the times | Tuesday March 15 2022 27
News
A songwriter told the High Court
yesterday he felt “robbed” after
discovering that Ed Sheeran had
allegedly ripped off one of his songs in
the 2017 hit Shape of You.
Sami Chokri, a grime artist who per-
forms under the name Sami Switch,
claims that Shape Of You infringes
“particular lines and phrases” of his
2015 track Oh Why. He and his co-
writer, Ross O’Donoghue, argue that a
central “oh I” hook in Sheeran’s song is
strikingly similar to an “oh why” refrain
in their own composition.
Sheeran, 31, and his co-authors, the
producer Steven McCutcheon and
Snow Patrol’s John McDaid, deny the
allegations and have said that they do
not remember hearing Oh Why before
the legal case.
In written evidence, Chokri, 28, said
he was shocked when he first heard
Shape of You on the radio, adding that
he had previously tried to get Sheeran
JOE GIDDENS/PAAnnunciation 2, after Fra Angelico from The Brass Tacks Triptych, 2017Hockney at 84 is still a
force to be reckoned with
Art Rachel Campbell-Johnston
Hockney’s Eye: The Art and
Technology of Depiction
Fitzwilliam Museum/
Downing College, Cambridge
HHHHIHow does the artist bring hand, eye
and optical technology together to
depict the world as we see it? This is
the question that, from his earliest
beginnings, has underpinned David
Hockney’s determinedly experimental
career. In Hockney’s Eye: The Art and
Technology of Depiction he invites
visitors to share his most stubbornly
longstanding obsession.
Prepare for a quest that will carry
you into complex territories. Art
history and scientific discovery
encounter one another on equal
terms. Entrance may be free, but you
should invest in the book of the
exhibition. You will need it. This is
not a show about enjoying familiar
pictures. You will not be splashing
about in Californian swimming pools
(there is one in this show, from a
private collection, and you will
probably never have seen it before).
This is an exhibition as much about
ideas as the images that present them.
It sprawls across the first floor of the
Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge as
well as the Heong Gallery at
Downing College. It is more than
worth the short stroll down the road
and through a stunning quad to see
this addendum.
In the Fitzwilliam galleries
Hockney’s drawings, paintings and
digital artworks are displayed
alongside the works of the masters.
Wherever you spot a glaring splash of
lime green, you will find him. A
massive multiscreen filmic journey
through wintry woods meets a snow
scene by Camille Pissarro. Spring iPad
drawings hang alongside a Monet. In
the Dutch gallery he riffs on
Meindert Hobbema’s great 1689
avenue. He adds his own bunches of
iPad blooms to the bouquets in what
is arguably the world’s loveliest room
of flowers and pays homage to Jean-
Auguste-Dominique Ingres with his
sketches in the drawings gallery.
The display at the Heong — the
hang feels like some trompe l’oeil
confection — presents a dozen or so
examples of the different approaches
Hockney has taken to image-making
over the years.
There is no prescribed route
through this show, so visitors will find
themselves contemplating theories of
perspective, the uses of the camera
lucida and the camera obscura, the
role played by photography in art
history, the relevance (or not) of the
shadow — not to mention, as a post-
pandemic extra, our renewed interest
in the natural world.
Hockney will celebrate his 85th
birthday this summer. And here is his
most recent self-portrait, on display
for the first time. Traditional
Yorkshire chap meets nostalgic pop
art icon in an image in which the
artist, his tweed suit and flat cap
accessorised with jaunty yellow
spectacles and matching tie, presents
himself with paint-loaded brush
poised as if in mid-dab. Hockney
looks heavier. His complexion (even
given his predilection for prawn-
coloured flesh tones) seems more
florid. He evidently now prefers to sitdown at the easel. But the message is
clear. His mission is not over. He is
still at work.
But the greatest pleasure that he
offers with this Cambridge exhibition
is less that of the chance to see his
paintings than to look again at the
works in the wonderful Fitzwilliam
collection, to see them in a clearer
and more vivid light.
Until August 29, fitzmuseum.cam.ac.ukI felt robbed after hearing
Sheeran song, says rapper
to listen to his music because he was
“inspired by his success and stardom”.
Under cross examination from Ian
Mill QC, for Sheeran, Chokri told the
hearing that he believed the singer had
heard Oh Why “through the many
points of access that me and my team
have shared”. Asked why, Chokri told
the court that this was because of the
“similarities” between the songs, “the
things that we shared” and “the close-
ness in our circles musically”.
He added: “I feel like I’ve been robbed
by someone I respect, or respected ...
This is years of a cloud over my head.”
Facing repeated questions about his
motivation for bringing the case,
Chokri continued: “All I wanted to do
was ask if there was an explanation. If I
had one, then we wouldn’t have to go
through this rubbish.”
He added: “I didn’t want to put any-
one through this. This has been the
most horrible week of my life”.
The trial before Mr Justice Zacaroli
continues.Kieran Gair
A self-portrait from last November
is being shown for the first time