Nick Cave's over-the-top artwork at Carriageworks must be experienced first-hand


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Nick Cave's cloud with chandeliers would make Liberace proud.

Nick Cave’s cloud with chandeliers would make Liberace proud.Credit:Zan Wimberley


American multi-media artist Nick Cave appears to have had the same thought, although his response has been completely unconventional. Rather than hammer away at the public conscience in the manner of so many self-consciously “political” artists, Cave has created one of the most outlandish, extravagant spectacles ever seen in Sydney.


Two years ago Cave presented a performance piece called Heard at Carriageworks and in Brisbane, which featured 30 dancers in iridescent horse costumes stomping up a storm. His new Carriageworks installation is titled Until. It’s a work of many parts that incorporates thousands of shiny, ornamental “spinners” and millions of coloured beads. The centrepiece is a “cloud” raised high off the floor, that displays a cornucopia of kitsch: china animals, artificial flowers, and a set of diminutive, black “lawn jockeys” – the southern American equivalent of those painted plaster Aborigines that used to adorn Australian suburban gardens. There’s even a full-sized crocodile.


The underside of the cloud is a cluster of glass chandeliers that would make Liberace envious. But wait, there’s more! A room facing the cloud features a 360-degree video projection of the artist dancing in one of his “soundsuits”, along with a little figurine that might have auditioned unsuccessfully for a role in Trilogy of Terror. The floor is a projection of waves rushing to the shore at Little Bay.


To complete the piece, Carriageworks’ cavernous end gallery is draped, floor to ceiling, in webs made from coloured beads threaded onto shoe laces. In one corner air is being puffed through metallic blue, white and black curtains. I could go on and on, filling this entire column with futile descriptions of a show that really needs to be experienced at first-hand.


Article source: http://smh.com.au/act-news/police-investigating-apartment-fire-in-lyneham-20170126-gtz3a4.html

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