I’m not one for celebrity news or gossip, but it was brought to my attention that there was a ginormous statue created in Berlin of pop figure, Rihanna, which she has visited, selfied, and spread across social media.

Upon first glance at the image circulating the internet it was not my immediate assumption of what a statue of someone would be. Not only is the figure in a bikini, not only is it headless, but it also has a face imprinted on its chest.

For most the first question was, why is it headless? Mine on the other hand was, how do you know it’s Rihanna?

After debating with someone who is big into pop culture, there was no doubt that it is of her, at least that’s what was enforced upon me. I asked the simple question considering these pieces of information missing:

If you didn’t read the headline If you didn’t see Rihanna posing with it Since it’s headless and the face depicted on its chest is altered, so the exact placement does not directly resemble the singer

Would you still know it was of her?

Interestingly enough, the only way to know it were her and not another female in a bikini with the same body measurements, the tattoos are associated with her. This resonated with me that the only reason you would know who a headless figure was would be to know its body.

I’m not sure about you, but if I were to ever be “immortalized” I know 100% that I would not want to just be known for my body. I would want to know I’d be going down for something of much more value.

Leading me to consider what that would mean, I would want to be known for what was in my brain. Interestingly enough the statue has no head. Really uneased at the thought of this, I decided to research the artist, a Juan Sebastian Pelaez, who was inspired by this interesting 16th century concept of “Blemmyae” or headless natives with faces on their upper, naked bodies.[1]

Still quite unsettled by my findings, I delved a little deeper into the name and found the derivation of the word “Blemmyes from the Hebrew bly (בלי) “without” and moach (מוח) “brain””[2]

Couldn’t help but to laugh at my preconceived thought behind the statue was not to tribute or immortalize this person, but to make a statement. The idolization of brainless figures in media….

On that last note, I will define the word statue according to Merriam-Webster:

a three-dimensional representation usually of a person, animal, or mythical being that is produced by sculpturing, modeling, or casting

You’re more than welcome to agree or disagree, leave comments if you’d like…