Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have gained more and more popularity in recent years, making everyone more and more curious about what they entail and how much value they carry in the real world. While the world of art, music and most recently, fashion have seen a wave of creative, trendy and unique NFTs, artist Lindsay Dawn along with art and NFT expert Arushi Kapoor are set to bring a whiff of fresh air to the metaverse table with their upcoming NFT project Shama Shorties.
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What is Shama Shorties?
Named after the Sanskrit word "Shama", which means “equal,” “calmness,” and “peace of mind,” Shama Shorties is a women-led NFT project which will comprise 5,555 unique NFTs inspired by Dawn’s work and will live on the Ethereum blockchain. As seen in a lot of her artworks so far, the female form, among other recurring elements will likely be a part of the Shama Shorties NFTs as well.
Image Source: Instagram/shamashortiesnft
“A big part of Shama Shorties as a project that stems from my work is to bring attention to the desexualisation of the female body. Second of all, we would be taking the negative connotation off of something being sexual,” she explains, “Everyone’s interpretations of things are different, obviously. For example, when you look at a painting of a naked woman, you see art or beauty. But when you see a naked woman in real life, a lot of people don’t share the same views as they would have with an art piece. So as an artist, my focus is trying to bridge that gap in people’s minds when they’re looking at a piece of art versus when they’re looking at a female and being able to change the perspective of women in the real world.”
Image Source: Instagram/shamashortiesnft
A Virtual Community For Women
But art is not where it stops for this unique collection of NFTs. A Shama Shorties NFT comes with a host of real-world value and benefits. The Shama Shorties community will have exclusive access to select print releases, art events worldwide, discounts and first dibs on merchandise. “The artworks are based on rarity so the rarer your NFT is, the higher percentage of discount you get on purchasing real-world assets from Arushi Gallery. You also get limited-edition releases like hoodies that have been sold out previously and prints which are asset class prints since the value of these prints and editions go up,” adds Kapoor.
Other benefits also include real-world participation in NGOs and non-profits to raise money and awareness. Shama Shorties members will be getting a chance to decide which philanthropic cause they’d prefer to support, given that five per cent of the sales have been earmarked to be donated to a cause that is female-oriented. “We actually wanted to be democratic and want the community to participate in our internal decisions of where we are going next as well. We want this community to be a space where people can talk about a lot of female-led and female-oriented issues and also enhances that are happening around the world,” explains Kapoor.
Image used for representational purposes only.
Why Shama Shorties?
For both Kapoor and Dawn, the need for female representation in the metaverse world, apart from creating an inclusive community, was a driving force that led to the conception of Shama Shorties. “The idea sprung from a need to have a female-led community within the NFT space, which is largely a male-dominated industry,” says Kapoor, “both of us have been working with women artists and building up this whole community of female artists in Los Angeles as well as making sure that emerging female artists have the same opportunities that male artists have for a really long time.”
Image Source: Instagram/shamashortiesnft
Other NFT Projects Aimed At Empowering Women
World Of Women
World Of Women aims at creating a beautiful, diverse, empowering collection and thriving community of members, collectors, emerging artists and NFT enthusiasts alike through their unique collection of artworks.
Boss Beauties
Boss Beauties’ 10,000-NFT collection sold out within an hour of its launch, also making it the first NFT collection to be featured in The New York Stock Exchange. As a collective initiative, it aims at creating more and more opportunities for girls and women, empowering them through unique collaborations.