The Righteous Art of Nick Cave

GQ MAGAZINE
By Benjy Hansen-Bundy

The visual artist Nick Cave on the porous boundary between art and fashion and how clothing can be an agent of transformation.

Two years ago I spent a long weekend in western Massachusetts and took a day trip to MASS MoCA, the colossal contemporary art museum in an old brick factory building in North Adams. Hanging from the ceiling was a shimmering forest of gossamer strings dangling what looked like 20,000 reflective wind chimes, all spinning. It was beautiful. Then I looked up close at one of the wind-chime things and realized it was a silvery cutout of a handgun. And for a little while, I forgot to breathe. That’s the thing. Cave’s sense of justice is contagious. And he has style. Earlier in June, he wore a leather kilt and some Margiela boots to Virgil Abloh’s first art show. When I asked him about the outfit, he said, “It's not a statement about anything. It's not about a queer point of view. It’s about: This is what I like to wear. [More]