INTERVIEW| 'I believe in a borderless world': Lisa Ray on exploring the possibilities of NFT art with The Upside Space 

In an age where the attention span of people is less than eight seconds, multi-faceted personality Lisa Ray can hook someone’s attention for an hour over a subject as complex as NFT art. The cross-cultural pioneering creative was in India for a short visit for her artistic venture The Upside Space — a new digital art platform that promotes NFT art to create endless possibilities in the art world. For the unversed, NFT art is an intangible digital asset that can be bought and sold like any other physical asset. Its uniqueness is that it’s a digital art linked with a code that makes its holder possess its original value. Even if one tries to replicate the NFT art by any means, they won’t be able to possess its value which remains only with the authentic holder. Lisa along with art professional Ayesha Khan is the co-founder of this Singapore-based startup that spotlights the works of artists from South East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.

It aims to create an inclusive arts ecosystem where art lovers, collectors, artists, gallerists etc. are able to interact over this union of tech and art. The platform has collaborated with South Asian artistes — from Kelly Dorji of Bhutan, Myna Mukherjee of India to Omar Nabi of Pakistan, Elham Shafaei of Iran and more. To spread the word, Lisa has recently collaborated with the APRE Art House at Mumbai Gallery Weekend to exhibit digital art, been at the Dhaka Art Summit and plans to take The Upside Space to the 16th edition of the Art Dubai Fair to churn conversation around NFT art in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. While Lisa’s incipient journey as an art-driven startup co-founder is new, her love for art dates back to her teenage days when she began collecting and appreciating art.

The former model, award-winning actress, accomplished author and now co-founder of a startup refuses to accept that she is “dabbling” in different fields. Her artistic journey is purposive with a clear vision. This sense of purpose is reflected in all her professional pursuits. For instance, when the Toronto-born actress first came to India in the 1990s, she shot to fame as the first supermodel in the country gracing magazine covers and being on the billboards of notable lifestyle brands. However, she made a discerning choice to leave modelling in pursuit of a natural and healthy lifestyle that does not conform to superficial beauty standards. She also worked in movies, but kept away from Bollywood as she did not resonate with the masala films the industry was producing. Instead, she showed her acting chops in thought-provoking movies like Water, I Can’t Think Straight,The World Unseen and more. Later in 2009, when multiple myeloma — a life-threatening cancer — grappled her, she made a choice to dedicate herself to writing as she found it cathartic. The result was a deeply moving memoir Close To The Bone (2019) that accounted her nomadic and mixed-race existence, relationship with a Bengali father and Polish mother, being a breakout star in the Indian entertainment industry, a brush with Oscars, battling cancer, quest for inner strength, love, spirituality and more. It made the book a maze of immersive and rich human experiences. After Lisa was treated for cancer, she has since then lived a kind of “re-birth” and has become more “introspective” about what she wants to do in life. Writing and art have been monumental in this transformational journey, she reveals to us. In this interview, she talks to us about NFT art's potential, navigating passion, fear and more.

Tell us about your love for the arts. What are your early memories?
I have always been collecting art. I was brought up in a Bengali household where we were always surrounded by art. But my parents did not necessarily collect what people might term as fine arts. When I came to Mumbai at the young age of 17 to become a model, I ended up spending my very first paycheque on buying my first piece of art — a work by painter Suhas Roy. I was enthralled to see that I could actually buy art and support artists as well! Over time, my interest in arts deepened and ran parallel to whatever I was pursuing on the professional front. I have not just collected art over the years, but also tried to know artists, and understand different schools of art, and their evolution. I was also particularly intrigued by the idea of patronage to support the art ecosystem.

People usually don’t take arts and culture as seriously. How can we change that perception?
We romanticise the idea of starving artists… existing on love, fresh air and inspiration, that is nonsense! Art and culture is a legitimate and very important industry. It has the potential to become one of India's greatest exports, so we have to support it. Also, artists have to be very clever about marketing themselves. All of this was running in the back of my mind over the years.

