFT!” – Then I went down a research rabbit hole for a while and thought you know what, after successfully selling 40/50 of my physical Bit Coins, I thought why not save the last 10 to push the idea even further and transform them back into the digital space (whilst offering the last 10 physicals with every NFT purchase). I loved how the idea gained so much interaction, engagement and collaboration! I love connecting with people and am equally interested in what people want.
So I took on board the feedback and made it happen. I truly believe that sometimes the best way to learn about something properly is to just do it, so I saw this as an opportunity to explore a new world I myself wasn’t familiar with! I think it’s important to embrace change and also challenge yourself into territories you might be afraid to. This particular concept and subject of ‘Bit Coin’ also just really made sense with NFT’s.
6. What inspires you most about the world of digital art and of NFT’s?
The endless possibilities! Excited to see what the future holds for it...
View Lucie Davis’ Artist Page here
