Whatever NFTs really are—for no one actually knows their purpose no matter how intricately the reason for them is described—the look of the one created to “honor” Chadwick Boseman for the Oscars radiates insulting qualities for a number of reasons. Not only because it now has to be redesigned in the wake of the actor’s loss to Anthony Hopkins at the Academy Awards, but because it also very much reminds one of the aesthetic of a certain keychain in the “Black Museum” episode of Black Mirror’s fourth season.
For those who need a refresh on what that plotline consisted, of, it was about a museum filled with technological horrors (called, what else, the Black Museum). Among them was a holographic inmate once sentenced to the electric chair. The owner of the museum, Rolo Haynes (Douglas Hodge), managed to upload his consciousness after his death into what only appears to be a hologram, but still very much accounts for the personality and sentience of Clayton Leigh (Babs Olusanmokun).
Thus, when museum “patrons” are given the “pleasure” of pulling the lever on the electric chair for themselves (for no more than ten seconds, lest Clayton’s “synapses” explode), he is subjected to the still more crass and cruel fate of having the image of his perpetual suffering in the moment of electrocution placed into some kind of “virtual keychain.” One that looks, well, a lot like this Chad Boseman NFT. Which manages to eke by somehow on the front of bad taste because the artist responsible is not un homme blanc.
Deadline perhaps makes it easiest to comprehend NFTs with the explanation that they “are one-of-a-kind digital artworks that are redeemed via a blockchain. While an NFT could be one of many things, including a JPEG, a GIF or an MP3, Oshea’s was a golden sculpture of Boseman’s head modeled in 3D…” How “festive” indeed. And super “great” for the environment, too—with their blockchain bullshit being at least “partially responsible for the millions of tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions generated by the cryptocurrencies used to buy and sell them.” But no, people want the “futuristic” cachet of cryptocurrency to sully the “art” world, to boot.
What perhaps makes the entire affair even more “Black Museum”-esque is the fact that the expression on Boseman’s face is not in the least joyful, but one that can be described the same way Clayton’s daughter does her father: “like a docile animal.” Is this the “empowerment” message Black children everywhere need to see? Which is how the artist, Andre Oshea, characterized the project in terms of modeling him after his Black Panther persona. It doesn’t really seem like it, and, in truth, an “analog” tribute in the form of a statue might be better. Just put it somewhere in the L.A. area, for the city has no problem honoring famous people in entertainment.
What’s more, in typical “Hollywood charity” fashion, only half the proceeds will actually go to the Colon Cancer Foundation (Boseman’s eventual killer being that disease). It hardly seems worth the separate non-financial cost of immortalizing Boseman in this rather demeaning way. Like he’s a literal pawn to be shoved in an Oscar swag bag (a rumor that turned out to be false, but honestly, not out of the realm of believability).
Oshea soon after noted as a result of the backlash, “I now recognize that Chadwick’s face is a triggering reminder of his death rather than his life, and I will be redesigning the artwork to be auctioned off later this week.” Expected to fetch at least a million dollars (doll hairs?). Whoever ends up “owning” the image privately, it will forever remain seared in the minds of the public… like Clayton Leigh’s in that keychain.
