Soundsuit

2006

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

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

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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