Nick Cave: Forothermore (Guggenheim Museum, New York, until 10 April 2023)
Nick Cave, Soundsuit 9:29, 2021. Mannequin and found textiles, with metal, plastic sequins, and buttons. Courtesy the artists and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. © Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nick Cave is a Chicago-based American artist and educator who works between the visual and performing arts and fashion. Cave was born in Fulton, Missouri in 1959 into a family of eight brothers. He was raised by his single mom in a semi-rural setting. Little Nick learned to sow from his mother and aunts and used his skills to upgrade the hand-me-downs from his brothers. The art of making “something out of nothing” continues to be central to his work: he often uses discarded items of little use. After high school, Cave studied fibre arts at the Kansas City Art Institute, spending summers studying dance with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre.
Nick Cave is Black and queer. Much of his art is about being Black in America. It has been his mission to help people process the violence and abuse of power directed against Black Americans, but he recently told the FT Weekend podcast that he is tired of being defined by violence: “I’ve got so much more to say. I don’t really know who I am, really, because I have always been in the fight.” But Cave’s art has managed the impossible: responding to violence, injustice and trauma, he creates works that resist the darkness with vibrant beauty, giving hope that society may find a way to come together, heal and forgive.
Soundsuits
Cave was teaching fibre arts when the brutal police beating of Rodney King by the L. A. police changed the course of his life. A bystander had filmed the police’s assault on the African American man. The footage sent shockwaves around the world. Sitting on a park bench, Cave was thinking about the ongoing violence against Black people when his gaze fixed on a small twig on the ground: the discarded, worthless twig symbolized everything he was feeling. He collected the twigs, went home, and started to build a sculpture. What started as a sculpture, turned into a costume - his first Soundsuit. When he put it on, he felt protected. The fantastical suit was like a magical armour, hiding his race, gender and social background. When he moved, he noticed that the suit made a swooshing sound. The suit was a form of protest, and a piece of art. It took ten years until Nick Cave felt ready to show the piece to the world, creating eleven more Soundsuits in the meantime. When he felt ready to show the Soundsuits, he took them to public spaces. He even had a group of Alvin Ailey dancers perform in them in New York’s busy Grand Central Station.
Forothermore
Nick Cave: Forothermore is a survey exhibition covering Cave’s entire career. The show’s name is a new word creation. It reflects Cave’s commitment to creating a safe space for marginalized groups, especially working-class communities, or queer people of colour. The survey has three sections, inspired by an old African American greeting: “What It Was”, “What It Is” and “What It Shall Be” The rooms about the past and the present show his more recent work. The Soundsuits are in the last room.
Nick Cave, Arm Peace, 2019. Bronze and found metal objects, 85 × 39 × 12 in. Courtesy the artist. © Nick Cave. Photo: Midge Wattles. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York