The Brooklyn Museum Is Teaming Up With Spotify Tastemakers RapCaviar to Host a Show of Robot-Made Sculptures

SZA, Metro Boomin, and 21 Savage are being honored "Greco-Roman Respect Style!”

It’s been called “the most influential playlist in music.” Now the influence of the taste-making Spotify playlist known as RapCaviar is stretching all the way to the Brooklyn Museum.

Tonight, the museum debuts a suite of three sculptures honoring its first-ever “RapCaviar Pantheon,” a salute to three emerging hip-hop artists who broke new ground in the year: SZA, Metro Boomin, and 21 Savage.

The sculptural group draws influence from historic Roman sculpture, but was fabricated by SpecialGuest, using state-of-the-art Kuka robots at Neoset Designs. Each of the musical artists was photographed and analyzed by computers, so that their form could be translated into a combination of high density polyurethane, natural gypsum, drystone, and Venetian plaster, creating three life-sized figures.

Statue of Metro Boomin, one of the honorees. Photo by Driely S.

Statue of Metro Boomin, one of the honorees. Photo by Driely S.

In all, the RapCaviar project took 15 days to complete. A video, released to coincide with the pop-up artwork and narrated by Pharrell, shows the process of creation.

“Pantheon is our way of non-verbally communicating the breakthrough artists of 2017,” Tuma Basa, Spotify’s global head of Hip Hop, told Variety. “We’re treating our artists with the importance that Ancient Rome treated its gods. Metro, SZA and 21 all proved this year that they’re here to stay. Their music is forever so why not immortalize their likeness? Greco-Roman Respect Style!”

While Spotify is using the Brooklyn Museum’s space, it should be noted that this is not a curated exhibition, but rather a “campaign,” according to a representative from Spotify. The sculptures will be unveiled tonight, Thursday, December 7, 2017 at the Brooklyn Museum (though official RSVPs for that event are “closed”). The sculptures will be open to the public only on December 8.


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