Artist Nick Cave on police violence and history repeating
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2023
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we speak with visual artist Nick Cave. Cave is best known for his ‘Soundsuits’: vibrant, whimsical costumes that entirely cover the face and body. But the Soundsuits are not just playful. He made the first after police beat Rodney King in 1991, and they are meant to help process collective sorrow through celebration, and to give armour to the marginalized. In the wake of police killing Tyre Nichols last month, we speak with Nick about how his work has changed over 30 years, even as history repeats. Then, FT Weekend columnist Nilanjana Roy joins us to discuss what makes a great book club, and how to start your own.
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Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at ftweekendpodcast@ft.com. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.
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Links and mentions from the episode:
– Nick’s exhibition ‘Forothermore’ is on at the Guggenheim museum in New York until April 10. See the art and video performance from the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAw4bemr0NQ
– The FT’s excellent review of the exhibition, by the great Ariella Budick: ‘turning bric-a-brac into joyful, furious art’: https://on.ft.com/3Eg6zsm
– The horses in Grand Central Station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBALj_Um1fc
– ‘In praise of book clubs – and how to do them well’ by Nilanjana Roy: https://on.ft.com/3xtmmjF
– Nilanjana’s newest novel Black River will be published in June. Her most recent book is The Girl Who Ate Books (2016).
– Nilanjana is on Twitter @nilanjanaroy. Nick Cave is on Instagram @nickcaveart
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Special offers for Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial are here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast.
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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The artist Nick Cave's work is kind of a contradiction. On the one hand, he's known for |
| 0:08.1 | bright colors and celebration. One time he did a performance in New York where alvinale dancers |
| 0:14.1 | dressed up like giant horses and galloped around Grand Central Station in the middle of rush hour. |
| 0:20.4 | Just whimsical stuff. |
| 0:22.5 | But on the other hand, Nick's work is also deeply introspective. |
| 0:27.0 | He's black and queer, and he's been making art about being black in America for more than 30 years. |
| 0:34.1 | Nick is best known for these giant costumes. |
| 0:37.1 | They're called sound suits. |
| 0:39.1 | A sound suit is a wearable object that is made of surplus. |
| 0:49.5 | And it's really making a sort of second skin, something that you put on that shields and hides |
| 0:59.0 | gender race class, forcing you to look at something without judgment. |
| 1:05.3 | Nick made his first sound suit after police beat Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991. |
| 1:11.5 | And since then, a lot of his work has explored abuses of power like this |
| 1:16.0 | and history repeating itself like this, |
| 1:19.1 | from King to Trayvon Martin to George Floyd. |
| 1:23.3 | Nick currently has a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, |
| 1:27.1 | and I went to see it. |
| 1:28.9 | It made me want to ask him all kinds of questions. |
| 1:32.4 | And then police beat and killed another black man, Tyree Nichols, in Memphis last month. |
| 1:38.8 | And that made me want to talk to him even more. |
| 1:42.0 | Nick feels like this has been his kind of calling to create objects |
| 1:45.7 | that help people process painful things. You know, I am fortunate to be the messenger to deliver |
... |
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