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The Awakening V

Museum Link: https://app.museumofcryptoart.com/collection/the-permanent-collection?collection=0xb932a70a57673d89f4acffbe830e8ed7f75fb9e0&token=24772&page=4

Source Link: https://superrare.com/artwork-v2/the-awakening-v.-24772

Date Minted:  May 22, 2021

Artist Description: Since the beginning of my early CryptoArt journey, I considered the Awakening series to be one of the most important series that is allowed to evolve in many ways over time. It doesn't really have an end goal, but simply represents a value that is important to me - the value of further development of consciousness, of insight into the big picture.

CohentheWriter’s Commentary:

I’m a sucker for series. I love the way you can watch an artist evolve —technically, emotionally, conceptually— as they work their way through different renderings and evocations of the same idea. Simply using the same group name for a set of artworks forces us to consider them all in the same context, as limbs of the same body, even if they share little in common with each other compositionally. That’s not a problem when talking about Primal Cypher’s wonderful The Awakening series, of which The Awakening V. is the unquestioned king (in my opinion). I could only find four of the five pieces in the series (it’s possible that The Awakening III was hosted on a now defunct website, and so is permanently gone. Or maybe I’m just not as dedicated to research as we both believe), but in their evolution is the evolution of the artist themselves, not necessarily in terms of ability or concept, but in terms of Primal Cypher using all the compositional gifts at their disposal. 

Of the four pieces in question, The Awakening I and The Awakening V appear almost as successive. The latter piece is a re-rendering of the former with a texture and style much more akin to what Primal Cypher is otherwise known for: cell-shading, blocky but vivid colors, thick borders and extreme attention-to-detail, whereas The Awakening I seems an outlier, like an artist still experimenting with different techniques. Nearly a year passed between the dates when they were minted. In the interim, the other pieces in The Awakening series emerged, and each takes a drastically different approach to the series’ spirit. The Awakening II showcases an android or cyborg of some kind, and more-or-less eliminates Primal Cypher’s prodigious use of color, opting instead for an emphasis on shadows, blended colors, and lighting effects. The Awakening IV is the first example of the series adhering to Cypher’s more widely-used style, and depicts the only overtly female avatar in the series, the subject decked out in various tones of bright sky blue, the prime juxtaposition being between yellow and blue as opposed to the red-and-blue dichotomy that characterizes the other examples in the series.

Which brings us to The Awakening V, which combines all the lessons and details of the preceding pieces in the series to the most evocative possible effect. Here is realism and cartoonishness. Here are luscious colors and effective shadows. Here is the genuine emotion captured in The Awakening IV married to the varied and highly-detailed texture of The Awakening I and II. It’s not just a return to physical form —i.e. subject— for Primal Cypher, but the crowning achievement of an already career-defining series. 

The evolution of the android in earlier pieces has led to this: an emotive, cell-shaded marvel, lit up in bright pink and bright blue hues, emitting fire from two mechanical portholes in its chest, slices in its cheek glowing, and the ubiquitous giant laser blast emitting from the figure’s forehead (common to everything in the series). A ruined cityscape seems to be the background for the coming-to-life of this powerful figure, its eyes shining, its head haloed by an all-blue rendering of the Earth, bestowing upon the android all religious awe of Renaissance depictions of Christ. Another enormous ring is situated around the Earth itself, this one a mixture of abstract shapes segmented into sections, all the various panels and polygons therein colored in the same vivid magenta and turquoise hues that have been used to color the android’s physical body. I’m getting vibes of Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen. I’m getting vibes of Iron Man. I’m getting the sense of a superhero, but I’m definitely aware that nothing in this piece alerts me to the intentions of the subject, that I’m filling in emotional associations based on my own preconceptions. 

Of this series, Primal Cypher writes, “Since the beginning of my early CryptoArt journey, I considered the Awakening series to be one of the most important series that is allowed to evolve in many ways over time. It doesn't really have an end goal, but simply represents a value that is important to me - the value of further development of consciousness, of insight into the big picture.” As far as I know, a successive piece in The Awakening series has yet to be minted; who knows how long we’ll have to wait for The Awakening VI. But the template here establishes that there will always be some form of The Awakening to coincide with the current state of Primal Cypher’s ability and interests. As mentioned, The Awakening V is the closest within the series to the style that most heavily populates the artist’s oeuvre. But Primal Cypher hasn’t minted anything (at least on SuperRare) in a year (a year to the day, actually). Who knows what their style will have evolved into if/when they come a-minting again? Who can gauge how explosive the next The Awakening will be, and the laser which I’ve no doubt will explode off of it?

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