October 22nd, 2015

Rihanna joins Blake, Adam, Gwen and Pharrell on The Voice, to get the artists ready for the performances of their lives as the knockouts – and steals – arrive on Monday night at 8/7c.

Rihanna and artist Roy Nachum

Last spring, Israel-born artist Roy Nachum tied a blindfold over Rihanna’s eyes and watched her slowly approach three card-table-size canvases while the songs from her new album played throughout his New York studio. The world didn’t know it yet, but these white canvases, covered in Braille poetry, would become part of the artwork for Anti, the megastar’s forthcoming follow-up to 2012’s Unapologetic.

As the music pulsed, Rihanna’s fingers traced the outline of the first canvas, spreading charcoal ash from the burnt remains of its ornate golden frame wherever she touched and creating the triptych “Fire, Part I” through “Fire, Part III.”

“It was very personal,” Nachum recalls. “It was very interesting to see how a person who doesn’t read Braille would touch the work. Her flow started out very simple, and by the time she got to the third one, it became very emotional.”

A graduate of the Cooper Union, Roy Nachum has been working with Rihanna for a little over a year to create the album cover and artwork for Anti. The pair premiered their collaboration in January with the single artwork for “FourFiveSeconds,” which featured the song’s title in Braille, a central theme in Nachum’s work. Upon its release, Anti will become the first album ever to be released entirely in Braille, without text or liner notes in the packaging.

“I’ve had musicians reach out to me to do an album cover, but the energy was really right with Rihanna,” says Nachum. “We had such a good connection. We were thinking the same things. She’s a true visionary.”

Roy Nachum

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