Discriminated here, M’sian finds her art snapped up online by Snoop Dogg

KUALA LUMPUR – It was an uphill battle for more than six years to find meaningful supporters for her art in Malaysia. Instead of welcoming arms, Visithra Manikam mostly found the discrimination and harsh criticism Malaysian Indian artists face in their own country.

However, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) taking off in a huge way in recent years – mostly after Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet as an NFT for nearly US$3 million (RM12.7 million) – artists such as Visithra have found international support for their work.

In fact, she made a big splash in the NFT community more than a month ago after selling three art pieces to international rapper Snoop Dogg on the NFT OpenSea platform – the biggest one by far.

Now, she is also Malaysia’s biggest-selling artist on the OpenSea platform. 

How do NFTs work?

NFTs are digitally owned and registered into a decentralised blockchain to represent different assets such as art, collectibles, and more. 

Each NFT is given a unique ID on the blockchain that identifies the creator and the owner. While ownership changes hands, the creator will always be the same. 

Most NFTs are part of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, but have diversified to different cryptocurrencies such as Tezos and Solana. 

OpenSea is currently the biggest international NFT platform. There are also platforms like HEN, SuperRare, Foundation, KnownOrigin, Marketplace, and more.

“The NFT community is really welcoming. I started off as a stranger in late June, made friends, and then started building my collector base,” Visithra told The Vibes. 

“I now have more than 190 collectors are from the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Poland, China, Latin America, Europe, and more. Today, I’m one of the top Malaysian NFT artists and on the journey to being verified by OpenSea.” 

Snoop is really the sweetest. He came into the community as an anonymous collector and only after gaining traction, he revealed who he was. 

“He sent me a DM (direct message) and we had a conversation about my art. He wanted to know which were significant, and I shared pieces that I hadn’t minted (put up for sale) and he picked three.”

She added that she found out about NFTs in September last year, but took some time to get in as it was not the easiest platform to join with its terms and lack of accessibility. 

“By the time I was ready, gas fees (service fees) were skyrocketing. I waited for the ETH cryptocurrency to crash in May before I joined. Then, ETH was valued at US$1,800, and recently, it has risen to more than US$4,100.”

Visithra’s art collection has accumulated 91 ETH in volume traded, approximately RM1.58 million. Volume traded refers to the sales of NFTs on the primary and secondary by owners. Secondary sales will provide royalty payments to the artist.

Her art was also shared by Reese Witherspoon, and she has celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon following her.

Why abandon the traditional route?

“It came from the frustration of the Malaysian art industry. I’ve been in the industry for six years, but not a single art piece of mine has been collected by the traditional Malaysian art industry. 

“All my existing collectors in Malaysia were everyday people. I was also attracted to the fact that every secondary sale would earn me 10% in royalties. Once I realised this, I pulled out of six non-NFT exhibitions,” she said.

As of today, only Muzium Negri Terengganu owns one of her art pieces as part of the 2018 Citra Terengganu contest.

OpenSea currently charges a minimal fee of 2.5% for each NFT sold, while other platforms can go up to 15%. But compared to the traditional art industry, galleries can take up to 50% of an artist’s earnings. 

And once the art is sold in the traditional circuit, artists will not receive any royalty payment when it is resold at auctions.  

The tech industry has revolutionised the art industry like never before. It gives artists the opportunity to independently sell their art, while ensuring they receive lifetime royalties. The traditional art industry has for so long exploited newer artists.”

She claimed that many local galleries have discriminatory practices.

Where are the Malaysian Indian artists?

Prior to NFTs, Visithra said she struggled to receive recognition in Malaysia. While she has participated in numerous exhibitions, she has received unkind messages from artists and galleries in the industry. 

She started targeting exhibitions outside of Malaysia to gain recognition. She has exhibited in Manila, the Philippines (2018); Bangla Biennale, West Bengal, India (2019); Yogyakarta and Jakarta, Indonesia; Osaka, Japan; Udaipur and Mumbai, India; and recently in South Korea (2020). 

She had a solo exhibition at APW Bangsar in 2019, with her first NFT exhibition in New York in September this year.

“Very few Malaysian Indian artists get opportunities in the top Malaysian art galleries, nor in government-funded exhibitions. Cendana (Cultural Economy Development Agency) had a show in 2019 with 42 artists, but only one was Indian. 

“I’ve been in shows where I’m the token Indian. Between January and September 2019, there were 71 exhibitions in the top nine galleries – only six shows featured Malaysian Indian artists. 

“When I brought this up, I was told my art wasn’t good enough, it was too ‘Indian’. However, at the same time, we see those who culturally appropriate our art and culture getting solo exhibitions with these galleries.

“If my art isn’t good, how is it that I have more than 190 collectors globally without any gallery or government aid?”

She said two large-scale exhibitions in Malaysia recently featured less than five Malaysian Indian artists in total, among hundreds of artists on show.

“The problem isn’t just limited to the industry, artists themselves also need to do their part. We don’t see them following or recommending other Indian artists. 

“How does a show with 100 to 500 artists only have two Indians? Even the local NFT community getting government funding has barely onboarded Indian artists.

“By excluding us from these exhibitions, we are not given monetary support for us to continue as artists. Many Indian artists have dropped out over the last few decades as they didn’t get opportunities. That’s why I’m bullish about the NFT industry. It isn’t easy to achieve what I’ve done on OpenSea, but we are used to achieving the impossible.”

Visithra has also helped onboard artists that have supported her over the years into the NFT community. She urges Indian artists to check out the Twitter account run by other Malaysian Indians in the NFT community for details on how to join the NFT industry, as there are job opportunities as well. 

NFTs not without criticism

“NFTs are part of Web 3.0. It refers to decentralised worlds that run on the blockchain, where your personal data is not monetised for profit and content creators can be rewarded without needing gatekeepers on what is art. 

Everything on the blockchain is public, which means fraudulent transactions can be monitored.

“Internet users have been saving art for decades for free. It is just a couple of clicks. Everyone has pirated copies of movies, music, and software without a cent going to the creators,” Visithra added.

“Instead, now we have a method for art to be valued monetarily regardless if it’s fine art, anime, or memes. Everything has a space here and that’s why NFTs will change the world for creators.” – The Vibes, November 28, 2021