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Artist News Releases
Rihanna announces that artwork has been created for her new album, which also has a title now
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 8 October 2015
That Rihanna has revealed the title and artwork for her new album. It’s called ‘Anti’ and the artwork was designed by artist Roy Nachum. There’s no release date or anything, and I can’t offer you any new music.
But look, I’m still writing. Why am I still writing? Because this isn’t just any artwork and title reveal, this is a Rihanna artwork and title reveal. It is An Event. It was a genuine event, actually. The unveiling was done at a “private view” in LA last night.
It features a black and white image of Rihanna as a child, holding a balloon, with a crown over her eyes. Red covers a large part of the image like bloody dripping down, and there’s all braille on it and stuff.
“In her collaboration with Roy Nachum, Rihanna has changed the history of album art”, claimed information handed out to attendees of The Event. “By continuing to follow her own instincts, her work strives to make an impact by doing the very antithesis of what the public expects”.
You might be confused as to how this has actually “changed the history of album art”. Luckily, Rihanna’s people later thought to clarify, explaining that this is “the first time an album has ever incorporated physical braille”.
So that’s how history was changed last night. I mean, obviously that statement isn’t actually true. It’s not the first. I would guess it’s not even the tenth. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the hundredth. But facts aren’t important in situations like this, are they? What’s actually important is that there is a new Rihanna album coming out and that it is going to be groundbreaking in every way possible.
The braille on the artwork is actually a series of poems by artist Chloe Mitchell. And it may well be the first album artwork to feature poetry in braille. Although that doesn’t make for such a snappy soundbite.
“The whole idea behind the braille is that people who have sight are sometimes the people who are blindest”, said Rihanna last night. And I think that’s something we should all go and thing about for at least 20 minutes now. In the dark.
