Soundsuits

While doing some research for my Far Eastern Art class, I came across this on Oxford Art Online: Craft and Contemporary Art ...

Nick Cave is an american sculptor and multimedia artist. Working across the disciplines of sculpture, textile, dance, and cultural performance, Cave’s art is based on the human figure. He has produced wearable art as sculptures, arrangements of human and animal figurines as installations, and performance works. Cave’s signature works, the multi-sensory ‘Soundsuits’, are full-body costumes consisting of unexpected materials ranging from humble woven rugs, synthetic hair, or buttons to shimmering sequins. Cave’s first Soundsuit was created in 1992 (shortly after the vicious beating in Los Angeles of Rodney King) when the artist, feeling vulnerable, instinctively created an ersatz body armour from tree twigs littering the ground. When worn, the suit made a rustling sound. Since then, the Soundsuits have taken inspiration from references as broad as ecclesiastical mitres, carnival costumes, Dogon masks, fashion, theatre, and Queer ball culture. Each Soundsuit has been designed around and worn by Cave, who has improvised a series of movements for the wearable sculptures, which, in turn, generate sounds such as a swish or percussive rhythm. Soundsuits often appear as Surrealist objects in choreographed performances.

All of Cave’s works take on a performative element, fostering a visual and bodily relationship with the viewer, oftentimes encouraging audience participation (!!). Cave has argued that his approach – using found materials, alluding to the domestic sphere via craft traditions, and borrowing from popular cultural activities – is equally ethical and aesthetic. Utilizing craft in the fine arts elevates culturally devalued objects while also creating works that invite audiences into discourses about the decorative arts and displays of identity and power. Cave’s practice extends a tradition of significant post-World War II movements – such as Gutai, Aktionism, and Arte Povera – which valued audience participation, utilized unconventional art objects, and introduced performing arts, such as music and dance, into the vocabulary of fine art.