Nick Cave: Let's C
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Through Mid-February, 2012
“There is a transformative moment, when [the wearer has] to be able to make the shift. Since it’s so dominating, this form, you are no longer who you are. So who have you become and what is that? How do you bring conviction to that? What are you willing to give up to move into this other being?” — Nick Cave
Nick Cave: Let’s C is an exhibit of Chicago-based artist Nick Cave's iconic Soundsuits, new installation created at the Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM), and video. As a current FWM artist-in-residence, Cave worked in collaboration with FWM studio staff and apprentices to debut Architectural Forest (2011), an ambitious, floor-to-ceiling installation of ornamented bamboo that also serves as a mystical setting, in which Cave’s December 16th performance at FWM taken place. Footage of this multisensory performance—which incorporates dance, music, and ambient sounds from the installation itself—is on view during the exhibition run.
NICK CAVE, Speak Louder, 2011
Buttons, wire, bugle beads, upholstery, and mannequin, 98 X 68 1/2 X 54 inches (installed).
Photo by James Prinz, Chicago, courtesy of Nick Cave and the Jack Shainman Gallery, NY
For over two decades, Nick Cave has constructed Soundsuits out of a litany of unique, found materials, such as throw rugs, stuffed animals, gleaming buttons, human hair, and other items from thrift stores, flea markets, and estate sales. The Soundsuits’ sculptural form functions simultaneously to display and conceal the body through the visual references to the exuberance of masquerade and the protection of armor. Let’s C includes recent Soundsuits that showcase a new direction in Cave’s practice, introducing a muted palette, uniform surfaces, and dynamic relationships between multiple figures. Also on view is Drive-By (2011), a video of Soundsuits in motion.
In addition to his exhibition, Nick Cave designed the Museum’s street-level façade, which features a reflective, doily-inspired pattern adhered to the window surface.
NICK CAVE (b. 1959, Missouri) received an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield, MI (1989) and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, MO (1982). In Fall 2011, Cave had two concurrent solo exhibitions in New York, NY at Jack Shainman Gallery and Mary Boone Gallery. Cave was also included in group exhibitions this past Fall, such as 30 Americans: Rubell Family Collection, at the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Prospect.2 Biennial, taking place throughout New Orleans, LA. His solo traveling exhibition, Meet Me at the Center of the Earth—organized by the Yerba Buena Art Center, San Francisco, CA—will be on view at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, VA through January 2012. Nick Cave has a forthcoming major presentation of his work scheduled for the Tri Postal in Lille, France, in late 2012. His work is held in the following distinctive public collections: the Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AR; the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; the High Museum, Atlanta, GA; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; and the Seattle Art Museum, WA; among others. Cave has received several prestigious awards including: the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2008), Artadia Award (2006), the Joyce Award (2006), Creative Capital Grants (2002, 2004, and 2005), and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2001). Cave lives and works in Chicago, IL where he serves as Professor and Chairman of the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Also on View at The Fabric Workshop and Museum at The New Temporary Contemporary, 1222 Arch
Fighting Kissing Dancing
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, in an exchange with the de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, Miami, featuring video works by Miami and New York based artists.
FWM - Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA
