Artwork featuring Georgia's Soviet-era Tskaltubo resort sanatorium becomes actor Jim Carrey's first NFT acquisition
Artists working on the photograph introduced digital vegetation to the interior of the abandoned sanatorium space, altered lighting and other elements, and added sound to produce the work. Screenshot via Jim Carrey on Twitter
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A digital artwork piece that has been described as a "surreal collision between the past and future" with its image of a dilapidated Soviet-era sanatorium in western Georgia's once-famed Tskaltubo resort has become the first NFT piece obtained by popular actor Jim Carrey.
The Grammy-winning and Academy Award-nominated comedian and actor revealed on Twitter on Wednesday he had obtained Devotion, a piece in artist Ryan Koopmans' series The Wild Within, as his first non-fungible token piece.
In his tweet, Carrey thanked the artist for "gently capturing nature's exquisite and relentless reinvention" with the image.
Koopmans, a Canadian-Dutch creative, worked with Alice Wexell to introduce digital vegetation into a photograph of an interior of the abandoned sanatorium space, while also altering lighting and structure of the building. Erik Thome produced sound for the visual space, completing the multimedia piece reflecting the passage of time.
This one stops me. James Joyce said that’s a good thing. Thank you @ryankoopmans for gently capturing nature's exquisite and relentless reinvention. BTW you’re my first NFT. @SuperRare https://t.co/jyFoD7nKSC pic.twitter.com/hXEoQ639Py
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) June 1, 2022
It is the final work of the The Wild Within series that sought to breathe new life into abandoned buildings from the Soviet era, with its description paying homage to the legacy of Tskaltubo as one of the major health resorts of the USSR that hosted state dignitaries and ordinary citizens alike between the 1940s and 1980s.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the tumultuous decade that followed it, the resort facilities were partially dismantled and left without maintenance, leaving their once-eye-catching classical architecture in dismal shape.
While the sanatorium buildings maintain interest among international visitors and online media on the "New East" and travel, their state has prevented the location from reassuming its former role, however new projects have recently been drawn up to revitalise the former resort.
The latter included a presentation on Tuesday of latest updates around a project for renovating the location and boosting tourism in the area, involving architects and designers and hosted as part of the annual celebration of Italian design and architecture in Tbilisi.
A foundation working on preserving mosaics in Georgia has completed the first stage of its project on safeguarding and restoring a 1970s-created composition found on a wall of a defunct bus stop in the country's east.
An octopus-shaped, Soviet-era café on the waterfront of the Georgian Black Sea resort town of Batumi has been granted the status of cultural heritage, announces the Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency of Adjara.
Dozens of photographs illustrating resorts across Georgia throughout the 20th century are on show at the exhibition pavilion of the National Archives of Georgia, bringing moments captured at locations known for their picturesque settings to viewers.
Houses for more than 700 internally displaced people (IDP) families are being built in Tskaltubo, a Georgian balneological resort in west Georgia, announced Georgian Infrastructure Minister Maia Tskitishvili at a public hearing on the Tskaltubo development project earlier today.
A new hotel will be built on the site of famous sanatorium Iveria in Tskaltubo, located in western Georgia.