Madonna has defended her decision to release an NFT collection that features a 3D model of her vagina.
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Earlier this week, the pop star announced that she was preparing to release a charity collection of 3D non-fungible tokens which includes a video of her avatar giving birth to insects, butterflies and trees.
The pop star’s Mother Of Creation collection is described in press material as a “labour of love” made over the course of a year with digital artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) who sold an NFT last year for $69million (£55million).
A number of fans have since taken to social media to criticise the NFT and voice their confusion over its premise. One Twitter user wrote: “Why did Madonna have to go and do that to the market,” while another said: “I did not have a tree growing out of Madonna’s vagina NFT on my 2022 bingo card but here we are.”
Acknowledging the criticism and those who might have been “weirded out” by it, Madonna told Winkelmann that it’s “not often that a robot centipede crawls out of my vagina”.
“I’m doing what women have been doing since the beginning of time, which is giving birth. But on a more existential level, I’m giving birth to art and creativity and we would be lost without both.”
She added: “I think it’s really important that a lot of thought and conversation went into creating these videos.”
Mother Of Nature is the first work in the series, which is followed by Mother Of Evolution (containing lyrics from ‘Justify My Love’ and original music by Igor Bardykin) and, lastly, Mother Of Technology.
The three artworks went up for auction on Wednesday (May 11) through the NFT marketplace SuperRare. Two have been won, while the Mother Of Nature NFT is still accepting bids at the time of publishing.
All proceeds from the trio of digitally rendered collectables will go to three charities: the Voices of Children Foundation, which helps women and children affected by the war in Ukraine; the City of Joy Foundation, which advocates for victims of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Black Mama’s Bail Out, which provides bail for incarcerated caregivers.
Moonpay, a crypto platform that assisted with the project, will also donate $100,000 to each of the charities.
Madonna’s 2019 track ‘I Don’t Search I Find’, which featured on her ‘Madame X’ album, earned the artist her 50th number one on the Dance Club Songs chart in the US in February 2020.
The achievement made Madonna the first and only artist with 50 number ones on any single Billboard chart.
Madonna is now set to further celebrate that success by releasing the career-spanning ‘Finally Enough Love’ collection digitally on June 24, before a physical release follows on August 19. Pre-order is available now from here and here.
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