SPECULATIONS | Sarah Meyohas
Artist Sarah Meyohas launched her own personal cryptocurrency: BitchCoin.
The currency is backed by Meyohas’s photography, at a fixed exchange rate of 1 BitchCoin to 25 square inches of photographic print.
One Meyohas print is 25 BitchCoins, or $2,500.00—the currency’s value will fluctuate over time, determined by the market. Subverting the traditional method of buying art, Meyohas instead promotes patronage—an investment in her career as opposed to purchasing a physical print or canvas. These ethereal assets exist in the realm of futures, with a conceptual twist: the value of the artist’s production is backed as opposed to a risk on the finished product.
“I would like to see an art market that allows collectors to invest in an artist as a value producer, rather than investing in a single piece. Artists and collectors are linked in a more symbiotic way,” Meyohas explained. “By giving the artist an increased stake in the supply, demand, and price of the work, BitchCoin challenges the status quo. The artist as maker of meaning reclaims agency in self-evaluation.”
Source: ARTNEWS, AnOther, Hyperallergic