Nick Cave talks ‘Power & Cycles’

“With all of my work, I’m always thinking about ‘who am I talking to? Who am I talking for?’” In this exclusive film from Holtermann Fine Art, join Nick Cave on a walk through of his exhibition ‘Power & Cycles’ at the gallery.

Considering the American national anthem at the time of George Floyd, brain scans of inner city youth in gun zone communities and catastrophic weather patterns, while further mediating trauma, Cave’s work is united through hands – whether those linked ceiling-to-floor in ‘Chain Reaction’, or ‘Arm Peace’ and ‘Tondo’.

“I am a maker, I use my hands to build work,” the artist comments of the latter. “And that was important that came across in the work.”

Nick Cave / Chain Reaction, 2022-2023 / Resin and metal with bronze components / 15 lines of 15 wrists and 160 arms, installed in 3 concentric circles, 1 bronze pillow, 2 bronze heads, 1 bronze eagle / 395 x 210 x 210 cm / 155 1/2 x 82 5/8 x 82 5/8 in / Dimensions variable / Courtesy of the artist and Holtermann Fine Art

‘Chain Reaction’ is a new piece: striking, 4-metres-tall and glimpsed tantalisingly from the street. The multipartite sculpture comprises 15 suspended chains – resin casts of interlocking arms and wrists, taken from the artist’s own body, hung in concentric circles in the gallery.

Nick Cave / Tondo, 2023 / Mixed media including metal, wire, bugle beads, sequined fabric and plywood / 182.9 x 182.9 x 10.2 cm / 72 x 72 x 4 in / Courtesy of the artist and Holtermann Fine Art

Born in Fulton, Missouri, 1959, the politics of the human body lies at the beating heart of Cave’s sculptural imagination.

While the artist’s illustrious career includes a recent survey show, ‘Forothermore’, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, ‘Power & Cycles’ is Cave’s first gallery exhibition in London.

Nick Cave / Arm Peace, 2023 / Cast bronze and vintage tôle flowers / 177.8 x 68.6 x 40.6 cm / 70 x 27 x 16 in / Courtesy of the artist and Holtermann Fine Art

Nick Cave: ‘Power & Cycles’ continues until 20 December 2023 at Holtermann Fine Art, 30 Cork Street, Mayfair