Lee Jaffe, a cross-disciplinary visual artist, musician and poet, today announced the release of an open edition digital collectible featuring a never-before-seen image of reggae pioneer, Bob Marley, with whom Jaffe worked closely in the 1970s. Entitled Hope Road 73, the open edition drop serves as an ode to Bob Marley and the Wailers – coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the group’s first appearance in the United States. The collection will launch on Fair.xyz, a no-code platform that allows creators to launch end-to-end non-fungible tokens (NFT); secure, accessible and fair; in collaboration with Howl.xyz, a web3 ecosystem developer focused on communications, talent management, and product.
Ninety percent of human history has been lost over time, as time and natural destruction have eroded some of the most influential art and writings in history. The advancement of technology has provided increasingly better means to record and preserve important pieces – including the advent of the camera, the computer, and blockchain technology. As an immutable ledger, blockchain technology effectively protects historically relevant works from physical degradation as well as its provenance. Across the various use cases for blockchain technology, historical preservation continues to emerge as one of the most promising.
With Hope Road 73, Jaffe is leveraging blockchain’s immutability to preserve and enshrine the legacy of Bob Marley. The drop will be a timed Open Edition of a still image coming from a personal video captured by Lee during his time living with Marley in the Hope Road house in Jamaica in March of 1973. The video will be raffled to holders of the Open Edition as a means to share culturally significant history and increase its accessibility.
An iconic figure in the traditional art world, Jaffe has work featured on SuperRare, an industry leading digital art market, as well as in top museum and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA) and Ryan Zurrer’s dynamic digital art collector’s club, 1of1. Jaffe’s book about his time traveling and working with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Crossroads, was published by Rizzoli in 2022 and is in its second printing.
“Fifty years ago, I organized The Wailers’ first North American shows including a one week stint at Max’s Kansas City in NYC opening for Bruce Springsteen,” said Jaffe. “From there, I would go on to tour and record with them. I felt there is no better way to honor that occasion than to share a never-before-seen visual asset celebrating that historic debut.”
The video and still image were captured with a Sony Portapak – the first instant portable video camera released in 1967. Through Fair.xyz’s differentiated conditional minting features, the collection will require participating buyers to qualify by meeting specific engagement criteria. Fair.xyz’s conditional mint parameters present a new, novel model for asset collection and encouraging community growth. Howl.xyz hopes to organize future collaborations with Jaffe and other consumer brands that pay homage to his artwork.
“This footage will never belong anywhere else, its provenance unscathed, just as the veracity of the moment in time prior to Marley’s rise to fame. History recorded on-chain this way sets a precedent for the role of art—which has always been to tell our history. There is beauty in truth and we’ve made it immutable,” added Howl.xyz Co-Founder & CEO, Ivan Perez.
The sale of Hope Road 73 will open on Thursday, July 27 at 12:00 pm EST, and close on Thursday, August 3 at 12:00 pm EST. To mint, to learn more details about the sale, or to learn more about Lee Jaffe, visit: fair.xyz/c/lee-jaffe1/HopeRoad73.
To explore Lee Jaffe’s previous work and to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases, follow along on Twitter and Instagram.
ABOUT LEE JAFFE
Lee Jaffe is a multi-disciplinary artist who works across photography, film, music, painting, performance, and digital art. Jaffe’s work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, NY; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; and the digital art 1of1 Collection. Jaffe’s work was highlighted in a solo sale at Phillips New York in August 2022, and he was onboarded to SuperRare in November 2022. Jaffe’s photography is currently on view in Los Angeles in King Pleasure, the touring immersive exhibition dedicated to Jean-Michel Basquiat.
ABOUT FAIR.XYZ
Fair.xyz is a trailblazing NFT creation platform, empowering the next generation of creators, artists, and brands and standing at the forefront of digital asset monetization. With over 800,000 individual NFTs minted on Fair.xyz, the platform has facilitated a remarkable $7M in fees directly benefiting its creators, with a staggering $45M in sales volume.
Founded by a team of experienced engineers hailing from Meta, Instagram, and Goldman Sachs, Fair.xyz leverages their world-leading industry expertise to craft the finest consumer products in the realm of Web3. The ultimate goal is to create an unparalleled NFT launch experience that caters to both collectors and creators alike, positioning Fair.xyz as the go-to hub for NFTs, akin to the esteemed ‘Amazon Marketplace’ of Web3.
Notably, Fair.xyz has recently partnered with the Ukrainian government to create the world’s first government-backed NFT, a testament to their collaboration with major institutions, brands, and global movements. This collaboration allows them to bring forth truly bespoke Web3 solutions, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in this rapidly evolving landscape.
ABOUT HOWL.XYZ
Howl.xyz is a web3 communications agency focused on product and ecosystem development. Our boutique service approach offers a team of experts that work with a roster of creators to craft culturally relevant promotional campaigns and product case studies. Since 2019, Howl.xyz’s founders and team members have worked with companies like Binance, Solana, Cosmos, Coinbase, Tom Bilyeu, Steve Aoki, Quentin Tarantino and other market leaders.
Howl.xyz specializes in emerging tech across web3, DeFi (decentralized finance), NFTs, AI, XR, Layer 1 protocols, and early stage company launches. As previous product founders, our team has a deep understanding of the adoption lifecycle from conception to market.
The history of communications is the intersection of art and technology. Howl.xyz brings these elements under one umbrella to meet web3’s demand that we break with traditional conventions and old standards.
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