Grimes has explained the reasoning behind her recent “GLOBAL WARMING IS GOOD” billboards which were used to promote her latest album.
The Canadian pop star, whose real name is Claire Boucher, released her fifth record ‘Miss Anthropocene’ last month.
Ahead of its arrival, Grimes said that she would use the project to flip the narrative on climate change in a bid to amp up attention on the issue. In keeping with this concept, Grimes unveiled a number of billboards presenting the message: “GLOBAL WARMING IS GOOD”.
1/
I,
Poet of destruction,
hereby declare that Global Warming is good.So, you humans have carved your existence into the earth,
lest you be forgotten.
Why lament?— ༺GRIMES༻ 🤍 小仙女 (@Grimezsz) February 10, 2020
Speaking in a recent interview with Pitchfork, the singer offered an insight into the artwork’s creation — revealing that she wasn’t sold on the idea initially.
“I was like, ‘Well, we could just throw my picture up and be like ‘buy the album,’ and no one’s gonna give a fuck — or we could treat the city like an art gallery and put up an actual piece of art,’” Grimes told the outlet.
Why does Grimes have a billboard in Toronto that says global warming is good? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/sV7eoV5DN0
— josh (@thejoshuagrant) February 23, 2020
Not grimes putting up street art on my corner that says Global Warming Is Good pic.twitter.com/5KJuvQdBNh
— shqueen (@shqne) February 15, 2020
Boucher went on to say that the designer of the ‘Miss Anthropocene’ cover, Ryder Ripps, later approached her with the bold idea.
“When I saw it, I was like, ‘Oh, fuck no, this is a huge mistake,’” she said. “Then I was like, ‘Wow, this is so scary that I think we should probably put it up’.”
Grimes added that “the goal was to have less advertising and more public art.”
In an interview last year, Grimes explained that she “wanted to make climate change fun”, reasoning that by presenting the matter in an “evil” form may help her to “find a way to make that useful to society.”
Meanwhile, Grimes recently began her six-month residency at BBC Radio 1.