9 January 2023

Cytara's art and fashion walk in the metaverse: The artwork 'Mariupol Mask' by the creator of virtual fashion and jewelry Helen Do at the Ukrainian Pavilion of the NFT Biennial

Yesterday, Cytara changed her outfit on the avatar platform Ready Player Me from the New Year's tuxedo with pink punk-hairstyle and makeup in metaverse esthetic to a new look consisting of a black collar-shirt and matching trousers, reddish brown hair and makeup with blue eyeshadow and viva magenta-red lips for explorations in the metaverse of spatial.io where the fictional character of Fashion.at has an own space, Cytara's Space. The space is more a homebase than a gallery. Some of the Fashion.at visuals, for example the graphics for the Spotify Playlist by fashion.at/music or for the Fashion Feeds, are applied to the wall of the auditorium. Cytara tried several spatial.io categories to access new or currently well visited spaces, especially 'Trending', 'Popular', and 'Live Now' and came along spaces like the gallery of Hong Kong based fashion designer Lam Wing Sum who provides insights into her collections with fashion images. The virtual excursion led through an office in New York City to a Mars landscape. Fashionable pictures, impressive sights and a desert with living and office capsules.

But then, Cytara stepped into the Ukrainian Pavilion of the NFT Biennial. The virtual pavilion was on that day live. The NFT Biennial happens in January and February as phygital event in various galleries in the real world and in the metaverse such as on spatial.io. The Ukrainian Pavilion under the name 'Freedom House' is the official parallel program of the NFT Biennial.

The pavilion is powered by Unimuseum, the Universal Museum in the metaverse dedicated to human rights and solidarity such as described on the museum's website. Founder of the museum is artist Vira DG aka Vira Degtiarova who changed her name from the Russian 'Vera' to the Ukrainian 'Vira' due the war in Ukraine such as explained by the artist on her website viradg.com. The artist participated in prestigious art events like the Venice Biennale or Art Basel Miami. Her knowledge of presenting art is an advantage for the Ukrainian Pavilion. The works are in most cases accompanied by a text written by the respective artist providing insights into the experiences of the war and very personal emotions such as the animated NFT artwork 'Mariupol Mask' by the creator of digital fashion and jewelry Helen Do who merges her impressions of the world's dependence on oil and the cruelty of war in an outfit traversed by pulsating bloody veins. Helen Do's description of 'Mariupol Mask' ends with the words: "...So this outfit is not about fashion, it is about feelings."

Image: Snapshot of Cytara's visit to the Ukrainian Pavilion of the NFT Biennial on spatial.io.