The most eagerly-awaited album in pop music has dropped at long last, Rihanna’s ANTI finally filling a void that has only occasionally been plugged since 2012’s Unapologetic; interestingly, none of those stopgaps from last year — Bitch Better Have My Money, FourFiveSeconds, American Oxygen — feature. However, a cover of Tame Impala’s New Person, Same Old Mistakes does.
Abdicate, 2012
Oil On Canvas. 76 x 115 inches / 194 x 294 cm
It’s available now, for free (link and code at the foot of this page), but what is that artwork all about? Israeli-born New York-based artist Roy Nachum is the man behind it, extending his series Blind to incorporate the image of a young RiRi — laid over the image is a poem by Chloe Mitchell (art collaborator on executive producer Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) in braille; an ongoing theme in Nachum’s work. “Sometimes in order to see, you need to close your eyes” says the artist, who experimented with his own vision by wearing a blindfold for a week.
The gold crown oft-obscuring his subject’s sight represents ‘man’s blindness caused by misplaced values and desire’, truth itself being in the eye of the beholder. Which, given Rihanna’s status in the Illuminati and Nachum’s nationality, is sure to lead to plenty of all-seeing eye conspiracies billowing out over the coming days.
Innocence, 2011
Oil On Canvas. 80 x 68 inches / 203 x 175 cm
If They Let Us PART II, 2015
Oil on Canvas. 51 x 45 inches / 130 x 114 cm
The release follows an extensive teaser campaign that even had its own social media accounts.
Deep Water, 2011
Oil on Canvas. 36 x 28 inches / 91 x 71 cm
Castaway, 2008
Oil on Canvas. 66 x 71 inches / 167 x 180 cm
Gift to my navy!!! #ANTI Download with code: ANTI https://t.co/Pa0juya50t @samsungmobileus pic.twitter.com/5ffWm48v39
— Rihanna (@rihanna) January 28, 2016
