“For me, art has always been about connecting with strangers. Whether that stranger is actually me or someone else- it’s about being heard and making others feel less alone.”
Artist David Choe sits on the floor of his childhood home which has in the last few years become his painting studio. The walls and his person are covered in an amalgam of paints, clays, varnishes, and oil pastels. He’s trying to describe an idea and experience until he abruptly cuts himself off- “Words- they’re so clumsy. Blahrgabdkhfbhke-” he makes one up, “that’s probably why I’m an artist. Between show and tell, I’m much more a show rather than a tell kind of person,” he says before taking me into a room where he shot his recent hit TV show, The Choe Show.
Inside the room, the entire floor is littered with drawings, each one a different version of a whale character he’s been drawing for decades called Munko. “This is what I was trying to describe,” he says, motioning towards the ground and its skin of separate drawings, before going off on an impassioned description of his dream to create a multi-decade multi-dimensional artwork that is just as much authored by him as it is by a community. And while things may be easier to describe in characters and colors for him rather than consonants, throughout each detail about the project, one can tell that it is, in his words, “the most important artwork I’ve ever made.”
Let’s go back a bit-
In the early aughts, Choe was given a choice that would not only change his life but his entire world. After painting a series of large-scale murals at the offices of a relatively new startup company, he was given a choice between cash or company stock for his efforts.
“Everyone thought I was crazy. I was and probably still am, but I was raised to not just see opportunities- but take them.” He chose the stock. Years later, the company, Facebook, had one of the largest IPOs in history and Dave became a multi-millionaire. “It wasn’t about potential, logic or even the actual product. Honestly, it confused me- but I believed in their passion. I chose and still choose passion over logic- and it rewards me each time.”
Fast forward a decade. The world’s changed many times over. Under Web 2.0, what initially began as an opportunity to connect people has turned divisive. The previous paradise of worldwide connection has now turned into a periled paradox: we’re brought together algorithmically more through anger and outrage than passion and purpose. There’s an illusion of choice buttressed by monetization of each person as a product rather than a participant. Simply put, the technologies that were supposed to bring us together are tearing us apart, while at the same time monetizing our every movement and conversation.
But what if that weren’t the case? What if a new technology were to emerge that could deliver on the promises and benefits of Web 2, while also bringing about a new era of connection not to be monetized, but instead, incentivized through honest passion and purpose?
Enter: Munko.
For over two decades, Choe has been developing Munko both as a concept and project, with its first iterations having been made in the street with a spray can, to an evolution through multiple different forms of media, from the physical (sculptures, toys, prints, paintings etc.) to the ephemeral. Now, using both Web 3 and the innovations enabled by new technology processes, Munko has evolved and grown into a dynamic participatory project where everyone has a say and a will. Rather than being a static avatar, Munko has been designed from the ground up to utilize breakthrough and bleeding-edge technologies to adapt themselves to you. The more participation and passion one reveals to Munko, the more Munko will be able to mirror and reflect the person they’re attached to. How is this possible?
After studying the Web 3 space for nearly two years to find the right partners to help him express his vision, Dave has connected with some of the most capable teams in the space to provide him with both the technological and creative foundations he needed to pursue and put forth his “greatest and most involved artwork I’ve ever made.”
As he describes it:
“I stopped selling my art years ago. Every day, thousands of people message me, asking, ‘when is something coming, when will there be something I can buy- something I can own?’ I still paint and draw every day, but not for anyone else, not even myself- simply for the joy of the act. And then it hit me- what if I could give someone that experience? That joy is something that is so much more than an object, to give that feeling of pure passion, creation, and curiosity- that’s what Munko is.
I’ve put my entire passion and purpose into art, everything I’ve done has brought me to here, and it culminates with Munko, just as it began with Munko: a circle, a red through-line that connects everything.”
I could tell he was getting frustrated trying to describe something in words that would be easier to show in images.
“Look, I don’t need to sell anything ever again and I haven’t in years, so when I choose to, it’s for a purpose beyond money.
I want to give people the experience and permission to create and be free- without judgment. Imagine you had a safe space that wasn’t just inside your mind, but part of a community. I want to allow people to believe in themselves, to grant and give them the experience of what it’s like to be pure in the moment of creating something that is meaningful for them.”
We move back into the kitchen where he’s been painting a series of different portraits.
“My whole life I’ve struggled. I really shouldn’t be here right now- it’s a miracle that I even am.” I ask him what he thinks it was that helped him. “Friends. They saved me; they saved my life.” He pauses for a moment, picking at paint on his hand like some scab. “Without them- without my friends, I wouldn’t be here.”
He looks towards the window and the paintings around him.
“When I was younger, I believed in my work more than myself- does that make sense? My work, my art was untouchable- but me, my person? I thought I wasn’t worth anything. Took years for me to get over that, to even realize it and how wrong I was. And it all comes back to two things: friends and making shit- it’s what saved me. Munko is about giving people both of those things and letting them realize that they’ve had them all along. In the end, this will be just as much their artwork as it is mine and, honestly, with the way things are built, they have ownership and say not just in the product but in the community itself.”
He continues to talk about the project, about how 20% is going to charity, about the complex and intricate ‘Munko Machine’ he had built to allow each Munko token holder a unique object that visually responds to them personally based on how they interact with their object. He tells me how the whole thing starts with a commitment to honest participation that itself is encrypted so no one knows what a person has revealed except the person themself and their Munko.
“The only people with the answers are you and Munko.” He tells me how it’s taken nearly two years and a worldwide search for him to find the right team and partner that could bring this vision to life. The team is made up of an incredible array of world-class engineers, data scientists, designers, creative thinkers, 3D video graphic and crypto developers.
“Everyone thought it was crazy, this idea. When things are this new, people don’t understand and there’s fear of failure or the unknown. Artists are made to confront the unknown and show people what’s possible. It’s funny, I got the same reactions from people when I took Facebook stock. Every logical person said it was impossible, or a crazy decision, just as they have with this idea. But that’s coming from a place of logic- and logic serves no purpose when it comes to passion.
In the end, it all comes back to choice. What will you choose? ‘All I can do is show you the door- it’s up to you to walk through it.’ A person can only be shown an opportunity, it’s up to them to take it. To not passively let something pass by, but to pursue it with both passion and purpose, that’s always been my goal.”
Written by Walter Hong
