Serwah Attafuah
3D artist Serwah Attafuah from West Sydney chatted to Coeval about her creative influences and attributes within the digital field. As someone who has been designing and creating art her whole life, it’s no surprise Serwah has continued to pursue it professionally in her own unique aesthetic. Combining Afrofuturism and renaissance art, Serwah’s work taps into her own surreal world of the modern gamer girl. Recently Serwah has been selling her work through NFT’s and most notably at Sotheby's Natively Digital curated NFT sale in June. Read on to hear more from Serwah on her NFT’s and upcoming projects.
Tell us about you journey as a creative and how you got to where you are today?
I've been making art and designing things my whole life, since my parents are both artists and designers I've always been immersed in that energy. During high school I focused on oil painting in my free time and spent my time at school not paying attention to the lessons whilst making net art on my school laptop. This was about the time when I had to leave oil paints alone and started teaching myself 3D art. I left school at age 14 and went directly to technical college for Design Live Production and Events, at the same time I founded an anti-colonial death metal band called DISPOSSESSED. Shortly after, I started doing punk vocals for NASHO and vocals for a hardstyle/hardcore punk fusion group called MANA. For the past 4 years I have been heavily focused in on my 3D art and animation practice.
You have a strong aesthetic that runs throughout your work – how would you best describe it?
A vivid and surreal cross between Afrofuturism and renaissance art.
Where do you gather your inspiration from?
I consciously try not to look at references when thinking about making art. I just try to live life and enjoy things and let my experiences and memories filter through me subconsciously.
You create digital 3D work – what techniques and software’s do you utilise?
At the moment I'm using Cinema4D with Octane. I make my characters in DAZ 3D by blending morphs, photo scanning faces and sculpting in Zbrush. Other programs include Adobe and CLO3D. Recently I've been using a technique where I render a still or animation from Daz in Iray and import it into Cinema4D on a plane and position it where I would the 3D object. I'm big into shortcuts, 'frankenstein-ing' projects and not compromising your style even though it seems like I can't be done. When I was first playing around in 3D, I only really had Iray to render out from as it's free, but I love the way it looks for some reason and still use it as much as possible.
Talk us through how you sell your work using NFT’s and why?
I think it's extremely important for digital art to be consumed and sold in its organic form, NFT's are a fantastic medium to do so. I've been minting and selling a myriad of old, new and commissioned works on platforms such as Foundation, Rarible, Nifty Gateway and through Left Gallery since October 2020. To me, my most notable NFT achievement would be my participation in Sotheby's Natively Digital curated NFT sale this past June.
Can you choose a favourite project you have worked on and explain your creative process in how you made it?
I don't think I have a definitive favourite; I like all my work for different reasons. Consensual Hallucinations 2020 is one I really vibe at the moment and consider my magnum opus. It was created in the first 10 days of the 2020 lockdown and a couple days after my 22nd birthday. Generally, I was feeling like we all felt like we were suspended underwater, but I tried to make something beautiful from it.
What have you got planned in terms of upcoming projects?
Music is something I'd like to get back into, ideally in the form of another blackened death metal or doom band. Something I'd really like to do is to build a virtual death metal musician in my style of 3D, that’s been a goal of mine for four years but I’m starting to feel like I’m getting a grasp of the technology to do that. In terms of art, some cool curated and solo NFT drops are coming up. Also, I'll finish that tarot card deck I'm always telling myself I'm going to finish…
interview GABY MAWSON
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