There is no limit to the creativity that can unfold in the world of NFTs. The world is slowly embracing the whole concept of digital assets. And now there is also a car that mines cryptocurrency. And we also saw Lamborghini recently unveil their very own wild NFT. Lamborghini is one of the wildest automakers and they have forayed into the ambitious world of NFTs with the cool new "exploding Aventador Ultimae".
But people are also taking undue advantage of the surge in the NFT craze for making quick bucks. This is where an anonymous artist who goes by the name - Shl0ms (yes it's a zero in place of "o") decided to remind the greedy bunch to be humanitarian.
And how did he do that? By blowing up a Lamborghini, obviously.
Exploding cars look cool, but while Lamborghini did it in a tasteful way, this artist went full metal gear and actually blew up a Lamborghini with explosives. It sure is a destructive method of putting forth a point. He and a team of 100 people did a calculated explosion of a perfectly functional Lamborghini Huracan at an undisclosed location. They even had to hire an explosives engineer and rehearse by blowing up another car.
Then 999 charred components of the car were picked up and recorded in 4K. Shl0ms then converted all of these into NFTs. Keeping 111 of them aside for himself and the team, 888 NFTs will be sold, and the proceeds will be used to fund further artworks (hopefully not as destructive as this). We love the cause, but come on Shl0ms! Not a functioning Lambo.
A mysterious artist who goes by the name of Shl0ms decided to protest against the "greed" around cryptocurrency and NFTs by blowing up a perfectly fine Lamborghini Huracan to 999 pieces. And yes, he hates Lambos!
Lamborghini's First NFT Is More Than Just Digital Artwork
Lamborghini has taken things to another level with their very first NFT. The attention to detail is amazing, and the image is a Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae that is blasting into outer space. The tiny part of the earth that you see in the background was a camera shot taken from a weather balloon sent to the edge of the stratosphere. Now for the exploding Aventador Ultimae, all the messy car components that you see are not just randomly placed elements. Each of the individual images of the 1,500 mechanical components was stitched together digitally, to form a complete composite image. It Looks pretty cool in fact.
Fabian Oefner is the Swiss artist behind Lamborghini's first NFT, but interestingly enough, he has done plenty of other exploding car projects. However, we feel that this next artist might have a slight edge over him in terms of the idea for an exploding car NFT.
Shl0ms And His Take On Lamborghini Art
Think of Shl0ms as the Stig of the crypto and NFT world. It is a vague comparison, but we hope you get the context. And just like Anonymous (the league of hackers), Shl0ms comes on interviews with pixelated faces and live voice filters. This visionary artist has been in and around the crypto scene since 2016. And his take on art has been rather complex. All of his artwork has conceptual thinking and a deep-rooted meaning hidden in plain sight.
But he is now known for blowing things up and converting them into NFTs. Yes, this Lamborghini explosion isn't the first time Shl0ms decided to blow things up for NFTs. It started with a urinal which was broken down into fragments and converted to 150 short video clips that made up an NFT collection called FNTN. And the eccentric artist managed to raise $500,000 of a broken urinal! This dude really knows how to make art out of anything.
And now, Shl0ms takes a perfectly fine Lamborghini Huracan and blows it up to pieces. We believe that he chose a Lambo to be blown up because of his hatred for the sleek Italian exotic. And yes, we agree that the flashy paint/wrap job will want you to change things. But damn! Blowing it up seems like a bit too far. But unlike certain content creators who do mad stuff just for fame and views, Shl0ms has a rather clear-cut explanation on why he stuffed a working Lambo with explosives and blew the roof off it!
He states that blowing up a car worth $250,000 is his way of reminding the level of greed and quick-buck mentality that is prevalent across the NFT and Crypto world. But then again, the irony is strong here, as Shl0ms decided to make NFTs out of this destructive stunt.
No matter how you justify the act, we can't get over the fact that it was a perfectly working Lamborghini that was blown up. Come on! He could have taken a write-off and given this one off to a dreamy Lambo fan. But it is what it is. Shl0ms mentions that this art of his is a way of criticism of the current mentality in the world of cryptocurrency.
But he emphasizes that it isn't a "protest" but a sort of eye-opener that shows people that NFTs and crypto can be used for good. And to go along with his ideology, all proceeds from this artwork will be accumulated in an art foundation that will fund future public art installations. There was a team of 100 people including a federally licensed explosives engineer behind this painful explosion.
While it seems like they just stuffed some explosives into the car and pressed a button, it was a lot more calculated than that! The explosion had to be done in such a way that it disintegrated into the required number of parts, but at the same, also not destroy the car "too much". Even the explosives engineer stated that it was his most challenging detonation to date.
Videos Of The Destroyed Lambo Bits Will Be Sold As NFTs
Of all the many charred parts that the team collected from the blast site, 999 specific ones were taken. A 360-degree video in 4K was shot of each and those were converted into NFTs. Of the 999 NFTs, Shl0ms kept 111 for himself, his team, and an anonymous investor who funded this art rather generously.
According to Fortune.com, the pricing of the "$CAR" NFTs starts at 0.01 Ether (~$29) a piece, which is rather nominal taking into consideration the insane prices of the NFTs being put up for sale. The collection was slated to go live on 25th February, but because of the tense situation unfolding around the world, Shl0ms has decided to postpone it.
Whatever the outcome maybe, we can almost guarantee that this is not the last we will see from artists exploding cars, and luxury supercar manufacturers being a part of the world of NFTs.
Sources: Twitter.com/Shl0ms, Theblockcrypto.com, Jalopnik.com, Motortrend.com, Autoevolution.com,