02 / EXHIBITION & PERFORMANCEAn opening.
An opening.
A life. A finale.
A work unsealed in public. A gallery that keeps it until it expires. An audience returning for the last block.
Imagine the exhibitionA LIVING COLLECTION / 420 WORKSINSCRIBED ON BITCOIN · 2025
What if art
could expire?
Forever on-chain.
Only briefly alive.
420 generative works, each with a life of its own.
The collector chooses when it begins.
Bitcoin keeps the time.
EVERY BLOCK CHANGES SOMETHING.
96 open276 sealed46 expired2 immortal
THE FIRST SPARKFROM THE DIARY
APRIL 2025
APRIL 2025
“I want the work to beLEMONHAZE · APRIL 29, 2025
more human and expire
just like we do.”
Before BEST BEFORE, there was a question about the time we have left. Then a message, a conversation, and a summer of making something that could live—and end.
Begin with the diarySome are waiting to begin. Some are living. Some have already ended. A few never will.
Explore the ledger Lifespans, activations & recordsReading the collection…
01 / THE PROCESSFinding a way
Finding a way
to make it alive.
A summer of painting with code, from early texture experiments to the living works in the collection.
Explore the processLEMONHAZE × ORDINALLY
“The irreplaceable value
of the time we have in our life.”
Before the works,
there was a conversation.
Follow the conversations and experiments that shaped BEST BEFORE, from the first idea through a summer of making.
DECEMBER 2024 — SEPTEMBER 2025PRELUDE + SIX PARTS
OPEN
Early July, we faced one of the most crucial problems of all: when and how to start the clock?
O and I shared a few ideas but nothing conclusive yet - we needed more time...
And then, boom! July 16th arrived.
O dropped in our chat and tells me all about this child activation thing he's been brainstorming with Nick a few days before while discussing potential mint/inscribing options.
Admittedly, it took me a good 20 minutes to wrap my head around the implications of it all - but once it clicked, I was in awe.
One of the things I like the most about "generative art" is seeing the collectors involved in the generation and randomness of the piece itself - and now collectors were gonna have absolute control over when to start the clock: I'm in love!!!
Suddenly, I can see all sorts of cool game theory and approaches to collecting this already exciting piece of art we were working on.
Are you gonna keep it SEALED?
What if it's EXPIRED in a few months?
And what if it's immortal?
As always, so many questions but exciting ones.
Since each inscription can remain SEALED for decades/centuries, the collection was no longer going to end in 90 years.
'Best Before' became exponentially more timeless and appealing to collect on that day.