Next week, UNCG hosts a notable artist who works within a variety of mediums and fields of study: art history, studio art, dance, fashion design, and anthropology, to name a few.
Visual and performing artist Nick Cave and his partner and collaborator Bob Faust will speak at Elliot University Center Auditorium Thursday, Sept. 26, at 6 p.m. The University Concert and Lecture Series (UCLS) event is free and open to the public.
Cave works through a wide range of media, including sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. His pieces blend fashion, sculpture, and performance. Drawing on his dance training with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as well as his study of fiber arts at the Kansas City Art Institute, Cave is best known for his Soundsuits—vibrant, wearable sculptures in which the artist and others perform. One of those very Soundsuits is on display currently at UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art Museum as part of the exhibition “Here We Are: Painting and Sculpting the Human Form.” Cave’s solo exhibitions have taken place in the United States, France, Africa, Denmark, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Most recently, Cave and Faust have opened a 20,000 square-foot collaboration incubator for young artists in Chicago.
UNCG professors in various fields have incorporated Cave and Faust’s visit into their coursework this semester.
Lecturer in the Department of Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies Anne Mitchell relates Cave’s work, particularly the Soundsuits, to trends in nationally prominent fashion magazines.
“From a CARS department perspective, I would say that dress and identity are key, as well as looking at his work from a cultural anthropology angle. In other words, how might we understand and interpret his work in a broader context such as areas like visual merchandising, trend forecasting, apparel design and consumer behavior?”
Associate Professor of Art History Elizabeth Perrill brings Cave’s art into her course material on West African masquerade and art production. She notes that his work incorporates historical knowledge of movement and performance into the contemporary global art world and intersects with histories of oppression, protection, and performance in relation to gender, queer identities, and African American/Black histories.
“His Soundsuits are at once a protection and an evocation of histories of Black performance. He uses the body and movement to break art out of static gallery or museum displays.”
The event is organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum and co-sponsored by UNCG’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, School of Art, and Department of Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies.
Compiled by Susan Kirby-Smith
Photography courtesy of the Weatherspoon Art Museum and the artist
