In Brownsville, Texas, a striking spectacle has emerged with a large sculpture of Elon Musk being towed behind a Tesla Cybertruck. This eye-catching display is part of a new initiative linked to a viral NFT meme.
“We had the idea to bring something into life that would be more striking and maybe even crazier and funnier,” said a French tech entrepreneur known as Louis XXII, who chose not to reveal his real name in an interview with ARTnews.
Louis XXII explained that the primary aim was to draw attention to a meme originating from a poorly drawn image of Elon Musk shared on Reddit six years ago. He is the co-founder of ElonRWA, a “real world asset meme” tokenized on Ethereum’s second-layer network, Ether L2, and organized by FeistyDAO. “The statue is not linked to the valuation of this [ElonRWA] token,” he clarified. “It’s just a funny way to represent this meme in other ways.”
The nearly nine-foot sculpture of Elon Musk was conceived following the creation of a large mural earlier this year, depicting the same Reddit drawing with the slogan “Occupy Mars.” Local artist Carlos Manuel Guerrero, based in Brownsville, confirmed his role in the mural to ARTnews via Instagram. Brownsville’s proximity to SpaceX’s new headquarters and Starbase complex further connects the project to Musk’s ventures.
“We wanted to bring this meme into the real world,” Louis XXII explained. “How could we have an impact on the real world? We are a bunch of guys on computers active on X, but we wanted to touch more people.”
The 3D rendering of the drawing was created by FeistyDAO member lil_dojo, who then collaborated with a Utah-based company to produce the sculpture in foam and fiberglass. lil_dojo had previously acquired the original drawing and its NFT from the Reddit user.
“It took a big month to make it happen,” Louis XXII noted, mentioning that he received the statue on August 15. The sculpture, painted bronze but not made from actual metal, is now a focal point of this unique promotion.
The original drawing of Musk, which sparked this project, gained viral attention in 2021 after several comments and endorsements from Musk himself on X. Louis XXII added that the collective’s goal with ElonRWA is to develop trustworthy and genuine NFT projects, despite recent declines in NFT sales.
“We don’t care about the market, we don’t care about anything, just want to have fun. We want to do positive stuff, good project. And we know that in the long run, it [will] always pay back when you work with the right people, take time to build real projects with a real value,” he concluded.