Now coming to the most important question, why NFT art?
While I was conceptualising this startup as a founder, I had to put my energy, time and passion into making sure that the product is solid and delivers to what the market needs. I realised the world of NFTs is exploding. A year and a half ago, I knew nothing about it. But I believed in the power of stories and harnessing technology to tell them. NFT art is a boundary-pushing technology that enables the depth and complexity of the stories that we tell in South Asia to move towards centre stage. It enables an artist to reach out to a global audience and tell their narratives the way they want to, not through a western lens. It brings transparency for artists by ensuring direct contact with the buyer which is usually not there in the gallery system where artists and collectors are kept apart. NFT is integrated with web 3 Technology which enables the decentralisation of art where each individual has autonomy and access to information. It also brings financial autonomy and enables an artist to have a source of income that is not affected by local circumstances like political or social turbulence in their region. NFT art offers to reach a global audience and gives a new playing ground to experiment. Physical art can degenerate over time if not maintained properly, but NFT solves all those problems. You can easily store your work while you’re travelling, without paying a hefty amount logistically for NFT art.

How can we convince traditional artists to go for NFT art?
If you see the history of art movements, we have the Impressionist Movement pioneered by artists like Claude Monet. While today, their artworks are sold in hundreds of millions of dollars, their works were met with outrage when they first came out. People refused to accept their style as art because the way art had been seen up till then was very representational. The painting or the sculpture had to look very similar to the real object but the impressionists changed that perception. Today, their works are preserved in museums. Those were evolutionary ideas of that era. Cut to the present time, art has not evolved in a very long time. With NFTs, the art world is due for a natural evolution where it shows how digital and physical art can co-exist. You can have studio practice and at the same time, can create NFT art. The world is slowly moving towards NFTs. Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York have liquified a large number of its physical holdings and is looking forward to investing in art NFTs. Multi-media artist Ranbir Kaleka has just dropped his first NFT art with us and he is 70 years old. There’s more coming in as NFT art is the future. 

Why is there special focus on Southeast Asian art and artists?
Art NFTs are usually associated with white male creators but I want to tap into a new audience especially in India because I believe in the power of NFT art. This is why we look forward to bringing the richness and diversity of voices in artistic traditions in the global South. From Indian artists like Santanu Hazarika, Prajakta Popnis and Osheen Siva Shiva to Sing aporean, Indonesian, and Malaysian artists and more, we are expanding our artists’ community and making art space inclusive. For instance, we have works from Pakistani artists as well and usually having a physical exhibition of their works is not met favourably in India, but NFT bridges the gap between borders. Artists’ work should not be conditional to the political situation in a country. Art should be able to cross borders. With this platform, a Pakistani artist’s work can be bought and sold in India and an Indian artist's can be bought and sold in Pakistan or New York, London, Hong Kong, Hanoi and more. Next, we have plans to collaborate with Gond and Pattachitra artists from India. That way, we are very focused on who we are, our values and intent.

On that note, most of your professional endeavours have been in dynamic fields like modelling, acting, writing and now, start-up. Where do you muster this fearless streak from?
I am not fearless but I continue in spite of fear (smiles). I was very fearful about venturing into becoming a startup founder. It means your reputation, money, everything is at stake. The fear is still there, but I continue to be driven by my passions. I think fear can be a great teacher at times. And when it becomes overwhelming — this might sound cliché — but I resort to my meditation practice which helps me dissect fear. I reflect very deeply and don't jump in head-first which I used to do as a beginner in my career (laughs). I am driven by the fact that in some sense, I am living a rebirth, so I have more clarity about what I want to put out in the world. I might be the co-founder but I want the spotlight to be on the art and artists.

You travel a lot for such a diverse portfolio of work. Do you feel like a global citizen?
My heart and feet are in India but I am based in Dubai now. However, I believe in a borderless world (smiles). In fact, it’s weird for me and my family to stay in one place. Many people ask me, ‘Oh! Why are you moving again?’ and I ask them, ‘Why are you remaining there?’ That’s very boring (laughs). I feel like sucking the juice out of life and going on a new adventure in every phase of life.We should examine our own belief systems — which are stagnant at times, for growth.

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Twitter: @Ranapriyamvada