Object Out Loud: Aman and Nick Cave

Object Out Loud: Arman and Nick Cave, featuring two prominent artists separated by time and place, was designed as a visual dialogue. Incorporating work that is fundamentally sculptural and often political, the exhibition asserts the power of artists to transform everyday materials into symbolic relics replete with information and symbolism. Though emerging from vastly different moments and backgrounds, both Arman and Nick Cave share a love of the commonplace, from colorful sequins and chains to bottle caps and figurines. Through these diverse materials, often configured in dramatic standalone compositions, the artists reflect on their experiences, shaped by the reality of the world around them.   
 
Arman’s bold appropriation of mass-produced objects was a form of realism that captured a new relationship to commerce exploding during the 1960s. Increasingly during this period, artists were moving away from the conventional materials of studio creation – canvas, paint, granite, etc. – to draw their ideas from popular culture. Materials and themes once considered too low for the aims of fine art were embraced by Arman’s generation, which relished in turning highly familiar objects into fantastical and at times poetic artworks. Many of his objects have an aged patina, suggesting another time and use. Arman was the son of an amateur cellist and musical instruments appear frequently in his work. So, too, does the cacophony of the street resound in the urban relics that crowd his compositions and infuse them with tactile energy.   
 
Nick Cave is a multi-media artist whose dramatic work varies in scale and context from glittering installations to the iconic freestanding Soundsuits. A messanger and activist himself, his sustained interest in garments and their relationship to culture underlies his creation of lavish sculptures built on themes of adornment, armor, and disguise. The first Soundsuit were made in response to the 1992 assault of Rodney King and the consequent uprisings in Los Angeles. At once ornately beautiful and powerfully political, Cave’s work often returns to conversations about society, justice, and black lives. Visually dense, they suggest the intricacies of life, threaded together by many different textures and histories. The result is a rich visual matrix that inspires the double meaning of the exhibition’s title, Object Out Loud. An object can refer to a tangible thing in the world, like a sculpture. Yet the word can also be used as a verb—to object—to express disapproval and opposition. Here in this installation, these meanings are brought together in an animated dialogue spanning two visions and generations.