Nick Cave: Until

“Is there racism in heaven?” This is the question Nick Cave asked himself in the process of making Until, his largest and most complex exhibition to date. A turn on the phrase “innocent until proven guilty,” or in this case “guilty until proven innocent,” Until probes the complex issues of race relations, gun violence, racial profiling and gender politics that currently divide the United States of America, and the extension of these matters in communities around the world.

Cave (b. 1959, Missouri, USA) is an artist whose work has been driven by the social and personal impact of racism for close to three decades. In 1991, shocked by the violent beating by police of African-American man Rodney King, and the subsequent 1992 riots that broke out in Los Angeles (following acquittal of the police officers), Cave built his first Soundsuit, a wearable sculpture—part camouflage, part body armour—an artwork that defied race, gender, religion and politics. In the years following, he has made hundreds of compelling and ornate Soundsuits, however with Until, we are invited to experience Cave’s work in a new way, to metaphorically enter the belly of a Soundsuit and consider the urgency of Cave’s message with our own civic responsibility in mind.

The centrepiece of Until is Crystal Cloudscape, a 12-metre long and six-metre wide sculpture, weighing five tonne, and suspended within the Carriageworks public space. A canopy built from thousands of crystals and sparkling chandeliers forms the underside of the work and upon climbing one of four ladders, an uncanny landscape is revealed—a Noah’s ark assemblage of found objects belonging to an American vernacular past and present. Over the last decade Cave has collected American racist memorabilia and incorporated it within his work, removing these objects from yard-sales and vintage shops and imbuing them with new life. Amidst the porcelain birds, money-boxes, ceramic salt and pepper shakers, candelabras, Christmas decorations, gramophone speakers, soft toys, glass fruit, gold-gilded pigs, life-sized crocodile, holy water receptacles, flowers and Beams Trophy whiskey decanters are seventeen cast-iron “Jocko”-style lawn jockeys. These garden ornaments, whose hunched posture implies servitude, and exaggerated facial features reflect a conventional racist caricature of an African American, have historic roots in the Jim Crow era of legislated segregation that operated in parts of the United States from 1877–1965. Here they are the messengers whose memories hold the secrets of the past, and their land is the heavenly cloudscape we are invited to gather around and under, to interrogate the truth and fragility of our own histories and communities, our belief systems, and our systems of justice.

Other spaces within Until include Hy-Dyve, an immersive 14 channel video installation, Flow/Blow, a fan propelled wall of shimmering party streamers, and the Beaded Cliff Wall, an extraordinary maze-like installation. The ten handmade curtains that form the Beaded Cliff Wall took Cave and 12 studio assistants 18 months to fabricate. Constructed from millions of plastic hair pony beads, strung onto shoelaces and woven over industrial cargo netting these extraordinary works read as both luscious textiles and powerful protest flags. Cave’s use of this humble hair accessory to create works of monumental scale evoke the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Incorporating words such as POWER, and symbols such as the peace sign, rainbow and pink triangle, the Beaded Cliff Wall reinstates Cave’s personal commitment to engaging with the diverse and complex communities that constitute our society.  

“I view this work as an elaborate community forum, as much as a work of sculpture,” notes Cave. As such Until at Carriageworks will become a stage for international and Australian artists who will create and present work and lead discussions in partnership with Sydney communities.