Halsey revealed details about her upcoming album with a 13-minute walkthrough of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So, yeah.
Remember the “The art/The artist” memes that were all the rage on the internet some time ago? With her new album, Halsey’s gone a step further and become both the art and the artist, quite literally.
Ahead of the release of her fourth album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, Halsey revealed the cover art for her album through a — get this — regal walkthrough of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Clad in orange, a pregnant Halsey walks through the exhibits at the Met, until finally unveiling a life-sized painting of what is the cover art for the album.
Inspired by Jean Fouquet’s painting of Agnès Sorel, titled Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels, the cover shows Halsey sitting on a gilded throne. As in Fouquet’s painting of Sorel, her left breast is exposed, and a child seated on her lap.
In a statement released on Instagram, Halsey called the cover art a celebration of pregnancy and pregnant bodies.
“This cover image celebrates pregnant and postpartum bodies as something beautiful, to be admired. We have a long way to go with eradicating the social stigma around bodies & breastfeeding. I hope this can be a step in the right direction!” she said.
“This album is a concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth,” she said of the album. “It was very important to me that the cover art conveyed the sentiment of my journey over the past few months.”
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“The dichotomy of the Madonna and the Whore. The idea that me as a sexual being and my body as a vessel and gift to my child are two concepts that can co-exist peacefully and powerfully,” she said. “My body has belonged to the world in many different ways the past few years, and this image is my means of reclaiming my autonomy and establishing my pride and strength as a life force for my human being.”
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power will be out on August 27th.
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