Dec 15, 2011

Be the Moment







I've been praising Nick Cave and his Soundsuits, so I have a short video to leave you with as we close out the year. Watch it, respond, and start thinking about the materials you use/reuse/recycle in your daily life. I'm inspired by the fluidity of Nick Cave's imagination and how he allows his art-making process to evolve organically. I hope you'll be inspired too.


46 comments:

Pierce Randle said...

Really interesting costumes/pieces, I love how he ignores the form of the human body and creates a unique structure, along with fascinating details and textures. It would be exceedingly difficult to make these, and even harder to wear them, so I have nothing but respect for this artist and models.

Noah Sawyer said...

they look realy heavy and uncomfertable to wear. still they are very well done and creative

Lexus Mosley said...

I find those costumes really disturbing and creepy to be honest. I don't like when I can't see someone's face when they're in a costume..

Bryanna.Rivera said...

These are all very different, some of the creative pieces he uses to make the articles of clothing are very unusual but different I definitely love the last picture. It looks very different then the rest and I think the color and textures are cute.

Dennis S. said...

I find these costumes very interesting. I would love to watch the people dance around in them. Although I believe some of the younger audience might be frightened by their size, I understand why people "rejoice" when watching and listening to the soundsuits. They create sounds we've all heard thousands of time, yet paid little to no attention to. He's forcing us to acknowledge the everyday objects and their sounds in our worlds.

Betzy Suarez said...

I actually found all of the costumes to be quite impressive. I thought that the fact that the artist used such abstract materials to make the costumes made them all the more compelling. I really enjoyed seeing the different combination of textures and I loved the fact that the costumes were designed to be musical pieces.

Cameron Alberg said...

I like how all the suits look like inanimate objects, but given a kind of human persona with arms and legs, and moving around. I feel like the sound these suits make would match then odd feeling I get when I look at them

Daisy said...

There's so much going on with these suits. They're sculptures, flashy costumes, and instruments of sound. I'm very sure a lot of them would be impressive just standing themselves in an art gallery, as that's what Cave was aiming for in the first place, but I wonder how much he values sound in these sculptures now.

Amelia Kassa said...

I still can't believe he doesn't glue his stuff on. It must take days or weeks to make a single suit. I really love the polka dotted swishy one. It reminds me of a giant technicolored duster.

Breanne Durovic said...

I really like the fuzzy one. You can laugh, but I feel like it could be a character on Yo Gabba Gabba (babysitting, I promise). All of these are really abstract, but they could be mascots! Like the mascots of the art department. These are really skillfully made, and are strangely visually appealing, even though i think the individual things themselves (such as a patch of the fuzzy thing) would not look very attractive by themselves.

Maurice Goodman said...

The interesting thing about the sound suit concept is that it doesn't just alter the form of the person wearing it, it also alters the person's function. Instead of verbal communication, a person wearing a sound suit communicates through movement: the form is very suggestive of dance, and the fluidity, time, and distance spent moving is a sound suit affects the sound it makes. In fact, the artist has transformed the whole being of the person wearing it.

AndrewKelo said...

i always am astonished by the amount of time and patience artists are able to implement in order to create such amazing works.

Lechok said...

I think that it is really interesting how he gathers so many of the same thing in order to make the suits. Also I think that it takes a lot of dedication and patience to sew each of the pieces onto the suit individually. They are interesting to look at, some with color and others the same color but they all produce some kind of sound.

Eddie Bresnahan said...

Creative, but probably gets hot real quick in there

Somaje Davisel said...

I think it's pretty cool how his art is meant to be worn, but at the same time it looks like something that should probably never be worn. I really liked the abstract forms that the artist uses, and the colors were not too hard on the eyes either.

Caroline Shadle said...

I love how the artist combined sculpture, sounds, and dance all into one medium of expression. I was captivated by the whole picture of these strange, but fascinating moving and noise-making sculptures. They looked like different types of foreign creatures or beings.

DomDiva said...

I really liked the fact that this whole masterpiece was a complete accident. It was unintentional and that just connects to a deeper significance, art isn't always planned and perfected to a tee sometimes the greatest masterpieces of art can be attained by unintentional causes. I liked the suits over all, very different and unique. Cool beans.

DomDiva said...

I really liked the fact that this whole masterpiece was a complete accident. It was unintentional and that just connects to a deeper significance, art isn't always planned and perfected to a tee sometimes the greatest masterpieces of art can be attained by unintentional causes. I liked the suits over all, very different and unique. Cool beans.

Isabel Hale said...

I love how at first you would not expect them to have people in them let alone make sound. It gives it an element of surprise to the suits. The first picture is very interesting because it looks like it could be made of many different things but what is it actually made of?

DeAndrea Daniels said...

I like the different costume pieces. I like the varying vibrant colors and the different shades of them. I also like how the artist used abstarct art forms to shape the pieces into. I can see the way that pieces correspond with art and dance.

