Nick Cave

Soundsuits

2021 - 2022

Mannequin and found objects

Nick Cave   (US, 1959)

Cave’s training in dance choreography and textile art inspired him to create Soundsuits, named after the noises they emitt when in motion.

Cave created the first Soundsuit in response to the brutal beating of Rodney King by police officers in Los Angeles in 1991. Soundsuits protect their human content obstructing bias on the basis of race, gender, and class.

Website: http://nickcaveart.com

Soundsuits by Nick Cave

In the Black Fantastic ‘Afrofuturism’ is a sub-genre that takes aim at the heart of racial injustice. This exhibition celebrates the Black artists who wield that utopian weapon. ‘In the Black Fantastic’ at ‘Hayward Gallery’ uses sci-fi to imagine a future beyond inequality, beyond racism, in a powerful and affecting fashion. ‘In the Black Fantastic’ starts with Nick Cave (not that one) and his wearable sculptures, first created in response to the brutal police murder of Rodney King in LA in 1991. They’re fantastical, glittery, hyper-colour costumes that allow the wearer to transform themselves, to sculpt and define their identity, obscuring their race and gender. They’re defiant, empowering and brazen. Wangechi Mutu also makes art to destroy hierarchies, with watery collages of hybrid beings that exist behind tropes and stereotypes. Then there’s Hew Locke’s Black warriors on horseback, elaborate militaristic figures that look like statues of future generals, and Tabita Rezaire’s psychedelic mirrored room with its pyramid glistening in the centre. Downstairs is young American artist Sedrick Chisom’s incredible visions of a post-apocalyptic future earth where all people of colour have left and the skin of those who remain has started to darken. They’re funny, threatening, imposing paintings, humming with satirical tension. Upstairs are Chris Ofili’s enormous mythology-inspired paintings of the Odyssey transplanted to Trinidad and Ellen Gallagher’s subaquatic visions of Drexciya, the Black Atlantis. ‘In the Black Fantastic’, ‘Hayward Gallery’ until September 18, 2022. #neonurchin #neonurchinblog #dedicatedtothethingswelove #suzyurchin #ollyurchin #art #music #photography #fashion #film #design #words #pictures #love #afrofuturism #nickcave #soundsuits #chainreaction #sedrickchisom #ellengallagher #wangechimutu #tabitarezaire #chrisofili #karawalker #blackexperience #blackhistory #vision #poetry #haywardgallery #intheblackfantasic (at Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfn9ImHIwgy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Having the best day seeing art and splurging for a treat yo self day!! 🥰🥰🥰

"Soundsuit" by Nick Cave (2007) "An Alvin Ailey-trained dancer, Nick Cave is best known for his sculptural costumes exhibited in art galleries and ritualistic costumes worn for live performances. He received his B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and his M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills Michigan, and since 1989 has taught surface design courses in the Fiber Arts Program at the Art Institute of Chicago. As a college student, he was immediately interested in the expressive potential of textiles, as well as ways of movement. His Soundsuits address the issues confronting a black male in America and function both as static museum displays and as energetic performative pieces. Cave discovered the Soundsuits’ potential to alter the wearer’s identity: once inside the costume, it’s impossible to tell if one is male or female, white or black or brown, American or Asian. Although fragile and cumbersome, this suit could easily sprint into motion. The materials incorporated—flowers from a thrift-store Victorian chandelier, scraps from a traditional Bolivian costume, and bits of metal and beads—are throw-away objects transformed into something valuable and lovely. Cave sews—never glues—the elements together, giving a nod (or perhaps a brightly-sequined wink) to traditional craft forms like crocheting and quilting." (source)

Nick Cave

Art hopping in NY

Art hopping in NY

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I almost cried when he said 'we don't really dream'. You will dream if you want to. I'm talking literal dreams. Kids, you should experiment with lucid dreams and hypnopompic orgasms that snap you out of them. Cum all over your drummer's carpet. I've had these experiences and you might enjoy em. I've never seen anything live out of Nick Cave, nor ought of the Australian Nick Cave, but I have seen Nick Cave's soundsuits on display at the University of Chicago, enjoyed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre live in Madison, and been to lame ole Grand Central Station.

