Soundsuit

Photo: James Prinz

Soundsuit

2006

Nick Cave

American, born 1961

Artist Nick Cave: "I am interested in the power of cloth, and how much clothes contribute to a part of the vastness, to a particular hierarchy within a particular culture. I might look at a Guro masker in Africa and see how a community can bring vastness to an object, using a lock of hair, trinkets, or things that empower this garment and its function as a spiritual guardian...The end is this highly embellished and extraordinary attire."
Human hair, fabricated fencing mask, sweaters, beads, metal wire
Height: approximately 6 ft., on mannequin
Gift of Vascovitz Family, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2007.70
Provenance: The artist; [Jack Shainman Gallery, New York]; purchased by Josef Vascovitz, Seattle, Washington, Dec. 11, 2006
Photo: James Prinz
location
Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Jack Shainman Gallery, Soundsuits, Oct. 13 - Nov. 11, 2006.

Jacksonville, Florida, Museum of Contemporary Art, Second Skins: Sculptural Soundsuits and Tondos by Nick Cave, Jan. 26 - Apr. 7, 2007.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth, Feb. 10 - May 30, 2011 (San Francisco, California, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Mar. 28 - July 5, 2009; Scottsdale, Arizona, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, July 30 - Nov. 29, 2009; Los Angeles, California, Fowler Museum at University of California, Jan. 10 - June 1, 2010; West Palm Beach, Florida, Norton Museum of Art, Oct. 9, 2010 - Jan. 9, 2011; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Jan. 21 - Apr. 29, 2012). Text by Dan Cameron, Kate Eilertsen, and Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., pp. 134 - 138, reproduced.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, June 18 - Sept. 7, 2015 (Los Angeles, California, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Oct. 18, 2015 - Mar. 13, 2016; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, Apr. 29 - Sept. 18, 2016).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.
Published ReferencesIshikawa, Chiyo, ed. A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2007, illus. p. 72,73

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