FAREWELL ALOTTA MONEY: OG AND FRIEND TO ALL
MARCH 9TH, 2022
On Friday 4th March, the NFT community shook with the announcement from Didier RA that a trailblazer of the NFT art space - Alotta Money, had died after a short illness.
One month earlier, Alotta Money had announced that he was ill.
Tributes from artists, collectors and everyone who knew him poured out all day on Twitter, including rare archived video footage from an interview with Josie Bellini where his warmth and humour charmed the viewers.
Many changed their profile picture to his iconic four-eyed John Cleese in a bowler hat as a mark of respect and posted photos tenderly calling him ‘Phillipe.’
His crypto art journey began in 2018, designing headers for Twitter profiles for his friends. Each was more inventive than the last, and the commissions soon started piling up. These became so popular they led him to start collaborating with other artists in the emerging world of NFTs. Early work as a crypto artist focused around Bitcoin and Ethereum before carving out a unique style of surreal artworks combining nostalgic, whimsical, folly with modern twists including random gifs, memes and visual loops.
On his website, he described himself as ‘Crypto Artist, Voxels architect, Photoshop Priest, VR&AR Maximalist, NFT Machine & Most Humble Visual Orgasm Provider in the Space.’
As one of the OG NFT artists, he collaborated with 12 other artists (Blackboxdotart, Coldie, Connie Digital, Hackatao, Josie Bellini, Matt Kane, Mlibty, Rutger van der Tas, Shortcut, TwistedVacancy, VansDesign, and XCOPY) on the programmable artwork entitled First Supper.
One of his groundbreaking masterpieces, Dictatorship, is composed of many layers controlled by the artist as a master puppeteer with the ability to surprise, amuse and scare the collector with daily changes, weekly events and annual changes. Autonomous layers triggered by scripted periodical and random events make sure this street never looks the same, even when the Dictator is on vacation.
A love of architecture is also evident in his Voxel Hotel in Cryptovoxels. This was to be the venue for a giant gathering organised by friends including @theAngieTaylor, @basileus_eth and @EclecticMethod, among others celebrating his life in grand style on Saturday 5th March which would have been his 50th birthday party. Here is the invite designed by Angie Taylor.
The well-attended Metaverse send-off in memory of Alotta Money included music remixed by @EclecticMethod, dancing, story-sharing, toasts, crying and much love for the great man.
The history of Alotta Money and his rise to fame is well documented in videos and articles about his work. I was excited to learn about an old Cryptowriter article where someone had interviewed Alotta Money when he was relatively unknown. I would love to share this with you today.
However, I have a confession to make. Unfortunately, after much searching of Google drives, the article is lost in the archives. Unlike NFT art which will live forever on the blockchain, those words have vanished into the ether.
Always open to creativity and collaboration; Alotta Money had a huge capacity to work and was not afraid to work on multiple projects at once.
Here is his first silly creation with Pranksy in February 2020.
Last year, Alotta Money and Trevor Jones collaborated to produce EthBoy, a programmatic piece ΞTHΞRΞAL 1 of 1 NFT that evolves with dynamically changing scenes based on ETH/BTC prices, gas prices, and other external variables. This drop showcased innovation in the economics of NFT sales. ΞTHΞRΞAL was the first of ten chapters to be programmatically generated in the EthBoy journey and was purchased by renowned collector, MaxStealth. Trevor recalls his friendship with Alotta Money, ‘No one made me laugh more than him. He somehow managed to transcend all the politics right from the start and at the same time earn everyone’s love and respect. He was truly a unique individual.’
The Monty Python character in the Ministry of Silly Walks inspired Alotta’s infamous image of a four-eyed man in a bowler hat. Anyone in the UK will have grown up with comedy actor John Cleese on their TV screens. He arguably invented British comedy. The absurd genius of Alotta Money’s name touched John so much that he recorded a YouTube video.
Angie Taylor, who considered Alotta Money, her favourite artist, recalls their collaboration Auld Alliance with fond memories. A homage to the alliance between their home countries France and Scotland. A celebration of the bonds between these Celtic nations and a two-fingered salute to Brexit where they champion the Jacobites and Jacobins! Saluting the revolutionaries Bonnie Prince Charlie and Joan of Arc, who inspired them to create the artwork.
While I have always admired Alotta Money’s groundbreaking work, apart from exchanges on Twitter, I never had the pleasure to know him well. I recall when he took the time to point out a small detail in the Auld Alliance artwork, he thought I would appreciate where Scottish actor Sean Connery was depicted as a Highland hero. Connery is most famous for his role as the first 007, James Bond.
It is fitting to end at the beginning with a view of Alotta Money’s beautifully crafted Twitter header and bio that reads ‘Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Staying Alive. Staying Alive.’ The words of the 1977 Bee Gees song. His sense of humour stayed with him to the end.
The number of accounts followed, 888 is visually perfectly balanced. It reads the same forward, backwards and even upside down. This may seem inconsequential, but it's in alignment with the meaning of angel number 888. Balance! The number 888 conveys that the angels and the entire universe support your life's purpose to shine your unique light and create something of value to share with the world. It can also signify that you've reached a level of completion in one or more areas in life.
Robness said it all with these heartfelt words at the celebration of Alotta Money’s life,
‘HIS PHYSICAL FORM IS NO LONGER WITH US, BUT HIS ETERNAL WORK IS THE GIFT WE ALL HAVE NOW.
R.I.P. MY GOOD FRIEND.’
