Interviews

Jan Hakon Erichsen

Jan Hakon Erichsen is one of the first performance artists who has entered the NFT space. The Norwegian artist living in Oslo went to art school and became one of the names in performance art.
He sees his whole online collection as one significant proud achievement instead of a hundred individual works.
Jan gets his inspiration from his everyday life and the objects surrounding him, and from early performance artists.
So it is no wonder that his biggest wish for the NFT scene is to see more performance artists enter the space.


NFT Granny: “Dear Jan, thank you so much for taking your precious time to answer my question. For me, as an elderly lady, it is fascinating to see your contemporary art minted as an NFT. I understand that NFT art can be pictures, animations or jave-script code. How come you decided to mint videos of your art as NFTs?”

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I had been reading about it for a while when someone asked if I wanted an invite to Foundation. I think I created my account and minted my first work within the next couple of hours. Haven’t looked back since, really feels like a revolution.


How did you first become interested in art, and how did you get started with it yourself?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: Art has been my main interest since I was a kid, I have an older brother who is also an artist and he was sort of leading the way. I was always drawing when I grew up and when the time came to choose a higher education, art school was the only natural choice really.

“The Drop”
Open on foundation.app
Could you tell us more about the story of your project “Staring Contest”? 

Jan Hakon Erichsen: As with most of my work, it came about in a very accidental fashion. I was trying to make one of my normal balloon popping videos but mounted a knife to a moving fan for some added drama. I pushed a helium balloon towards the fan, thinking it would eventually hit the blade, but I soon discovered that the laws of physics prevent that from happening. Instead, the balloon follows the movement of the fan in a sort of standoff. It ended as my first video exploring the tension between a balloon and an immediate danger instead of the actual popping. It also became my first viral video, and it still gets reposted by different art accounts, so it made a lot of sense to turn it into my first NFT.

“Staring Contest”
Open on foundation.app
Which of your artworks are you most proud of? 

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I sort of think about my art on social media as one big whole instead of hundreds of individual works, and I think I’m most proud of what I have managed to accomplish there over a year until I’ve sold it recently. I was waiting until I got a nice number for it since it meant so much to me!

Is there an artist you would like to work with? Like a collaboration?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: There was a plan for collaboration with Foodmasku, but he became super busy with all his projects. But hopefully, one day, we’ll do something together. I’d also like to do something with David Henry Nobody jr. one day. When you work with performance, it is a bit difficult to collaborate if you live in different countries, but hopefully, I’ll be in the US sometime and can meet and do collaborations with some of my favourite artists.

We are curious 🙂 Would you be willing to share any plans of upcoming projects?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I’ll mainly keep on working and making more performance videos. I’ll keep posting them on my socials more or less daily and then choose the most successful ones to turn into NFTs.

Who or what are your biggest influences or sources of inspiration?  

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I get inspired a lot by everyday life and the objects that surround us. Often a new project starts with me buying something and experimenting my way to new artwork. I also find inspiration in other artists and content creators. Especially early performance artists have been significant for me.

Do you remember the first time you heard about NFT Art?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I can’t pinpoint precisely when the first time was, but like many others, I started really taking notice in early 2021. That’s when I began to try to understand it and read everything I could find about the subject.

How do you enjoy the NFT Art you have collected? Do you have a way to display it for example at home?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I don’t feel the need to display them. It’s enough for me just to know that I have them. For the time being, I have only collected work on HEN, though I might feel differently when my collection starts growing.

What would be your biggest wish for the NFT Art scene? What is currently missing / not fully developed to reach full potential out of it?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: My biggest hope is that more performance artists will enter the space and that we will see a slight performance revolution in the NFT space the same way photography suddenly exploded.

We would really like to know, where do you see the NFT Art scene in the future? 

Jan Hakon Erichsen: Hopefully, it will have become a normalized thing for all kinds of artists to sell works as NFTs, and it has become possible for so many more people to live off their art.

What does a typical day for you look like, and what do you like to do when you’re not busy with NFT Art?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I wake up, have my breakfast, and then I usually go to my studio and try to figure out what I’m going to make that day. Around 16.00-17.00, I usually head home and start making dinner for my family. Evenings are usually spent on socials and watching series unless I’m going to an art opening or something like that. At the weekends, I often do family things since I’m a family guy, but I like to visit art galleries when I can and spend way too much time watching skateboard videos on youtube even though I haven’t skated for years.

Is there something aside from art or NFTs you collect? 

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I have an excessive amount of knives, but I don’t think of it as a collection since I use them all for my art. The same goes with camera equipment.

“Words Like Daggers”

Open on foundation.app
“A pasta man, with a spaghetti plan”
Open on foundation.app
Where do you like to travel?

Jan Hakon Erichsen: I like to go to big cities with a good art scene to spend my days in museums and galleries. Either that or go somewhere sunny and do nothing besides swimming and laying on a sunbed.

  • Full Name: Jan Hakon Erichsen
  • Date of Birth: 1978
  • Current hometown: Oslo
  • Languages she speaks: Norwegian and English
  • What did you want to be when you were a child:  A priest, but that definitely didn’t last. 
  • Education:  Oslo National Academy of the Arts
  • First Job: Packing books in a warehouse

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