If you ask Raghava K.K., the media hype around last October’s events didn’t quite tell the whole story. “This Indian artist has set a new record with his $94,500 [₹72 lakh] NFT at a Sotheby’s auction” went breathless headlines after his landmark sale at Boundless Space, the auction house’s first experiment with NFTs. In a year when a niche artist like Beeple shot to global fame when Everydays: the First 5000 Days became the third most expensive work ever sold by an artist, it wasn’t really surprising that the numbers were all that mattered.
Raghava’s La Petite Mort (French for “the little death”), which scored the fifth-highest bid at the Sotheby’s auction, had been several years in the making. It involved an entire team of scientists and painterly robots, engineered by ArtMatr, “the world’s first art genome platform”; A.I. software; and custom-made paint from Israel. Mainly, it involved Raghava hooked up to a machine whose tendril-like wires captured his brain waves as he experienced the most intimate of all human experiences. That headline could’ve, should’ve been: “Raghava K.K. has become the first man on the planet to sell an orgasm.”
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Denne historien er fra June - July 2022-utgaven av GQ India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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In Haider We Hope
The role of a fashion designer is one usually forged in chaos and fired down by “creative differences”. But on the eve of a new Tom Ford directorship, Haider Ackermann has never felt more free.
VIVA VARUN
Varun Dhawan on balancing fatherhood and film shoots, and the pressure of making the right choices.
PRATIK GANDHI'S QUIET EUPHORIA
The actor―who delivered a knockout performance in Madgaon Expresson the high of a hit and the pressure of sustaining success.
THE COMEBACK KID
Buoyed by his performance in Singham Returns, Arjun Kapoor doubles down on creativity.
SCRIPTING STARDOM
Vicky Kaushal on the thrill and terror of stepping onto a Sanjay Leela Bhansali set, charting an unconventional career, and making sense of the money game.
A TRYST WITH STARDOM
Triptii Dimri segued from her left-field roots straight to the animal park. The gamble has paid off.
WALKING A TIGHTROPE
Following the monster success of Stree 2, Rajkummar Rao opens up about navigating artistic fulfilment and box-office glory.
THE MAHARAJA OF MEHRAULI
It's been an action-packed year for Tarun Tahiliani, the emperor of Indian couture.
LONE WARRIOR
Kartik Aaryan on why, in an industry that only watches out for its own, he has to blow his own trumpet.
HITS AND HEARTBREAKS
Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali talks about redeeming himself with the extraordinary Chamkila, dealing with star-studded setbacks, and why we've forgotten to make love stories.