Unknown said...

Now I kinda want to make a Christmas Tree sound suit. Anyway, I really like the pieces and the creativity that must go in hand with the visuals, to create sound. I sort of forgot that the suits were made for sound but began to think they were more so as a pleasure to the eyes. I love the play to multiple senses.

m_montgom3ry said...

I find it really interesting that he didn't come up with the concept of a "sound" suit until he put it on and heard the sound it made when he moved. His pieces are...interesting. I find them a little odd, but I admire his dedication in collecting such a vast amount of the same object, then taking the time to put it all together. The only thing I like about his art work is his creativity, and the fact that he doesn't follow the human curves. He creates his on shape and flow with the materials. This aspect somewhat makes people look at the piece, and focus in on what the piece was created for.

Alex Yeung said...

I think it's amazing the amount of time put into each of his individual pieces and the man hours he puts into every piece really reflects on the final product.

Diana Rodriguez said...

Wow these costumes are actually really cool. They are all so bright and colorful. I especially like the one that looks like it has toys coming out from it. It's very colorful, whimsical, and childish (but in a good way). The furry one seems a bit ridiculous but overall all the costumes are really interesting works of art.

Candace Bey said...

We should make suits like this and then wear them in normal life. Trendsetters? I think so.

Emily Chan said...

Every single of the costumes are unique and creative but i also think they are kind of scary looking...

Nat T. said...

I liked that big polka dot Cousin It suit. It seems like it takes forever to make one. I would never think of wearing a bunch of twigs.

Tricia Andrade said...

Similar to the kinetic sculptures, I'm impressed and scared when I look at these soundsuits because they look like unidentifiable, lifeless objects, yet they can move just like any other creature. Regardless, I think they're creative and intriguing sculptures.

Nikki Reischl said...

These don't really look like costumes at all, like there shouldn't be a person moving around in them. I love all the bright colors, though.

J skittles said...

i think they are pretty but the thought of making them repulses me. i really don't like them. but they are nice to look at. and i guess they could serve a purpose, in like a festival or something like that.

Nadia Ayala said...

it seems nice to be able to make something that you like and that has meaning for you but, i wonder why he thought of making these in the first place.

Itzel Centeno said...

The costumes are really interesting, but at the same time some of them are really creepy. Although I'm not a big fan, I respect Nick Cave for making something so different, creative and unique. He's good at what he does.

TeArie Williams said...

Watching the video and looking at the costumes posted on the website i know understand the effectiveness of the suits. Giving these pieces room to explore movement and a sense of collectiveness. Yet in its seen beauty i perdonally feel that these costumes are creepy in that a person is lost in the costume.

Nora Molasky said...

I like the idea of the sundsuits-- combining sculpture and dance. I think the artist does a really good job of combining the best elements of the two genres into one cohesive work of art.

Ryan Smith said...

Sound is an aspect of materials and sculpture more generally that goes largely unaddressed, which is why creating sound suits seems so innovative to me. Considering the musical properties of materials as opposed to solely their aesthetic properties would be a unique challenge.

Complex Simplicity said...

I like his ideas. They're very creative but they're also very time consuming. It makes me wonder exactly how long it took to put the costumes/art pieces together. I love the way they're all very colorful and vibrant. It gives a fresh feel to them.

madeleineryan said...

I'm not really sure what to think of these actually. I think they look very interesting and kind of fun but I also think they're a little too loud for me with everything that's going on.

Rebecca Stover said...

The suits are really cool, but kinda scary and creepy looking. I think with the one that I think was made out of twigs it would be interesting to hide in a forest while wearing it. People would think you were bigfoot or sasquach.

Derek Yee said...

I honestly don't know if I should like or dislike these suits, the idea of these suits are very creative and I respect that, but at the same time the suits look very strange and almost too heavy and awkward for me to really enjoy them

Amadou Diallo said...

the suits are very creative but also silly. what would someone do with these suits besides just build them?

Nora Rombalski said...

I really like the sound suits because they are so colorful and creative. I think that a lot of time has to be put into each one and they are all unique in there own way. I think its a little scary you can't see the faces but overall very innovated

Mitch Fogelson said...

I think the suits are very differnt and thus making them so interesting. The styles and materials he uses are unique and fun.

Daniela H. said...

Really interesting pieces! I'm not sure when anyone would wear them, they don't look very comfortable.

msatur said...

I like how though the costume focus on texture color is still definitely taken into consideration. Definitely a cool unique form of art that appeals to a multitude of the senses.

Michelle Schultz said...

The sole fact that he created these suits is amazing. They're so detailed and beautiful and tell a story by themselves. But being able to dance in them and create two other art forms (music and dance) just make them that much more incredible.

Jordyn Holman said...

I'm fascinated by how the artist came up with this idea because these costumes are so elaborate and intricate. Yet, I like how she used pieces from her environment to make this memorable and interactive artwork. I'd like to do something like this one day!