Nick Cave (performance artist)

Early life and education

Nick Cave was raised in central Missouri, by a single mother. He is the youngest of seven boys, and the family was of modest means. Cave attributes his interest in found objects and assemblage to his childhood circumstances.

Cave learned to sew in the fiber department of the Kansas City Art Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982. Also during his time he began studying dance through an Alvin Ailey program, both in Kansas City and New York City. Additionally doing some graduate coursework at North Texas State University, Cave went on to get a master's degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1989.

After moving to Chicago, Cave became the chair of the Department of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute in 1980.

Soundsuits

Soundsuits are sculptural costumes enveloping the wearer's body in materials including dyed human hair, sisal, plastic buttons, beads, wire, sequins, and feathers. In using everyday objects, Cave can create an atmosphere of familiarity while rearranging them into interpretive representations of both social and material culture. As race, identity, and gender are generally accepted to form the axis of his work, Cave's Soundsuits can telegraph many concepts simultaneously. The meaning of the suits can therefore change based on their environment, movement, fixed state, and/or the inclusion of group choreography. The finished pieces bear some resemblance to African ceremonial costumes and masks. The suits also reference carnival costumes, Dogon costumes, Rococo, and ball culture.

Cave's first Soundsuit was created in 1992, as a reaction to the beating of Rodney King. Cave collected a large number of sticks and twigs from the ground and fashioned them into a suit that made sound when worn. His suits are most often presented for public viewing as static sculptures, but also through live performance, video, and photographs. Bringing his interactive creations to life, "Cave regularly performs in the sculptures himself, dancing either before the public or for the camera, activating their full potential as costume, musical instrument, and living icon."

Mixed Media

Cave's work outside of his iconic soundsuits is predominantly mixed media sculptures and large-scale installations. Maintaining his signature style utilizing found objects and brightly colored fabrics, Cave creates sculptural art that discusses current racial tensions, especially gun violence and its impact on Black men. One such piece that speaks directly to this is "TM 13", a sculpture that responds to the life and death of Trayvon Martin. Martin was a young Black man shot to death by George Zimmerman in 2012. Zimmerman was acquitted of Martin's murder on July 13, 2013; hence the title "TM 13". By no means the first Black man to be shot due to racial profiling, Martin's case gained national attention and became ingrained in the cultural discourse very quickly. Cave, looking to address this tragedy, created a powerful sculpture centering around a hoodie, denim pants, a Black mannequin, and sneakers. The sculpture is conspicuously covered in a net, "creat[ing] a kind of Soundsuit for the ghost of Trayvon Martin. A way for a dead black teenager to make an outcry and an uproar, to protest against his undeserved demise".

His mixed media sculptures often include black doll or mannequin parts (heads, hands, etc) that are placed at the center or top of a piece, creating an altar-like semblance. By focusing his pieces in this manner, viewers of his art can "examine the history of trauma and racism, ... the objectification of the black male". His 2014 exhibition 'Rescue' " inspects the idea of servitude and the accompanying stigma within the Black community". Most of these works are not audible, like his 2016-2017 exhibition 'Until' at MASS MoCa, as Cave wants the exhibition participants "to be included — and implicated — in the work" as opposed to focusing on sound and movement. The act of viewing his works with participants seeing each other at the same time is a metaconcept Cave actively promotes.

Exhibitions

Cave is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery, and has exhibited his Soundsuits since 1999. His work was shown at UCLA's Fowler Museum in 2010.

Solo Exhibitions / Projects

Selected Collections

Works in Permanent Collections