Episode interview with Vimal Chandran, find his Twitter and Instagram
Time Stamps
[0:51 – 2:55] Sabretooth starts by asking Vimal how he started with NFTs. Vimal learned about the large profits artists were making through NFTs in February 2021, specifically the Beeple $69m sale. Since then he has been exploring and learning about NFTs, crypto, and bitcoin.
[2:56 – 5:44] Sabretooth asks Vimal what his move to NFTs means for his art. Vimal started with watercolor illustrations as a kid and moved to digital art in 2012. He started with a Wacom tablet and drawing in Photoshop. When holding an exhibition, people preferred physical work though. He was split between his traditional artwork for a profit and digital for personal use. It was revolutionary for him to discover NFTs. This allowed him to make a career out of digital art and not just client work.
[5:45 – 9:21] Vimal has much of his work within the Indian market. Sabretooth is inquiring if his work will go beyond Vimal’s traditional client base. Vimal focuses on storytelling that comes from the area where he lives. For his NFTs, he focused on global and futuristic. He sees his pieces as reaching a global audience. While everyone may not understand the traditional intricacies of Indian culture, the Scifi movement and his execution reaches far beyond.
[9:58 – 13:54 ] Vimal’s series that he is dropping on WazirX and Foundation is a narrative about the issues happening around him. Vimal grew up in Kerala, a region of India with many folk stories. It also has an inclination towards art. Growing up he would read a Sci Fi comic distributed by the Soviet embassy and moved to Bangalore in 2005. Vimal then started to explore these two very different environments. He calls it Indo Futurism. It is a genre that even Bollywood hasn’t explored.
[13:54 – 16:43 ] Sabretooth asks Vimal to explain how he is balancing his design work, gallery and NFT career, and cultivating his social media. Vimal started in 2005 with Facebook and how he started with brands reaching out to him. He believes that there is a different audience on social media than NFTs. He feels like he is starting from scratch again within the NFT space, but wants to continue to complete more of his own artwork in the future. Vimal has reduced his client base and will continue to focus on NFTs. He wants to be known for mixing indian culture with Sci Fi and connecting to a global audience.
[16:44 – 21:40] Due to India’s policies towards crypto, many Indian’s felt the need to use pseudonyms. Sabretooth believes that there are a lot more Indians in crypto than people realize. Sabretooth asks Vimal about his personal experience of the Indian community who are in NFTs. Vimal agrees that there are a lot of people in India in NFTs and it is becoming more popular. It is especially popular for the younger generations even though everyone is talking about cryptocurrencies. He does not believe the government will ban it because they will not be able to ban it. Vimal thinks that they will be part of the global blockchain movement.
[21:41 – 21:40] While it is a tough question for Vimal to answer, his favorite artist is a South African painter William Kentridge. Vimal sees him as being ahead of his time by making small animations and selling them in traditional galleries. In India, his favorite is a contemporary artist is Sheela Gowda. In the global artists business, he follows David Shrigley and Jasper John work.
