Events

arebyte Gallery are pleased to announce Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty, a new body of work by UK based artist Helen Knowles.

Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty is a tokenised four-screen video installation and generative soundscape attached to the blockchain, which explores value systems and wealth disparity. The artwork is composed of auction scenes, performances and choral interludes by different communities such as prisoners, blockchain technology employees, market sellers, and Sotheby’s auction bidders. Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty draws on technological and financial power structures which traditionally scaffold the disparity between a wealthy elite and everyday working people but looks to re-imagine our vertically stacked digital ecosystem to horizontally distribute wealth.

The installation commences when a visitor drops a pound coin into a machine designed to expose the mechanisms needed to convert fiat currency into crypto-currency. Each and every member of the Trickle Down community, who has helped the work come to fruition,  will receive a share of the ETH via a smart contract on the blockchain.

Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty seeks to explore and provoke questions about labour, automation, value in art, decentralised sharing economies and distribution of wealth.

A series of public workshops around the project, alternative economies and the blockchain have been taking place at the Whitworth as part of Economics the Blockbuster, an action research project and exhibition for late 2021/early 2022, in partnership with Alliance Manchester Business School.

A two-part edition of the Trickle Down work will be available to purchase on the blockchain via Block Rocket’s website soon.

Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty is an artwork by Helen Knowles, supported using public funding from Arts Council England. The artwork is produced by FutureEverything with additional support from Whitworth Gallery, arebyte Gallery and FACT.

With thanks to Daniel Dressel, BlockRocketTech, Denis Jones, Arone Dyers, Pablo Galaz, Lewis Sykes, Howard Kennedy LLP, Ethereal Summit, Metamark, Dave Beech, Damien Mahoney, Known Origin and The University of Salford.