Nick Cave (performance artist)

Nick Cave (born February 4, 1959 in Fulton, Missouri, USA) is an American fabric sculptor, dancer, and performance artist. He is best known for his Soundsuits: wearable fabric sculptures that are bright, whimsical, and other-worldly. He also trained as a dancer with Alvin Ailey. He resides in Chicago and is director of the graduate fashion program at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Nick Cave was raised in central Missouri, by a single mother. He is the youngest of seven boys, and the family was of modest means. Cave attributes his interest in found objects and assemblage to his childhood circumstances.

Cave learned to sew in the fiber department of the Kansas City Art Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982. Also during his time he began studying dance through an Alvin Ailey program, both in Kansas City and New York City. Additionally doing some graduate coursework at North Texas State University, Cave went on to get a master's degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1989.

After moving to Chicago, Cave became the chair of the Department of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute in 1980.

Soundsuits are sculptural costumes enveloping the wearer's body in materials including dyed human hair, sisal, plastic buttons, beads, wire, sequins, and feathers. In using everyday objects, Cave can create an atmosphere of familiarity while rearranging them into interpretive representations of both social and material culture. As race, identity, and gender are generally accepted to form the axis of his work, Cave's Soundsuits can telegraph many concepts simultaneously. The meaning of the suits can therefore change based on their environment, movement, fixed state, and/or the inclusion of group choreography. The finished pieces bear some resemblance to African ceremonial costumes and masks. The suits also reference carnival costumes, Dogon costumes, Rococo, and ball culture.

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