Serwah Attafuah: Meet Western Sydney’s Finest Demon

Creating imaginary cyberpunk universes.

Photo: Jamie Wdziekonski. Courtesy of the artist.

If author William Gibson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the creators of the original Cyberpunk RPG game and a couple Old Masters from the Renaissance could sit in a room to talk about an hypothetical collaborative project, the probabilities of this one looking like Serwah Attafuah’s Instagram feed would be certainly high. Born and raised in a creative family and currently based in Western Sydney, Serwah is a multidisciplinary, self-taught artist who digitally creates imaginary cyberpunk universes exploring a wide range of themes, from religion to afrofuturism and black culture.  

We talk to Attafuah about the beginning of her career, her autodidact journey through 3D digital art and her immersion into the crypto and NFTs world, including her latest participation in the Sotheby’s Natively Digital sale and her collaboration with Foundation App, a platform bringing together crypto art and culture to foster a network of mutual support between artists, creators and collectors. 

Georgina: You are a painter, digital artist and a punk musician. Can you tell me more about how you started as a multidisciplinary creative? Do you remember which discipline came first into your career? 

Serwah Attafuah: Actually dancing came first. I was very focused and interested in this discipline when I was younger. I went to a specific high school for dancing but as soon as I entered, I started losing interest in it. However, I’ve always been doing art through different formats, prominently painting. I don’t really know about the genesis of me deciding to start. I think I might have just found some old paintings around my house and thought it would be fun to teach myself how to do it (with a little help of Bob Ross YouTube channel). I also have creative parents. My dad is a sculptor and my mom is a graphic designer, so there were always plenty of “artsy” activities at my place.

G: In an interview for Foundation you talked about how you taught yourself to use 3D rendering software. How did this journey to becoming an autodidact digital artist develop?

SA: I found this crazy YouTube channel that contained short animations and I just googled the software that the creator used, which happened to be free and very simple to get started with. At the beginning I didn’t know what I was doing at all, and for me, the results were terrible but at the same time I thought that the best way to teach myself how to do 3D was to try and not to expect certain results. So I just downloaded whatever software I could, from pirate softwares to free trials, pressed any button and learned from my mistakes. 

G: What inspires the fantastic universes and endless characters that star in your digital work? Can we find any similarity between your paintings and your digital art?

SA: My paintings were quite very different from my digital art but I guess that the only similarity between them is the portraiture and character work. My digital artwork features a lot of cyberpunk, imaginary and futurist themes and anime style characters influenced by what I watch on TV, the different art that I see around or the books I like to read. The Matrix, a lot of William Gibson’s books, the original cyberpunk RPG game, fantasy stuff like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade and all kinds of crazy things.

G: What other styles and themes can we appreciate in the worlds that you create?

SA: Probably the Renaissance, the Rococo style and classic artworks such as oil paintings. I am constantly referencing old masters by trying to incorporate some elements into my work like religious, afro, black culture themes, as well as some inspiration from West Sydney that is the place where I’m currently based.

Courtesy of the artist.

G: What’s your relationship with NFTs? How was your first approach with cryptoart?

SA: My first encounter with cryptoart was last year, in October. I was part of Foundation which is an NFT platform. They reached out to me for a digital show which happened to be my first experience with NFTs and since then, I dropped like seven of them in a variety of different platforms and spaces. Most of them have been collaborations but still, it has been super fun so far.

G: As an artist, what’s your opinion regarding blockchain and NFTs? Do you think these assets are becoming more beneficial for artists than the traditional art market structures?

SA: I have only positive things to say about NFTs. I can see the technology really benefiting not only other artists from a wide range of different fields (from painters to videographers) but a wide range of industries. It’s not only about art, it could be music, writing and even copper structures as well. There’s a wide range of things that we can do with this technology where obviously we are very much at the start of it. I’m cool with NFTs haha!

G: Do you think crypto art is here to stay and revolutionize the art world forever or might we be experiencing an ephemeral trend? Which are your predictions? 

SA: I think it’s here to stay! I even took part in the Sotheby’s Natively Digital sale in June and Sotheby’s is one of the most major auction houses in the world. I think that for an institution like that to accept and to want to learn from NFTs is very groundbreaking. Obviously the art world is definitely catching on and it’s just a matter of grasping the concept of it and wider acceptance. It’s just a matter of time! I still don’t fully understand the technology behind all this, but I am so excited about it and I can’t wait to learn all the details.

G: How was it to be involved in a Sotheby’s show? 

SA: It was super fun! They created a NFTs group exhibition and auction and they were very supportive throughout the whole process. They were very willing to learn from the crypto community about stuff that we felt needed to be represented and then during the week of the auction they held a really amazing exhibition on three of their locations around the globe. It was an amazing experience to be involved for sure!

G: What do you believe an art collector aims when investing their money into something intangible?

SA: People invest in NFTs for a variety of reasons. Some of them because they understand that there are some forms of art that maybe should exist exclusively online. Some others are buying NFTs to flip them and make money or to trade them which is totally cool too! There’s no issue with that but if you wanna get metaphorical, people have traded things for ages. For example, you can buy clothes for your video game characters that you are never going to be able to wear in real life but this brings you happiness. There's plenty of things that are intangible that we are already paying for every month, like your music library on Apple music or Spotify and we don’t own this music, so it’s quite the same. 

G: Is there a recent project you feel excited about and that you would like to share?

SA: I just recently dropped a music video that I made for Triple One. It took a lot of my time in the past month and I am really proud of it! The song is very sick too.