Introducing Potemkins

Hello everyone! Potemkins, my first ever NFT series, released yesterday on Rarible. You can check them out here: https://app.rarible.com/potemkins

I think it's important to discuss the thoughts behind the stuff you put out there, so inspired by the lovely Bryan Brinkman, I've put together a little article talking about each of the Potemkins. I recommend watching this little video I've put together first, and then reading on if you would like to learn more.

Goldy

Goldy is inspired by the Golden Gate of Kyiv. In my research, it kept cropping up how unnatural the recreation of it was, and how it was more of a vanity project than anything functional. To reflect that in the Potemkin, I settled on a cyborg aesthetic in which Goldy is trapped in an endless loop, instead of being useful. Goldy's personality is stubborn, always trying to fix the issue instead of living with it.

Bakh

Bakh is based on the Bakhchisaray Palace. The small roof on the right hand side of the façade is actually much, much longer, making up most of the perimeter of the building. In every picture of the palace, you can see Ottoman-style minarets poking out over the wall. This is what inspired me to represent Bakh so playfully- being fascinated by it's own culture and religion. To this day, Ukraine has a diaspora of 10,000 Turks.

Andy

St Andrew's Church is a gorgeous, imposing building. I thought about what you would see if you were standing in front of the door- it would look incredibly tall. The circular window on the upper roof can be seen to be looking down on the people below, but also upwards to the cross atop it's spire.

This thought inspired me to utilise some religious scripture inside the design. The scroll reads 3:8, as in Revelations 3:8, which reads "I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close." I applied this to Andy's zealot personality to animate him to only open the door when he is truly taken in by his own faith.

Tara

Tara is potentially my favourite of this series. Her animation is a little bit more simple than the other Potemkins, but she comes from a simple building from the Folk history of Ukraine. That building is the Taras' Hut, the museum that sits on Taras Hill on the bank of the River Dneiper. Taras Shevchenko was buried here, hence the namesake, but also many of the Hetmans of Ukraine. So, I decided to give Tara a protective look, and two tridents shaped like the official symbol of the Hetmans.

Sandra

Sandra, based on the Massandra Palace, is one sad building. That's why I've made her sob. Modernised by Emperor Alexander III, the Châteauesque villa has actually never had any royals stay overnight. This fall from grace continued through the Bolshevik revolution, where the building was used to look after those ill with tuberculosis. Her sobbing is not only mourning her own ambitions, but of those who died inside her walls.

Verne

You've probably seen Verne before, if you watch any Sci-Fi / Dystopian movies. Based on the popular Brutalist building the Vernadsky National Library, I designed Verne to represent the balancing act between seeing the truth and seeing the Soviet ideal. Many of the Library's Directors were executed for "bourgeois nationalism", when in fact Soviet Russia wanted to weaken the Ukrainian Identity. So, the Vernadsky clock face became Verne's paranoid eye, constantly watching out for the shadows of Soviet weapons of violence.

Why Potemkins?

I think that the story of the Potemkin Village is one that's so important, as it reminds us about the façade that many people put on. When designing the Potemkins, I wanted to make them deliberately one-dimensional in personality- just like these buildings aren't. I thoroughly recommend going on a Wiki Binge into Ukrainian Architecture- you'll find even more amazing buildings than the 6 I chose for this project!

I've pledged to produce more Potemkins in the future after all 6 of these sell, so I hope that I'll be able to Potemkin-ify buildings around the world should people like this project! I'm particularly enjoying putting Polymer Clay art onto the blockchain, so if you like this sort of style, I'd love to hear your critique and ideas!

(By the way, this has been cross-posted to Cent, there's some incredible work going over there in the crypto art space, and they deserve your attention!)

I'll be tipping a dollar everywhere this is posted- so please sound off as much as you like in the comments. Thank you for reading!

This post is decentralised by being made available on Hive dapps, Ethereum dapps, and my personal website. Find my personal blog at: https://benhaley.co.uk/introducing-potemkins/