Inflatable Cartoon Monsters Feel Like ‘A Form of Protest’ at South End’s Cyclorama

THE BOSTON GLOBE
By Murray Whyte

Some of the inflatables in Nick Cave’s “Augment”

The suits’ spectacular sheen was leavened with dark purpose: Nick Cave made his first in the aftermath of the Rodney King race riots in LA, when he felt under threat simply for being black. The suits, which conceal every inch of their wearers, were designed as armor against prejudice, meeting terror with beauty. It was always an uneasy balance, a tension that made his work transcend simple wonder. Here, that much remains. “Augment,” Cave calls it, is a departure from the work that made his name, though the parallels aren’t hard to find. A new commission for Now + There, a Boston-based public art nonprofit, “Augment” seduces — bright colors! Cute bunnies! — then repels. [More]