![]() ![]() “I didn’t want to hide behind the Soundsuits anymore.” Cave’s Soundsuits, which are woven bodysuits built out of materials ranging from fabric, buttons, and beads, to pieces of wood and metal, ceramic birds, and human hair, are his most well known body of work. Realizing that he was bored with his past work, he decided he needed to find another means of challenging himself. “I began thinking more about myself as an artist with a civic responsibility,” said artist Nick Cave to Mass MoCA curator Denise Markonish during a conversation last Friday evening at Jack Shainman Gallery. And so it's really about the imprint that is left behind for me.Nick Cave, “Golden Boy” (2014), mixed media including concrete garden ornament, vintage high chair, dildo, and holiday candles, 73 3/4 x 41 x 35 in (© Nick Cave) (photo by James Prinz Photography, courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York) ![]() ![]() I'm interested in working with who lives there, understanding the surrounding, and then bringing on board. “I pull up my sleeves, I get deep into these communities. “I'm an artist with civic responsibility,” Cave said. ![]() In all of his endeavors, Cave seeks to dismantle systems of oppression and empower individuals and communities. And in 2019, he and his partner Bob Faust opened Facility, a multidisciplinary art space in Chicago that acts as both Cave’s studio and an incubator for young creatives. During a residency in Louisiana, he orchestrated bead-a-thon projects with local social service agencies in New York, The Let Go invited audience members to participate in a dance-based town hall. Many might be surprised that an artist of Cave’s stature-his work has been celebrated and exhibited all over the world-is still teaching, but community has always been essential to his practice. “This is a garment becoming something other.” “It’s about this environment becoming a new, personal, singular world,” he tells one of his students after reviewing their exhibition designs. Cave also says that what’s most important are the emotions of the piece and how students are pushing themselves to think more expansively, to go deeper within, and to look outside of themselves. He’s a warm, encouraging educator, kneeling on the floor to see a pair of structural pants at a different angle, inverting a student’s coat to demonstrate how shapes can be reimagined. This spirit of spontaneous discovery is felt in Cave’s classroom. They’ve been exhibited and used in performances, transforming both the work of art and the wearer into something joyful and somber, familiar and unknown. He’s since created hundreds of Soundsuits with a dynamic, unpredictable array of materials, from sequins to flowers to ceramic birds. “My entire practice completely turned on its head,” he shared. When Rodney King was brutally assaulted by Los Angeles police officers in 1991, Cave began to gather sticks and twigs, assembling them into a makeshift suit of armor that concealed the wearer’s race and gender. This is the exact process through which one of Cave’s notable creations, his Soundsuits series, was born. “I'm interested in what they bring to the table, helping them problem solve and establish a particular point of view.” “This is the next generation of artists and creators, and I'm interested in seeing and experiencing what their vision is going to look like,” he shared. It’s a perfect environment for Cave, a seminal, interdisciplinary artist whose first career retrospective is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) from May 14 through October 2. This is one of the studios for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) two-year Fashion, Body and Garment program, which Cave helped launch nearly 15 years ago. Students hunch over avant-garde crochet overlays and eight-inch tall rainbow heels. Yes, there are dress forms propped up next to tables and fabric scraps puddled on the tile floor, but there are also papier-mâché statues of eyeballs sprouting feet, laser-cut mirrors, and a shelf lined with Beanie Babies. By Rowan Beaird The expansive, white-walled studio where Stephanie and Bill Sick Professor of Fashion, Body and Garment Nick Cave teaches isn't a typical fashion classroom. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |