OpenSea NFT project 'Theirverse' makes debut in Taipei

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The NFT project “Theirverse” will make its debut at the OneOffs NFT International Art Fair in Taipei, which runs through Sunday (Dec. 11).

The OneOffs NFT International Art Fair features famous non-fungible token (NFT) projects from RTFKT, BAYC, and other Taiwanese digital artists. The three-day event is taking place on the 16th and 17th floors of W Hotel.

Yu En-li (庾恩利), the Artistic Director of “Theirverse,” aims at building a community for multi-gender artists on the Metaverse. The project was ranked number one on the major NFT trading platform OpenSea in November after launching in July.

Yu is the son of Taiwanese singer Annie Yi (伊能靜) and her ex-husband Harlem Yu (庾澄慶). Based on Yu En-li’s social media account, the young artist cares about gender issues and rights for LGBTQ+ groups.

The New York University student is in Prague now, so his mother flew to Taipei and introduced the NFT project on Friday (Dec. 9). As a member of the management team, Yi said that she had doubts when her son pitched this project to her.

Yi told Taiwan News that at first, she did not trust Web3 technologies. However, after discussions with Yu and his fellow artists, she realized that minting NFTs is a way for Gen Z to express their ideas and their rebellious attitudes.

“Theirverse” contains 5,500 digital characters. (Screenshot, OpenSea website)

“Theirverse” encompasses 5,500 virtual items from nine series, with names like “Rainbow,” “Drag,” and “Cyberpunk.” They were co-created by a team of “meta-artists,” artificial intelligence engineers, and user interface designers, according to Yi.

Notably, the “Red Queen” from the series “Drag” was auctioned by Sotheby’s. It sold to a museum at the price of NT$1.1 million (US$32,565), said Yi.

“Red Queen” (left) fetches over NT$1 million at an auction. (Taiwan News, Lyla Liu photo)

Yi said that the core idea behind blockchain, decentralization, challenges her way of seeing art. “Traditionally, if an artist or a singer, like myself, wants to be famous, we have to get recognition from commissions or contests. The whole journey is very centralized.”

The physical exhibition of “Theirverse” toured New York, London, and Paris, and the last stop was Taipei. “My son grew up with media attention because of his celebrity parents. The success of ‘Theirverse’ is a way for him to prove himself with his own talent as well as a way for young artists to express themselves,” according to Yi.

The 54-year-old mother said that she often quarrels with her son. She said their biggest fight was when a corporation offered to buy ‘Theirverse,’ but Yu was strongly against the deal.

Yi said that the reason Yu gave her moved her deeply. “I want to show you that I can push the project further with my own ability,” said the young artist.

Yu added that NFTs are supposed to belong to the community, instead of letting the creators hold them. Even if one day the artist is gone, the project will keep moving on.

Yi revealed that, in the future, she plans on promoting Asian female artists’ NFT projects after “Theirverse.” She is discussing with Foresight Ventures to launch a series of programs focusing on blockchain.

(Taiwan News, Lyla Liu reel)