On Drifella 3

Biscuit has been one of my favourite artists ever since I entered the scene, getting introduced immediately to his Drifella 2 collection. This week sees the launch of the conclusion of the Drifella trilogy, with Drifella 3 releasing on VVV and minting out in 10 minutes.

I woke up the morning after the collections launch and felt that something extremely important had happened, and with my feed full of my friends mints I felt such an immense amount of inspiration that I knew I had to write an article on the collection.

I’ve spoken about both Drifella 1 + 2 in my first article on the scene, and it’s importance as a founding piece of ‘traitmaxxed’ art (heavily layered digital collage usually assembled with a program like Hashlips). However, it’s extremely important to touch on them again here so we can understand how Drifella 3 has come to exist.

The first two collections are, to me, extremely compelling examples of a recent talking point surrounding the avant/gay scene: the idea that we are no longer making ‘art about the internet’, instead the art is the internet (‘We are no longer making art about the internet, We are conduits for the internet to make art itself’). I recently said that ‘If the computer had hands it would've made Drifella. It would've made the Toji works in honour of it's ancestors. It would've made Squishy Drifters when it got it's license. It would've made Little Swag World for it's toys.’

An interesting point in the traitmaxxed aesthetic is how the influences behind the work are often not only referenced, they instead quite literally make up the piece. The first Drifella is made out of the Pulsedemon cover, is overlaid by memes, is splattered by Mifella’s blood stains and is seen killing a Bored Ape. Drifella 2 as a character wears an ‘I <3 Bladee’ shirt, sits in front of a Rothko or a Francis Bacon painting for his portrait, is framed in meme text, is covered in pixel-sprites from his favourite games and shoots lots of guns.

The internet is not just worn by Drifella, but is the literal make-up of his biology – it is his skin, bones, clothes and home.

My excitement for Drifella 3 comes from what I see as a step past this more blatant ‘internet’ aesthetic, past even collage, towards something that pushes our understanding of what a ‘traitmaxxed’, ‘PFP’ piece can be. It shows us new ways of how the individual elements can blend together, as if paint, creating a physicality so well conceived that when looking at the images I sometimes feel as if they must exist in the world already.

The digital aspect is much more subtle (but definitely still there) – we see some more obvious symbols that are reminiscent of the previous collections, like a low opacity Mew poking out of the centre of a piece, Chudjak shutting his curtains on the nuclear bomb going off outside or Yoshi sprites placed like stickers over the rest of the work. However, it’s the quieter parts that are far more important to the new style: digital images have been rendered painterly by being put through large amounts of processing, from differing opacity levels, layer styles, intensely added grain, feathering and artificating. It is possible that part of this heavy processing is what gives it this physical/’hand-made’ feel – I am in the gallery, I can see the strokes on the canvas. It is a collection that is intricately involved in the production of digital images, but pushes the boundaries of what that means within the scene.

Crucidrifella, from the 'Haircuts' show at Yeche Lange

Biscuit says he was inspired by working physically on the large scale Crucidrif that he made for Yeche Lange’s show ‘Haircuts’. This painterly style was also seen throughout his collection ‘MILADY AURA2 AFTER DEATH’, where the chaos feels akin to that of Drifella 3, but it keeps itself more aesthetically tied to it’s digital foundation.

Inspiration from peers is not far too, with many of Biscuits favourite artists in the scene being inextricably linked to their painting practices: Spiky DJ, Mifella, Earl, Luhhfella and Wretched Worm, all who use painting as a primary medium alongside their NFT/digital art practices.

MILADY AURA2 AFTER DEATH, by Evil Biscuit

Each Drifella 3 NFT includes 3 pieces, the collection being a series of triptych's, upping the actual amount of Drifella 3 paintings’ from 1333 to 4000. It’s not just the canvases that make up the work though, as all the elements within the composition are worthy of our attention: intricately made frames (that always fit for the work displayed in them), small toys from Drifella’s childhood that act as audience, as well as the walls of the gallery themselves.

As talk on the NFT viewing experience is rife at the moment, it’s poignant that Biscuit creates a physical space within his digital artwork. The fictional gallery is convincing – it is both a part of the art and the lens through which you must view it. Displaying it this way is important: if you want to properly view your pieces, you have to slow down and zoom in, you’re unable to just to see it in passing (which is something that Guppy acknowledges as a key part of why Drifella 1 and 2 work: it’s ‘quick easy readable square swipe scroll pfp format’ was perfect for the content of those first two collections). You inevitably end up viewing the collection as if you’re in a physical space: you go back and forth through the triptych, moving your fingers and scrollwheel, zooming in and double tapping to check out the individual details that you’re drawn to. Although it’s just fingers moving across a screen or track pad, you do have to do something physical to begin to see all the intricacies – which is something I don’t think I’ve seen an NFT collection ask you to do to experience it fully. Guppy continues, saying ‘[Biscuit] could have easily made each panel its own NFT and it would have been an incredible collection. But no, rules must be broken and boundaries pushed in classic biscuit fashion’.

The works themselves are not the only abstract part of the project, with everything that feeds into it and inspired it being shrouded in a certain level of hidden knowledge. Biscuit admits that ‘the storytelling and lore in these collections is very cryptic and esoteric to outsiders who aren’t familiar with Milady and Mifella/Drifella lore. I think it’s hilarious that some have no idea how all this intertwines and how involved it actually is’.

This combines hilariously with the use of a heavily copyrighted IP figure like Dratini. Something that I’ve always loved about projects within the scene is their ability to make characters their own, and Drifella is a leading example of this.

Everything about this collection is a landmark for the scene: the first implementation of VVV’s new physical redemption feature, a launch trailer that is so simple yet so effective in sharing lore and selling the works, and presenting an entirely new way of viewing what could easily have been ‘just a PFP collection’.

- Lowbie

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Links:

Drifella III: https://www.tensor.trade/trade/drifella3

Haircuts, Yeche Lange: https://www.yl.baby/nyc-galerie?show=haircuts

MILADY AURA2 AFTER DEATH: https://opensea.io/collection/milady-aura2-after-death

Drifella III Physical Redemption: https://www.vvv.so/drifella-iii

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Originally published here September 7th, 2025.