Double Feature
Housed in Jack Shainman Gallery’s two Chelsea locations, artist Nick Cave’s concurrent exhibitions “Made for Whites by White” and “Rescue,” offer poignant reflections on America’s material history and the troubled meanings embedded within it. “Made for Whites by Whites” explores our culture’s problematic and estranged relationship to the Black memorabilia of the 1900s by re-imagining particularly gruesome touchstones like big-lipped lawn jockeys and Mammie-carvings as eerily precious sculptures. Connected only by the common narrative of found materials, Cave’s Rescue series muddles the line between traditional still-lifes and contemporary sculpture by weaving yard sale finds like porcelain figurines of birds and dogs into large fantastical canvases. Both experiments in re-appropriation, Cave’s work confronts our bizarre disassociations with the past head on by bringing them into the present. Here, the artist explains some of the pieces.
“Made for Whites by White” and “Rescue” are on view through October 11 at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
1
“With this sculpture, I was thinking about relationships between objects—each one is a curiosity in its own right, but in the context of this collage there are partnerships that arise that create new meanings.”
© Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
2
“This piece is called “Golden Boy.” This is one of the first shows for which I’ve titled some of the works.”
© Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
3
“I wanted to create these sort of nests, environments, that these figures could dominate. “
© Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
4
“It’s the precious and insidious. There is a beauty in it, but this depressive element as well.”
© Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
5
“A lot of the show is about finding the most disparaging, most repressive, outrageous objects that I could possibly come across around black memorabilia and then looking at the role of propaganda around all of that.”
© Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.