Nick Cave (American, b. 1959), Soundsuit, 2010, fabirc with beads and sequins

photo: David Castenson

Nick Cave – Soundsuit, Speak Louder, 2011, black mother of pearl buttons, embroidery floss, upholstery, metal armature, mannequins, 93 1/2 x 199 x 123 in

Saw the @nickcaveart show at the @guggenheim , a lot of thoughts about it. I was able to get some good sketching in! #guggenheim #modernart #blacklivesmatter #sculpture #sketch #sketchbook #ink #blackandwhite #doodle #flowers #soundsuit #art #artistsoninstagram (at Guggenheim Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqG9UpWu6k8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

🍓👀 (also a basket of cherries 🧺🍒 as a gift for you)

HI ELLA thank u for the cherries 🤲🧺🍒 om nom nom

i was so kicking my feet blushing giggling when u followed me back….. i think u r such a gifted screenwriter it must be so hard striking a balance between describing a scene while still leaving it open enough to a director im not wording this well but it always really really impresses me everything abt ur film-y knowledge impresses me (jaw dropped when i saw brutal amv u r so double threat) anyway its so wonderful so be around someone so talented and knowledgeable and im glad to be able to sit here and bask in appreciation of u

In the Black Fantastic As part of the ‘In The Black Fantastic’ season at the Southbank Centre, the ‘Hayward Gallery’ is hosting an exhibition of the same name, showcasing the work of 11 contemporary artists from the African diaspora whose work explores myth, science fiction, spiritual traditions and ‘Afrofuturism’. Curated by Ekow Eshun, the exhibition features painting, video, sculpture, photography and installations from artists including Nick Cave, Sedrick Chisom, Ellen Gallagher, Wangechi Mutu and Tabita Rezaire that address cultural liberation and social injustice. The ultimate connection between all the artists in this show is their overwhelming passion: a force of feeling that translates into vision, music, poetry, ethos and form in the most original ways. The context, explicit or otherwise, is the narrative of black history. 'In the Black Fantastic’ ends with Kara Walker’s latest shadow-play film. Using nothing but black, white and red cut-paper silhouettes, Walker tells several interconnected stories, from the Oklahoma City bombings perpetrated by the white supremacist Timothy McVeigh in 1995 to the horrific racist murder three years later of the African American James Byrd, dragged to his death from the back of a pickup truck in Texas. It is only the smallest tribute to Walker’s gifts to say that her marvellous graphic precision is both as delicate as a ballet and yet unforgettably tragic. Its score, by the Minneapolis musician ‘Lady Midnight’ - fusing ragtime, rock, funk and soul - is tuned to perfection. The film ends with what might be the most hopeful image in this exhibition: a young black girl raising her hands to the skies to take back the solitary star of Texas. ‘In the Black Fantastic’, ‘Hayward Gallery’ until September 18, 2022. #neonurchin #neonurchinblog #dedicatedtothethingswelove #suzyurchin #ollyurchin #art #music #photography #fashion #film #design #words #pictures #love #afrofuturism #nickcave #soundsuits #chainreaction #sedrickchisom #ellengallagher #wangechimutu #tabitarezaire #chrisofili #karawalker #blackexperience #blackhistory #vision #poetry #haywardgallery #intheblackfantasic (at Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfn9AHKoa1S/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Nick Cave 'Soundsuits' from 2010 and 2011 — from 'Nick Cave: Forothermore,' published to accompany the exhibition opening this weekend @guggenheim⁠ ⁠ Naomi Beckwith writes: "Cave … is a spiritual and intellectual child of the early Bauhaus—mostly via its kindred predecessor, the Arts and Crafts movement—yet he boldly pushes against any high-modern, functionalist, or minimal aesthetic associated with its later incarnation. Instead, he cultivates a reverence for the humble, the hearthside knitted, and the bric-a-brac, which not only test the bounds of value, kitsch and 'good taste' but also produce a new art vernacular that enables access, shelter, learning and joy for anyone willing to engage with it. Looking at Cave’s working materials—from the dejected found objects that would otherwise be tossed from both museological and home-décor taxonomies to the adjectives often applied to his works, especially the celebrated, revelatory 'Soundsuits' ('dazzling,' 'sparkling,' 'scintillating,' 'otherworldly,' 'colorful)—we can see beneath them some of the deep structural practices and working tropes at play across his entire body of work. Recurrent aesthetic ideas act as commentary on aesthetic exclusions and, concurrently, the social, cultural, and political abuses that plague our society."⁠ ⁠ Read more via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ Copublished by @delmonico_books & @mcachicago ⁠ ⁠ Edited with text by Naomi Beckwith. Foreword by Madeleine Grynsztejn. Text by Romi Crawford, @sirsargent @malik_julian_g Krista Thompson, @meidamcneal Interviews by Naomi Beckwith, Nick Cave, @nonahendryx @lindajohnsonrice Damita Jo Freeman.⁠ ⁠ #nickcave @nickcaveart #forothermore #soundsuit #nickcavesoundsuit https://www.instagram.com/p/ClGzUjAumEM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Nick Cave's Shamanic Soundsuits.