“It’s all based on these extraordinary
ARTEFACTS, these personal belongings
that were once someone else’s. With
the lawn jockeys, the team had to go
to people’s HOMES and pick them up,
which was very interesting — the
shame and the DISPARITY around
that moment; the awkwardness”
W
e are living in challenging times,
and that’s putting things mildly.
Trump in America, Brexit in
the UK, Nauru in — or rather,
conveniently outside of —
Australia. These are the times when the world needs
art. It needs art to elevate and educate, to expose and
to provoke discussion. African-American artist Nick
Cave is not afraid to confront the cultural discourse;
in fact, he has made it his life’s work. Right now at
Carriageworks in Sydney’s Eveleigh, he has populated
the expansive space with his celebrated work Until.
It’s heaven and hell and all the brutal truth that lies
between, and it’s never been more relevant.
When Until first launched into the world
at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary
Art in 2016, the delicate equilibrium of American
culture was showing signs of momentous strain.
“Freddie Gray had just happened — he was an
unarmed black youth shot down by police [in
Baltimore] — and that was the trigger,” says Cave.
“I was trying to wrap my head around another
heinous incident, and a thought came to mind:
‘Is there racism in heaven?’ That was the catalyst
for the project, and then I proceeded to think
about what that would look like.”Until is a visually compelling, richly constructed,
all-encompassing installation that fuses found
objects with new, beauty with repugnance, hatred
with nostalgia. A plethora of garden wind-spinners
depicting guns, bullets and teardrops are suspended
in the air on the ground level. “Gun violence is right
in our backyard,” says Cave. Five local artists have
contributed to the piece, too, placing Until among
the context of Australia’s Indigenous plight.B
lackface lawn jockeys — a familiar,
uncomfortably comfortable form of
racism — greet you as you climb one
of four ladders. Objects of miscellany
lie around — ceramic birds, fake flowers
and gramophones. It’s hectic and busy, nauseating.
Is this hell, or real life?
In between, a giant celestial sculpture looms
in the air, “a decadent iceberg made of hanging
crystals,” says Cave. From a distance it resembles
mould, and is vaguely, disturbingly kinetic.
Video art intervenes, and then there is what
Cave calls a “beaded landscape: beaded cargo
nets created in the studio and forming cascading
mountain ranges”. In a culture of security
supported by weaponry, “they speak of a militant,
trapping sensation, and yet they’re also very
alluring and seductive”.
It look 25 people a year-and-a-half to build
the nets alone. “From a distance it may look like
this field of cloth — this draping, vast abundance
of material,” he says. “But they are all constructed
of pony beads.” Children’s toys, then.
Sourcing the found objects for Until took Cave
across America — to markets, thrift stores, even
private houses. “It’s all based on these extraordinary
artefacts, personal belongings that were once
someone else’s,” he says. “With the lawn jockeys,
the team had to go to people’s homes and pick them
up, which was very interesting — the shame and the
disparity around that moment; the awkwardness.”
Cave’s work is his response to politics; his method
of coping. “We have to keep making and putting
work out there that keeps the conversation going,”
he says. “I’m trying to seek a way to understand.” VL
Until runs at Carriageworks until 3 March, 2019.
carriageworks.com.au; nickcaveart.com56 vogueliving.com.au
SHOT ON LOCATION AT CARRIAGEWORKS, SYDNEYVLife