Totem & Friends · 2023—2025
Artists carry the same live structure into their own work.
The first season of invited Totems, beginning with Marculino.
Digital sculpture and image-making
The first collab Totem, and pixel art at that. As the first invited episode, Marculino demonstrated that the protocol could survive a change of author and medium without losing its conceptual identity.
Digital image-making
A classic Totem, executed with love by Cosmic in her cartoonish, colorful style.
Illustration, design and clay
As a big NoLegs fan, this piece is definitely up there as one of my personal favorites. Cartoon violence FTW
Independent digital art
A Gora Totem in his signature palette is hard to ignore.
Painterly digital practice
Imrie was born to do this. Live drawing, fast and fun. The only problem with this Totem was that he could have handled 100 more bids and still finish in time.
Digital art
As always Silo delivers chaos and fantastical characters in abundance. This totem is pure fucking fire.
Digital art
Signature pallete and linework, a true master of low-brow nostalgia and a must-have in the collab collection.
Narrative illustration and comics
This Totem reads like a comic from bottom to top.
Character-led digital illustration
Another legendary physical Totem in Moldy's unique patch work style. Moldy created the composition and material sourcing live during the auction, and stitched it all up when it was done.
Time-based digital art
A very elaborate, emotional and story driven Totem by Solana's experimental film maker Camille.
Illustration and narrative world-building
FOOD! Hyblinxx loves food. The colors, the characters, the vibes, this Totem is unmistakably and gloriously Hyblinxx.
Animated and digital art
The most unhinged and entertaining Totem ever. The process of making this piece was streamed live over the course of 24H working hours with no sleep. Literally insane.
Motion art
Fubby14's incredible expertise in generative and modular 3D work really shines in this audio-visual piece. The build up in both sound and visuals was nothing short of mind boggling to watch
The second season, with a new group of artists and another collection.
Digital illustration
Artikude's distinct style was a must-have for the collab collection.
Digital art
José was an artist who had really grasped the essence of the project and honored every single bid with a beautiful, original illustration. With every bid, the entire story changed every time so it was a pleasure seeing this one unfold during the auction.
Cross-medium digital practice
Probably the most elaborate and definitely the most hours of work was put into this monumental achievement by Eloy. Personally I had never dreamed or could even have imagined an embroidered Totem but here we are. Every bid was painstakingly placed on a real piece of canvas with needle and thread over a period of eight months.
Illustration and character art
SCUM transformed the bidders into participants of a literal boxing game. Bids become cartoon violence, just so much fun.
Layered digital image-making
Signature palette and lots of fun for BSKT's Totem.
Typewriter art
A unique, physical Totem, and beautifully framed for the winner of the auction, this was a legendary event with over 20 bids typed on paper.
Digital art
Scuba broke all the wrong rules with this piece. Just a lot of fucking fun, but we did have to request for the last state to replace the dildo's with mushrooms to keep the collection PG-13.
Digital image-making
Ben Bauchau brought the Totem project into his universe, transforming every bid into a stone artifact, carefully balancing typographic elements and PFP's in a barren landscape.
Canonical records
Totem & Friends I Totem & Friends II