The Angel in Bronze
The Angel is a symbol of inspiration that recurs throughout Trevor’s work. It first appeared in 2018 as The Ecstasy, an oil painting combining the Bitcoin logo with a study of Bernini’s renaissance marble ensemble The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Since then the angel motif has recurred several times, explicitly, abstractly and symbolically, its best recognised incarnation being Trevor’s open-edition NFT The Bitcoin Angel.
In 2024 Trevor released CryptoAngels – a sweeping narrative involving thousands of angels from across the multiverse combining to fight the forces of the Dark. The CryptoAngels were visualised using a wide range of media and technologies, including digital modelling, pixel art, animation, NFTs, Bitcoin ordinals and even a videogame. But central to the project were works that recalled the angels’ sculptural origin: an edition of 21 cast in bronze.
Working from Trevor’s drawings and specifications, Ruaraig Maciver and his team cast the Bitcoin Angel sculptures at Beltane Studios in the Scottish Borders. In the video below you can see footage of Trevor and the Beltane team’s collaboration and learn about the fascinating 9000-year-old technology of lost wax bronze casting.
Each sculpture stands 41 cm (16 in) tall and weighs 6.6 kg (14.5 lb). The angels are in noble pose, their wings flared, each bearing a shield emblazoned with Trevor’s ensō-pixel logo and holding aloft a Bitcoin token. They are each presented in a specially-designed oak display case with a cast-bronze plate with title and edition number and a bronze version of Trevor’s logo set into its front.
Although created using one of humanity’s oldest artistic technologies, the sculptures are linked to one of its newest. Each sculpture is conceived as a physical representation of one of the 21 Archangels in the CryptoAngels cosmos. The Archangels are visualised in a series of animated NFTs designed in collaboration with Apollo Entertainment. Each animation presents its Archangel’s unique characteristics, appearance, colours, sigils, and weapons. And each one is linked via the Ethereum blockchain to one of the sculptures, a technology pioneered by auction house Tribul.
On 7th June 2024 Tribul opened the Archangels auction and all were sold to art collectors over the following five days, with a final hammer price of 88 ETH in total. The sculptures are now in their new homes around the world, and as Trevor plans his next project he can be sure that the angels are watching over him.