‘I’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU’
22 for 2022 | Artsy x verisart
An auction of 22 all-new NFTs by emerging and established artists. Bid in ETH through February 8th.
Artsy and Verisart present “22 for 2022,” a selection of 22 works by 22 contemporary artists showcasing engagement with NFTs across artistic disciplines, styles, and generations. Participating artists reflect a variety of mediums such as AI, painting, installation, digital imagery, photography, robotics, sculpture, and video. Alongside Jonathan’s piece discover works by Shepard Fairey, Pindar Van Arman, Mario Klingemann, Vhils, Penny Slinger, and more. Auction curated by Verisart.
I’ve been expecting you is a reimagining of one of Jonathan Yeo’s iconic collage works from his 2010 Los Angeles exhibition “Porn in the USA”. The portrait (of actor Sean Connery in character as fictional British secret agent James Bond) was made up of clippings from vintage porn magazines to playfully reference the dated moralities and objectification of women in the series.
Yeo dates his interest in film art and design back to a childhood fascination with those otherwise stylish 007 movies of the 1960s, which were elevated by the contributions of some of the greatest artists of the era, including legendary designer Ken Adam, composer John Barry, and innovative title designer Maurice Binder. Binder’s sequences were mini caricatures of the movies themselves: dazzling combinations of stills and footage of the actors with animated elements, usually involving guns, explosions and dancing girls, which continually pushed the boundaries of visual technology at the time.
This unique NFT piece digitally reimagines Yeo’s Bond collage, a playful “homage” to 1960s culture, in a dramatic style that is heavily reminiscent of those great early masters of movie design and VFX.
Jonathan has made ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ available to view on his app Jonathan Yeo Studio (available on iOS and Android). The app was built by Yeo himself - with his small studio team - using game technology, Unity, so more content could be added. Visitors are invited into his studio to explore it for themselves. It is not just virtual reality, it is fully immersive and viewers are welcomed to experience the artwork in a completely different environment. By including the work in the app, Yeo wants to allow viewers to experience the work in augmented reality and to physically walk around it, making its 3D elements all the more prominent.
