Have you ever wished that you could put on a suit which would open up the imagination and take you to the world of your dreams? In this video artist Nick Cave presents his wearable sculptures, the ‘Soundsuits’, made from discarded everyday materials.
Nick Cave (b. 1959) is an American fabric sculptor and performance artist, who trained as a dancer with Alvin Ailey. In this video he presents his mystical Soundsuits, which are odd fabric sculptures of many colors and shapes, and are made of materials such as twigs, dyed human hair, sisal, plastic buttons, beads, sequins and feathers. The finished pieces bear some resemblance to African ceremonial costumes and masks. “It is like building a second skin, that hides gender, race, class, and forces you to look without judgement” Cave explains. The sculptures almost look like live beings and work as a kind of second skin, transforming the wearer, disguising identity, and creating sounds as the wearer moves. “I want people to leave with a different sort of consciousness, to look at their surroundings differently, and I want to get the audience back to their dream state.”
Nick Cave was interviewed by Jonas Hjorth at the opening of Nick Cave’s exhibition ‘The World is my Skin’ at Trapholt, Kolding in Denmark.
The video sequences shown in this video are from Nick Cave’s ‘Gestalt’ and ‘Soundsuits’
Camera and editing: Jonas Hjort
Music: Modern Brass Quintet & Thunderbear
Produced by Jonas Hjort and Christian Lund, 2013
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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