Today, we take a look at a poetry art installation in Trafalgar Square, a poet suing for plagiarism and the beauty brand who has relaunched with a series of poetry and art inspired Instagram posts.
Trafalgar Square Gets New Lion
A new lion, a fluorescent red one, was unveiled in London yesterday. The lion has been set up in Trafalgar Square, facing the National Gallery. For just five days it will be joining the other four lions’ statues that have their permanent home there as part of the London Design Festival.
The lion will roar poetry that is generated by members of the public. Passers-by will input a single word onto the screen adjacent to the lion, a poem will then be created using the word that is generated by the lion’s algorithm.
During the daytime it will be possible to read the poetry on a screen located inside the lion’s mouth, at night the poetry will be streamed onto Nelson’s Column.
People can also submit words for the lion online, with the exception of swear words and people’s names.
The installation is the work of Es Devlin, a set designer, and is titled “Please Feed The Lions”. It is the result of a collaboration that has been ongoing for a year between Devlin and Google Arts & Culture.
Devlin was also the designer of the closing ceremony for the London Olympics. The inspiration for the lion installation cam from a conversation she had with fellow British designer, Sir John Sorrell who had mentioned to here that the creator of the original lions had “never wanted them to look so passive”, the stance he had proposed for them however was overruled by Queen Victoria. This conversation planted the seed of an idea in her mind and from this the concept was born.
Other installations for the design festival include an alphabet made up of 26 chairs which can be found on Finsbury Avenue Square.
Poet Sues for Plagiarism
The Somali-American singer-songwriter and poet Yasminah has filed a lawsuit against Daft Punk, the French electronic robot rock duo and The Weeknd. She claims that their 2016 hit “Starboy” is plagiarized from her song “Hooyo” which she wrote in 2009.
Yasminh claims that there are similarities in the key, tempi and even a “prominent clap” on beats 2 and 4 of the songs. She further claims that The Weeknd was fully aware of her song as it was popular in the East African community, although The Weeknd was born in Canada he is of Ethiopian descent.
Yasminah has made the majority of her poetry releases via Amazon Kindle.
Gucci Beauty Instagram
Earlier this week Gucci Beauty relaunched their Instagram account with a series of rather arty posts. Spanning both history and time the account features pieces on everything from ancient Egyptian mummy portraits to a picture of Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s painting “Aurelia (Fazio’s Mistress”.
The featured works come from all over the world and represent beauty of all types to fit with the message that Gucci are hoping to convey. Each image also includes a detailed history of the piece and its artist.
You must register to comment. Log in or Register.