Ornament magazine this month has an article on artist Nick Cave with a cover photo that is both terrifying and sweetly compelling. The artist poses in a suit covered with patched bird embroidery, wearing a headdress that consists of metal arms supporting bird figurines. His face is hidden behind an embroidered tiger mask. I would love to have this image in a huge poster on my wall, but I am going to be content with the magazine cover. Read the article and check out the other pictures of his work. The picture above is from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and you can read the accompanying article here. Check out the Ornament article, though. The pictures are amazing.
Cave creates these soundsuits, as he calls them, from salvaged clothes and other thrift-store bits and pieces. Can you imagine going to a thrift store with him? He was trained as a dancer and does perform in the soundsuits, but they are works of art on their own. One image in Ornament features a suit covered in chartreuse dyed human hair and Cave is pictured jumping to make the hair swish. It is ferocious looking. Other works are heavily beaded or adorned with feathers or buttons. This type of article is why I love Ornament magazine. It is inspiring and amazing information about an artist I wouldn't otherwise know about.
One note, if you search on line for Nick Cave or Nick Cave art you'll find a lot of drawings and paintings by or about the singer, Nick Cave. Lots of hair in the eyes, soulful glances and mystical birds fading out in the background if you know what I mean. Search for Nick Cave beadwork or Nick Cave dancer to find the Nick Cave I am talking about. And if you are a fan of the singer Nick, well please don't write me and tell me what great visual artists he and his fans are. That is just my opinion as a former middle school art teacher.
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