Situating Conceptuality in Non-Fungible Token Art

This article explores how creative practitioners have integrated non-fungible tokens into their practice as a conceptual framework. Where this idea differs from artists simply minting their own NFT artefacts and uploading to an online marketplace is that artists are now considering both crypto currencies and NFT art as a disruptive conceptual space, and not merely an alternative online trading facility in selling artwork. Discussion will probe the intention of artists, where the notion of a tradable currency becomes part of the artwork itself, and not necessarily a singularity based on selling tokens as a stand alone commodity. The article will examine the practice of two artists who have used different approaches to create NFT conceptuality, British artist Damian Hirst’s The Currency (Hirst 2021) and Australian artist Shaun Wilson’s Beautiful Thought Coins (Wilson 2022). The premise in this article is to separate misconceptions that NFTs are NFT art and to explore how conceptuality in the NFT space is an emerging field of research still indeterminately polarised through what Seth Price states as a “hedge-fund thinking” (Price, Ruo).