Nick Cave’s #theletgobuffalo
SEPTEMBER 2021 - CENTRAL TERMINAL
A New Commission by Park Avenue Armory
Brought to Buffalo by C.S.1 Curatorial Projects, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, and Park Avenue Armory.
“one of the most popular contemporary artists [who] turns his serious ideas into buoyant aesthetic concepts”
—The New York Times
For Nick Cave – The Let Go: A Citywide Celebration of Buffalo, interdisciplinary artist Nick Cave creates for three days a dance-based town hall—part installation, part performance—to which the community of Buffalo is invited to “let go” and speak their minds through movement, work out frustrations, and celebrate independence as well as community. The Central Terminal allows for social gatherings and is activated by “chase,” a multi-colored, 100-foot-long mylar sculpture that glides across the dance floor.
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Installation Hours
During a long weekend in September 2021, visitors and community organizations such as yoga practitioners, hula-hoopers, church choirs, and school groups from across all neighborhoods are invited to express themselves through movement within the installation to music curated by some of Buffalo’s leading DJs played as a soundtrack or mixed live. Participants will be engaged by dancers leading games of Twister, Soul Train lines, a SPECIAL LINE DANCE called “The Let Go” created for the installation, soundsuit invasions, and other dance-based encounters.
An Evening of Artistic Responses: The Let Go
National artists like Songwriter and musician Nona Hendryx, vocalist and artist Helga Davis, dancer and choreographer Francesca Harper, or FLEXN dance pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and his company of dance activists the D.R.E.A.M. Ring will respond to the installation in an evening of site-specific performative responses curated by Nick Cave. Two - three local artists will also respond.
Humanities to the Rescue: An Evening with Nick Cave UB’s Humanities Institute
POSTPONED until Spring 2021 University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts
Short film Up Right: Detroit (2015) followed by Nick Cave exploring the inspirations, ideas, and creative development of his work with local independent curator Claire Schneider (Executive Director, C.S.1 Curatorial Projects), York University’s Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design Sarah Bay-Cheng, and UB department of Romance Languages and Literature professor Christian Flaugh, with moderator and Humanities Institute executive director Christina Milletti.
“Nick Cave is becoming a master of the massive exhibition format. Quick on the heels of closing an 22,000-square-foot interactive forest of sculpture at Mass MOCA, he commands a space more than three times that size in “The Let Go” at Park Avenue Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall, beginning June 7. Visitors can dance amid custom lighting, live DJs and singers, and kinetic sculpture. The centerpiece is a 100-foot-long curtain of colorful Mylar streamers that shimmies through the cavernous space from an aerial conveyor belt. The Mylar snake is programmed to confront you. You may choose to respond by dancing.”… Read More
NYTIMES - Nick Cave Uses His Capital to Help Aspiring Creators
Hilarie M. Sheets
“CHICAGO — Stretching across the windows of three conjoined storefronts on the Northwest Side of Chicago is a 70-foot-long mosaic made of 7,000 circular name tags with a mix of red and white backgrounds. They spell out the message “Love Thy Neighbor.” The simple declaration could be read as the mission statement underpinning the activity in the two-story brick building, a new multidisciplinary art space dreamed up by Nick Cave, the artist and educator, and his personal and professional partner, Bob Faust.”… Read More
NYTIMES - The Artist Nick Cave Gets Personal About Race and Gun Violence
Ted Loos
“NORTH ADAMS, MASS. — The artist Nick Cave was standing, with a slightly awe-struck look, in the middle of the largest exhibition space at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, a former factory known as Building 5 that is as long as a football field.”… Read More
Art21 - Nick Cave
“Nick Cave was born in Fulton, Missouri in 1959. He creates “Soundsuits”—surreally majestic objects blending fashion and sculpture—that originated as metaphorical suits of armor in response to the Rodney King beatings and have evolved into vehicles for empowerment. Fully concealing the body, the “Soundsuits” serve as an alien second skin that obscures race, gender, and class, allowing viewers to look without bias towards the wearer’s identity. Cave regularly performs in the sculptures himself, dancing either before the public or for the camera, activating their full potential as costume, musical instrument, and living icon.”… Read More
WBUR - Creepy, Colorful, Inflatable Sculptures Bring Nick Cave Joy. So He's Bringing Them To Boston
Amelia Mason
“On a sunny afternoon in May, a group of people stood on the sidewalk in Dorchester's Upham's Corner, interrupting pedestrians as they hurried by. In a nice way.
“How’s it going?” Ayako Maruyama asked one passerby. “Do you want to write down what brings you joy?”… Read More
Art Documentary - AS IS by Nick Cave
Evan Falbaum
“We're bringing everything that would be sort of hidden behind the scenes out in the open. We're just sort of skinning it back, and exposing everything, but that's part of the expression, that's part of just sort of an understanding. We're keeping it real raw.”… Watch More
“THE INAUGURATION OF Nick Cave’s Facility, a new multidisciplinary art space on Chicago’s Northwest Side, has the feeling of a family affair. In April, inside the yellow-brick industrial building, the classical vocalist Brenda Wimberly and the keyboardist Justin Dillard give a special performance for a group that includes local friends, curators and educators, as well as Cave’s high school art teacher, Lois Mikrut, who flew in from North Carolina for the event. Outside, stretching across the windows along Milwaukee Avenue, is a 70-foot-long mosaic made of 7,000 circular name tags with a mix of red and white backgrounds, each of them personalized by local schoolchildren and community members. They spell out the message “Love Thy Neighbor.”… Read More
NYTimes - Nick Cave Wants You to Work It Out on the Dance Floor
Melena Ryzik
“The “Soul Train” line appeared out of nowhere, fully formed, like it was meant to be. At the Park Avenue Armory on Wednesday night, dozens of dancers paired off to spin and bounce, sashaying between 40-foot-high glittering curtains.”… Read More
ALL ARTS TV - Nick Cave's "The Let Go" at the Park Avenue Armory
"The conceptual artist Nick Cave discusses his Park Avenue Armory installation "The Let Go," a town hall-inspired dance hall that is part performance, part immersive experience, part dance party.” Watch More
Brought to Buffalo by C.S.1 Curatorial Projects, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, and Park Avenue Armory.