Features
Help Thom Yorke Hail King Cnut
Thom Yorke is working on a rather large art project and he needs your help. The Radiohead frontman is asking 2,000 volunteers to help him create a human sculpture that will be visible from space.
In a post on Radiohead’s website Yorke explained that the sculpture is of a “King Cnut type image facing the sea.” It will be assembled Nov. 27 in Brighton, England, at 11 a.m., which Yorke notes is “a Saturday morning at a civilised hour errr right .. ????”
Yorke’s 2006 debut album, The Eraser, featured a linocut of a figure representing King Cnut trying but failing to control the ocean.
The sculpture is part of 350 EARTH, which describes itself as the “world’s first ever global climate art project.”
Between Nov. 20-28 the project is launching public art installations in 16 locations around the world “to show how climate change is already impacting our world as well as offer visions of how we can solve the crisis,” according to 350 Earth’s website.
The project coincides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is being held in Cancun, Mexico, Nov. 29-Dec. 10.
As Yorke explains, “The plan is to make images visible from the skies to remind those in Cancun that we are running out of time. We can’t keep putting this off.”
The first 2,000 people that RSVP will be guaranteed a spot in Yorke’s sculpture. The exact location in Brighton is yet to be announced. Participants are asked to wear all black “since your body will literally be the ‘paint’ that makes this drawing.” A black poncho will be provided to all participants.
The art project will go on, rain or shine. Earth 350 notes that “we will create the human sculpture even if it rains and is stormy, since weather is a central character in this art piece. Yes, this sound mad but since we’re recreating the story of King Canute it works.”
If you can’t make it to Brighton, art installations are also taking place in the United States, Spain, South Africa, Mexico, Maldives, India, Iceland, Egypt, Dominican Republic, Canada, Brazil and Australia.
The installations will be documented by satellites provided by DigitalGlobe.
For more information, click here for Earth 350’s website.
Click here for Radiohead’s website.
Click here to check out King Cnut’s Wikipedia page.