If you never really studied the design of your Wii, you will now. Nintendo approached four of the top indigenous artists in Australia to create masterful art out of Wii consoles.
The artists - Gloria Petyarre, Barbara Weir, Wmily Pwerle, and Gayla Pwerle - include award winners, genre leaders, and internationally-exhibited masterminds.
The initiative produced nine one-of-a-kind consoles, and all will go up for sale on Ebay beginning next week, with the proceeds going to a charity called the Shalon Gamarada scholarship program.
The program strives to provide financial support for indigenous students to ensure they can receive their degrees.
"Some of the artists involved can boast selling individual pieces upwards of $20,000, and what they have created for Wii are exceptional, one-off originals that I am sure will draw national attention for the eBay auction," said the charity's curator Jenny Hillman.
Auction winners will receive their respective console/masterpiece in a custom acrylic display case. However, before the artists began doing their magic, Nintendo disabled the game-playing functionality of these systems. They're just conversation pieces, apparently, but worry not, potential charitable art owners, Nintendo will also throw in a bland, non-artsy Wii with every winning auction.
[Sources: Nintendo, Delimiter.com.au]
Feb 18, 2011
