With a slow start to the Anti era more and more news about Rihanna’s upcoming album. On Wednesday night Rihanna had an art show, which showed off the artwork for her new album ‘Anti.” The album cover was created by Roy Nachum, who took his time out to talk about the masterpiece. Check it out below.
What does it all mean?
“I’ve been doing experimental work of human perception and sight. So for the last seven years, I’m writing Braille poetry, which encompasses sculpture in it on the canvas, and then I paint over it. So I kind of want to open people’s eyes to the real things in life … so I close my eyes. The process for that was me closing my eyes for a whole week to experience how it is to be blind. If I want to do art, if I’m going to do an experiment with sight, then I need to close my eyes and start from that. That’s the first step I need to do. So I did it for a whole week, and since then, I started creating. I started creating all those paintings and installations, sculptures.”
His interactive art
“One of the more radical works that I’m doing is basically I’m burning the frame until it becomes charcoal. So the canvas is completely white on white. … I brought blind people to my studio, and I was able to have them experience visual art for the first time. Once they touched the art and read the Braille and touched the burnt frames, it stained their fingerprints with charcoal [on the canvas]. … Rihanna really loved the idea, and we talked about that. So it’s kind of like an interactive work, like a group self-portrait, you know? The work is always alive. It’s never finished. I started that. Those paintings, actually, I decided to do with her — with a person who can see, basically. I blindfolded Rihanna and she started touching the work, so you can see the result. She touched it. I started it. And that’s her fingerprint on that.”
A museum for everyone
“For a blind person, a museum or a gallery is just a blank space. You can’t touch the work. I’m not saying you should touch every work, but it was important for me to include, to do something for them. And to open people’s eyes. A metaphor. When you see Braille, it’s kind of like to appreciate life and simple things and all that. I started it, but I want people to … look at the internal side and experience the work. I want them to see the two: the visual and the Braille together.”
The importance of Rihanna
“I think it was a year ago [I met Rihanna]. She watched me. She saw my work atJay Z’s — he collects my work — so she saw my work in his private collection and she knew, she immediately knew that’s what she wanted to do. … I’m bringing a message. My goal is to leave a mark as long as I live. So it’s kind of like, you’re just bringing it to a whole different crowd and making it so that a lot of people can see it and connect with my art, so I really appreciate it.”
