Rihanna Debuts Blind-Themed Artwork and Name of Next Album at a Los Angeles Gallery—See the Pics!

"FourFiveSeconds" singer releases possible new image of next CD

By Samantha Schnurr Oct 08, 2015 12:14 PMTags
RihannaChristopher Polk/Getty Images for WESTBURY ROAD ENTERTAINMENT LLC

Rihanna has royalty in her sights. 

The "FourFiveSeconds" singer debuted the latest surprise hiding up her black bell sleeves—the cover artwork for her eighth studio album, ANTI, while attending a private viewing at the MAMA Gallery in Los Angeles Thursday. 

Consistently evolving her musical identity, the 27-year-old Grammy winner's next album is unlike anything we have seen from her before since her debut on the Billboard charts in 2005 with her first album, Music of the Sun. 

Dressed all in black, the Barbadian beauty was photographed alongside the oil painting constructed by Israeli contemporary artist Roy Nachum. The piece features splashes of red and white layered under a black silhouette of a little girl with a gold crown covering her eyes while holding a black balloon in her left hand. The backdrop for the entire image is a sculpted inscription of braille, which reads a selection of poems by Chloe Mitchell

Roy Nachum

The piece is one of seven featured throughout the album, including a view of the child from behind that will be seen on the back of the album. All of the images will include poetry by Mitchell and Nachum. The album will also be the first in music history to include physical braille on it, a feature that will transform the way the blind community experiences music. 

As Rihanna posted about the album's overall inspiration on her Instagram, "by continuing to follow her own instincts, her work strives to make an impact by doing the very antithesis of what the public expects"—a nod to the title, ANTI

With the little girl's eyes covered and the incorporations of braille, the artwork clearly plays into themes of blindness and obscurement. If one cannot read braille, the poetry reads lines like "I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood. It is simply because what I want to say, what I need to say, won't be heard" and "My voice is my suit and armor, my shield, and all that I am." 

While Rihanna hasn't announced the date of ANTI's debut, at least we have an idea of what kind of emotions she will present in her upcoming music—messages of perception, identity and expectation.

As the songstress said during the unveiling, "Sometimes the ones who have sight are the blindest."