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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Devon Thursby
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by donald dusinberre d.dusinberre@comcast.net
Beginning January 26th and concluding April 7, 2007, MOCA Jacksonville will be featuring three new visiting collections. Nick Cave’s ‘Second Skin: Soundsuits and Tondos’ will be joined by Anderson & Low’s ‘Athlete/Warrior’ as well as ‘Other Worlds: The Landscape in Contemporary Art’.
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While browsing the snazzy new MOCA Jacksonville website, my interest grew in the work of Nick Cave, so I called him up to learn more about his fantastic Soundsuits. After just a few moments of talking with him, I could tell he was no Bad Seed, and his creations contain layer upon layer of visual fantasy, mental assertion, and artistic exploration. “There’s a level of dedication and commitment to the process of art making,” says Cave. “The work is really about raising our consciousness. It is work that really forces the viewer to engage in visceral sensations.”
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EU: So…what are you wearing right now?
Nick Cave: (laughter) I have on a black sweater, black leather pants, and some Adidas tennis shoes, which are neon.
EU: Have you ever worn your suits in public, casually going about your everyday business?
Nick Cave: Not casually going about my business, but I’ve done “happenings” throughout the city of Chicago, with various events in public parks that create a unique experience. Making it an experience is how the communicator interacts with his work.
EU: In the world of high fashion, clothing design can be outlandish and often presented as artistic, often at the expense of comfort and practicality. Did your Soundsuits begin as clothing with an artistic meaning, or was your artistic meaning best expressed through something that only clothing provides?
Nick Cave: The second of the two. It was my artistic vision in clothing that was the platform that allowed me to give it meaning.
EU: Since you’ve made clothing, an item so ordinary at its essence, in what way does the museum setting help your work accomplish its goals?
Nick Cave: First and foremost, it’s sculpture, and then I find it’s about clothing. But I look at it first as a sculptural object; look at it as a sculptural, figurative sort of work.
EU: Your Soundsuits involve a wide array of different materials capable of constructing a visual creed for a person who creates and wears one; like a highly involved beaded necklace. How would you feel about the masses using and wearing your ideas?
Nick Cave: I think it’s an interesting type of direction. I find that what I’m doing is looking at what already exists in the world. Instead of discarding materials, I find another way of providing them with a different sort of language and reinventing what already exists. So it’s sort of like reclaiming what’s already here. I think it’s really about a level of consciousness at the same time.
EU: Is there a material or found object you consider unacceptable for use on a Soundsuit, besides obviously difficult stuff like refrigerators or rabid animals?
Nick Cave: No, I really haven’t by any means explored the array of possible materials. To me, there are no two found objects that are the same; they are all one of a kind. It’s always an ongoing research and development of discovering and being introduced to new materials and sculptural forms.
EU: So the sheer randomness of finding these objects to use is part of the artistic process itself?
Nick Cave: Yes. I think what’s important is finding the means necessary to best express my ideas. I visualize my materials of choice.
EU: What are the goals, however complex or simple, you’ve set for your Soundsuits to reach the ordinary viewer?
Nick Cave: What you’ll see at the museum is part one of a project. It’s really one-third of a larger project that was presented here in Chicago last June at the Chicago Cultural Center. It was a Soundsuit exhibition that consisted of 60 Soundsuits. You (Jacksonville) will get about 15 to 20. The second half of the project is a performance piece, which will consist of 90 Soundsuits. We’ll work with the community and the public schools to create a huge piece that will travel the country.
EU: By naming them Soundsuits, you’ve called specific attention to a mere side effect of their existence. How important is the sound of the suits to their overall aesthetic?
Nick Cave: It’s important on two levels. What I had been doing was either installation work or performance work. If I do performance work, people want to better encounter the work closer; to see how they’re constructed and what they’re made of. And then there’s the other desire to see them in motion. What you’re getting at the museum are sculptural objects to get a closer encounter with the suits. But then there will be the performance component. They’re both extremely important.
EU: Do you think that people will want to know what it’s like to be inside your Soundsuits?
Nick Cave: Oh sure, but you want to leave it open to the imagination. It’s not always a good thing to think of everything. You have to have a level of curiosity.
MOCA Jacksonville is located at 333 North Laura Street, Jacksonville, Florida, 32202. To learn more about all that MOCA Jacksonville has to offer, check out their brand new website at www.mocajacksonville.org or call (904) 366-6911.
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