David is an actor, indie filmmaker and celebrity spoken word poet who’s exploded on the NFT scene with an entirely new art genre. Boasting over 100 professional film & tv credits, he’s no stranger to the art of film — and now has added an element to his art that is both impactful and unexpected: poetry and…nudity. That’s right, David Bianchi personally poses in the buff to deliver potent doses of perspective and awareness around the racist history of blackface and the 150 years of institutional oppression that was the minstrel show, and the correspondent silencing and mockery of black voices and culture.
The Modern Day Minstrel is a collaboration conceptualized and produced by Bianchi and beautifully lensed by editorial photographer Isaac Alvarez. Each NFT is narrated in Bianchi’s haunting original spoken word poetry. They are expertly animated and subtly brought to life with exquisite score and sound design sonically illuminating the story of each portrait in a beautiful and visceral manner.
Additionally, In an unprecedented move, he pledged to release the intellectual property rights of his written poetry to the owner of each NFT along with a 24-page luxury book signed by himself and Alvarez. The proprietary spoken-word/cinema hybrid, Spinema™, he created over 16 years ago, has been reborn as perspective-packed NFTs. The art has been taking the NFT world by storm with his stunning performances that harness a powerful message and purpose alongside movie-theatre-quality visuals and sound.
“The distance between mediocrity and greatness is your perception.” -David Bianchi
Perception is what his incredible art form of Spinema™ delivers. He’s using past perceptions and infusing them with contemporary viewpoints, bringing awareness to issues through his own creative and attentive vantage point. When you view his spoken word films, they give you a sense of empowerment, and one can feel the poignance of what they are witnessing. They immerse your senses at a visceral level and take you on a thought-provoking journey through time.
Apparently MetaPurse, (buyers of the Beeple NFT,) noticed David’s greatness, as they purchased David’s genesis project, “I Can’t Breathe,” for a cool $18,000.00 in ETH. Keeping his campaign promise, David donated all proceeds from the acquisition to the George Floyd Memorial Foundation, helping them establish a digital wallet to introduce cryptocurrency to the inner city of Minneapolis.
Davids’ Sophmore Spinema™ drop “You Can’t Hear Me” directed by Emmy nominee Christopher Folkens, starring himself and Grammy™ award-winning poet Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and spoken word artist Chris Wood sold out within 22 hours of auction opening. This project donated a combined $6,000 with the partnership of Charitas and Obtainable to the New Earth Foundation for inner-city youth programs.
“My story is just a tremendous amount of desire, self-belief, fortitude, and knowing, knowing, that my art, that what I have, is going to be worth a lot of money someday and is going to change the world.” – David Bianchi
Money certainly isn’t his focus, as he pleads for artists to focus on the things that genuinely inspire and resonate with them. He proclaims that “money follows inspiration, and that’s really the most important thing.” I think he’s right; tapping into your inspiration and allowing that to guide you leads you to the prosperous potential of the universe.
His pieces have been bid on and collected by some of the most important collectors in the space. Not to mention that the floor for his ‘Modern Day Minstrel’ series is currently at 3.3 ETH (or over $7K USD.) I met David for coffee in LA last week and we spoke about creating a better world through NFTs, his new book, plans for the future, and our molecular level gifts as humans.
“I believe that every single individual has a molecular level gift that is written on their code all the way down to their genetics, that makes them predisposed to be able to birth something into the world that only they can do, as a result of their genetic code that is coupled with their emotional, physical, and spiritual experiences as they walk this planet.” he mentions while referencing his upcoming book, where you can learn more about what he calls the “molecular level gift.”
His gift must be for delivering messages in entertaining and valuable ways, because his Spinema is a culmination of top of the line cinematic engineering, poetic messages that rewrite history and performances that reach you viscerally. The art empowers those that have been unjustly robbed of their human rights and voice. I asked David “Why nudity?” His reply was profound:
“When we are stripped bare, we are stripped of dignity. This was common during the slave trade, especially on the selling block. So the Minstrel has had his dignity stripped of him, and all he has left are racist and traumatic generational stereotypes burned into him. The minstrel show exacerbated those stereotypes en masse as the National art form for over a century that overtook Opera, and became Vaudeville, then eventually Hollywood films. So when we see him naked, he has no choice but to fight for his dignity despite the racist scars he carries with him.”
He’s definitely using his nudity for a worthy cause, reshaping this particularly cruel art form that existed in the past. If you don’t know, the minstrel was a super fucked up form of historical entertainment, where caucasian actors would dress in blackface and hop around the stage berating black people with horrific “comedy” and songs. This perpetuated a nefarious sentiment that people of colour should be mocked and used for entertainment and profit.
Courtesy of Exertion Films
This destructive narrative has done so much harm to beautiful, powerful, and noble humans worldwide. We have a responsibility, and privilege, to rewrite outdated and under-informed societal narratives that were put in place before any of us were born. We can teach people love and worthiness, empower them as the royalty we all are, and give access to the independent ownership of profits made on their behalf using the blockchain.
I’m so glad that David is revisiting this horrific moment in human history where the power of entertainment was abused and used to misinform. He is shining a whole new light on the issue while creating a new story around once pernicious uses of an entertainer’s influences. In the ‘Modern Day Minstrel’ series, he’s flexing his power as an entertainer too, let’s just take a moment here to appreciate that bod! How could you not get a closer look with that eye candy? You have got to love when an NFT is so attention-grabbing while being loaded with honourable intent!
Courtesy of Exertion Films
All of his beautiful Spinema™ presents eloquent art alongside a message for humanity and an opportunity to make a difference. All it takes is just a few adjustments in perception and the courage to take action. It’s interesting to see so many perspectives coming forth in this growing NFT space, and David Bianchi is undoubtedly someone to keep your eye on, which shouldn’t be hard, as he’s a pro at consistently grabbing our attention with fresh, consistent content. So check out his work on Superrare to join the Spinema™ Movement, and subscribe to NFTs.wtf to keep up with all of the latest NFT projects.
Links
https://www.instagram.com/davidbianchi_official/
https://twitter.com/davidbianchi
https://davidbianchi.actor/about
