Beyoncé‘s devoted fanbase is rushing to her defense after an artist allegedly accused her of copying his work for the Renaissance World Tour. In his post on social media, artist Hajime Sorayama called out Beyoncé’s iconography on tour, which featured images of the singer dressed up in futuristic silver gear. Sorayama included examples of his work in the post, which bear a resemblance to Beyoncé’s images, but her fans were quick to correct him in the comments.
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“Like you didn’t take direct inspiration from Metropolis?” one commenter replied, directly calling out Sorayama’s apparent influence. Both Sorayama’s and Beyoncé’s imagery are strikingly similar to the imagery of the 1927 film Metropolis, which may have been a direct inspiration for both the artist and singer. Still more fans added their input in the comment section as well.
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“She’s wearing Thierry Mugler based off an archive Mugler look that referenced [M]etropolis. Were you this incensed when she wore a similar headpiece in 2007 at the BET awards?” wrote another Yoncé fan, referencing this look from her BET Awards performance. There are also numerous similarities to Mugler’s Metropolis-based looks from 1995, as seen on Juxtapoz.
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Yet another fan made claims as well, writing, “Metropolis, Mugler, Gaultier, and more have all done this. You don’t own the Android aesthetic.” Another fan referenced the 2007 BET performance, while another called the post “embarrassing.”
One fan went into detail in their comment. “I’m a fan of your work, but this is a reach,” they began. “These visuals have been out since May, when the tour started; however, now you suddenly have a problem with it? 1. It’s just a headpiece. 2. This look, in addition to many of her other looks spanning her career are Mugler/reference Mugler’s work… so, was he copying you as well?”
Sorayama’s work features “superrealist” portraits of robot women, and he has explained that his art “deals with the technical issue of how close one can get to one’s object.” Sorayama may have been an influence on Beyoncé, or it’s possible that they both drank from the same Metropolis fountain.
Whatever the case, both works of art—Beyoncé’s Renaissance visuals and Sorayama’s superrealist robot women—exist separately yet intrinsically meshed together through the existence of Metropolis, which is where the influence likely stems from in the first place. Hats off to Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou for inventing the sexy robot woman, we wouldn’t be here without them.
Featured Image by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Disney
