Nick Cave (American, b. 1959). Soundsuit, 2008. Mixed media, 82 x 24 x 24 in. (208.3 x 61 x 61 cm).
Nick Cave’s Soundsuit is an ornate inventive sculpture that is part of the Extended Family, Contemporary Connections exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. Since the early 1990s, Cave has been fabricating such ornate sculptures out of scavenged materials that he often overlays with beadwork, stitching, and other sorts of embellishments. In this piece, he uses the human body to create an ornate still life. The Soundsuits, which allow the wearers to assume new identities, allude to a range of rituals, from ceremonial African dances to Christian liturgy. Cave was trained as a dancer.
