Conversation with Tù.úk’z

I am a person that needs to be in a constant state of distraction, that’s how I find myself in the world.

Last Wednesday our curator Kika Nicolela hosted a Twitter space with the self-taught prodigy from Brazil Tù.úk’z to introduce the drop of his objktone piece called ‘The Shifting Snow’. Here are the key highlights.

A highly prolific creator of over 400 pieces released on the Tezos blockchain, Tù.úk’z explained how his art experiences continuously change, aligned with his personal evolution:

“I do believe that my art is like a reflection of my current self. I am in this spiritual state right now, even in my personal life. This reflects a lot in the images I create. That’s also one of the reasons it’s always changing because we as humans always change as well. That’s one of the main reasons why I cannot do only one thing for a long time. I seek different things if I am in a different mindset".

I didn’t come from a family of artists, but I always had the strongest urge to express myself.

Tù.úk’z walked us through his gradual realization of his identity as an artist and his choice to embrace digital art:

“I discovered myself as an artist first in 2010. I was one of those lost persons who have a lot of imagination, of creativity, of spirituality, and who don’t have anything concrete to do. I always felt I had a creative mind even if I didn’t understand how to draw.”

He chose to study design, allowing him to discover abstract art, which made him discover he could paint in a different way: “I could spend many hours a day drawing repetitive patterns, circles, lines etc.”

He then realized that concentrating on his drawing allowed him to experiment something very special: “It’s like you get out of your body for a moment. All of the bad feelings, all of the pain, all the troubles you might have during this specific moment in your life, go away. This is one of the great forces that keeps pushing me to create.”

I am a person that needs to be in a constant state of distraction, that’s how I find myself in the world.

He discovered digital art in 2011. He became obsessed with creating images when realizing that the Internet was a huge playground to discover new things:

“It’s like a blank page. That’s one of the things that keeps motivating me, it’s that always there is going to be one thing or another that you could do differently from others.”

He also started participating in online communities, where he encountered a welcoming environment among those who, like him, chose not to follow the conventional ways of social media.

“Back then people were enjoying showing their faces and their families on their Facebook profile. This was very strange for me because I always felt this strange desire to be something different than I was. Then I discovered glitch art in 2013. They didn’t post selfies. They didn’t have their real names. They posted different pictures with distortions, with colour saturation. That’s when I felt really passionate about creating digital art.”

“ My art back then was a lot of glitch art: distorsions, high saturation images, a lot of noise. I discovered that I could glitch an image by literally breaking the file, making a malfunction in the system to cause a glitch, or that I could mimic the glitch style using painting tools, or collage skills.”

He also got involved in an abstract art community called ‘Free the pixels’:

“I started following the philosophy of the ‘Free the pixels!’ community, that was that every pixel and image could re-imagine itself into another thing. I started modifying the same image everyday so that the next week it would look completely different from the previous and engage in this activity in a very meditative state”.

He explained that he really started “feeling himself as the digital artist Tù.úk’z’” in 2014:

2014 to 2016 were “two intense years of online exhibitions, traveling worldwide, sharing art and participating in group shows. That was when I had this first moment that I realized that what I was exploring was something special for other people. People gave me a lot of space to be in many different countries so my art reached many different people online and in physical spaces. It was at this moment that I officially became the digital artist that I am today.”

Upon entering the NFT space, he was able to reunite with groups of friends he had lost touch with because his interactions were dispersed across different platforms. A lot of artists who are currently minting on objkt had long been a source of inspiration for him: Lorna Mills, A.L. Crego, Sky Goodman, Dawnia aka letsglitchit, John Cates, Crashblossom, Chepertom…

“When we met together in the NFT space, it felt like home to me.”

The NFT space also provided him the opportunity to transition into a full-time artist. However his art isn't motivated by financial gain; instead, it arises from an innate need to create and embark on a journey of self-discovery:

“I wasn’t able to make a living even back when my art was exhibited in biennales so I had to have a real life job. Every time I arrived home, I turned on the computer and started creating. The reason I create the image is because I need to create the image to be what I’m meant to be. That was never because of the money. Nowadays I am a full time artist thanks to the NFT space, even now in the bear market. I know it’s very difficult now but I believe that we as artists should be able to ride the high waves and the low waves. We show that we are true to ourselves and we are not only chasing something that is not as important as our mission.”

He voiced his optimism regarding the space:

“If the relation is not strong, time will kill it. It’s been two years and there are artists and collectors who have been around even longer than that. That proves that we are doing something that is true to ourselves and our art.”

When asked about his perspective on AI, he revealed that it rendered his work more practical:

“Before AI I was downloading images across everywhere on the Internet so I could break them. Now with AI it’s easier because you don’t have to download the image anymore, you can just type the image. My first encounter with AI was with the first Google DeepDream and with the Runway ML app. It was different back then. Now you can imagine abstract images or realism. Of course we can still notice in some cases that it is AI but I don’t believe you will be able to tell for much longer.”

He opened up about his creative process which he called “a repetition way of creating”:

“I start the process by creating a lot of different images. I do this in a very free mindset so I don’t necessarily have an idea that I am going to start with. Sometimes I am in the mood to start with flowers, landscapes, circles, colours. Sometimes I create a hundred images in a session. From this hundred I pick my favourite ones. Then from these favourite ones I do another session, using post production softwares like Photoshop or After Effects. While I’m doing this repetitive process, I enter in this state where I completely disconnect from my real body, somehow going into a dream state. That’s when the images are discovered. When you discover something that is visually appealing to you, either beautiful or maybe disturbing, you just go deeper to it and the art is being created from those activities.”

Among the outputs generated, one particularly stood out from the others, which gave birth to the objkt.one piece, ‘The Shifting Snow’:

“When you invited me to this curation, I already knew that this was the piece I wanted to display because how special it was when I first saw it. The format of the piece is unusual since I am more used to work with a square format. The combination of colours in this piece, specifically with the white, is very distinct. When I look at this piece, I feel more relaxed. It is a still image but it is almost like it was slowly moving.

It is very difficult for me as an artist to talk about it because I think what is beautiful is the interpretation of others. Abstract art connects in a very individual way with each one of us.

For me, the piece is like a personal view on accepting change, embracing that everything that you have is temporary. This piece gives me this idea of embracing every moment you have with your friends and family because every single moment is special since we don’t know how it’s going to be the next day.”

Tù.úk’z concluded by sharing his main philosophy:

“Love is never enough. Engage with your friends, engage with your family, engage with your online friends, and love as much as you can. Also life is way too short to limit yourself by the interest of other people, or by the rigid rules of the market or external conditions. You don’t need anyone’s permissions, you don’t need a strong concept. You should be able to have fun and just do it”.

Objkt.one’s curatorial approach is anchored in the long-term commitment to explore and express diverse cultural and artistic backgrounds while putting the value behind each work of art at the forefront. The drops are curated by us as well as by external curators. The onboarding process for curators consists of filling out an application form, which is currently limited to single drops/events. You can find the form here.