The fantastical, wearable art of Nick Cave embodies a ‘spirituality of style’

The US artist, designer and dancer Nick Cave is perhaps best known for his Soundsuits series. Built from found objects, these fantastical, wearable sculptures seem like clothing made for an uncanny parallel universe or a peculiar future, once they are meticulously finished and joyfully danced in. But, as this short documentary explores, Soundsuits – deeply influenced by Cave’s time finding liberation on the dance floor as a queer Black man – are, like the rest of his work, very much intended to grapple with the here and now. Created to accompany the career-spanning exhibition Nick Cave: Forothermore, which was on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City from November 2022 to April 2023, this film features Cave and the US art scholar Meida McNeal detailing how his works incorporate elements of disco and carnival culture, and exist in response to marginalisation and oppression.