David Cronenberg will be auctioning off a photograph of his recently removed kidney stones as an NFT, and the starting bid is the equivalent of roughly $30,000.
The Canadian filmmaker explained to an online forum of fans that his doctor wanted to have the kidney stones in order to perform a chemical analysis in order to determine whether there was something in Cronenberg's diet that would create them, according to AFP. The director refused because the analysis would destroy the kidney stones, and they were "too beautiful to be destroyed." He explained that he felt a "closeness" to the objects.
"After all, this is pretty intimate, it comes from the inside of my body."
Speaking with Newsweek in March, Cronenberg said he kept the kidney stones in a pill bottle and photographed them to send to a friend, who was suffering from the ailment for the first time.
"I thought this photo is quite beautiful, in such a weird way," he said.
Cronenberg's work, which is an intersection of science fiction, technology, and bodily transformation, has been described by film critics as "body horror" but the filmmaker said there was nothing horrifying about the body's insides. Instead, they were rather fantastic and beautiful.
"My body has gone to great lengths to create these amazing shapes," he said, adding that one person who saw the photo entitled "Inner Beauty" drew comparisons between the aesthetics of each stone to "strange sea creatures."
The inspiration for the kidney stones project, Cronenberg said, comes from his films, particularly 1988's "Dead Ringers," which features twins, both gynecologists.
"At one point, one of the twins says to the other: 'I don't understand why there are not beauty contests for the insides of bodies. Most beautiful spleen, best kidney,'" he told fans in a forum organized by NFT marketplace SuperRare.
He added that "Inner Beauty" also references his latest film "Crimes of the Future," which stars Viggo Mortensen as a performance artist who surgically removes organs from his own body in front of an audience.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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