This year was filled with killer art events. Even so, in 2018, one stood out above the rest — Nick Cave Feat. Nashville was that good. Born of a months-long series of workshops and a survey of the celebrated Chicago-based artist’s work at the Frist Art Museum, the event was a true collaboration with the community, and it hit all the right notes — it was entertaining and impressively staged, and it meant something deeper that transcended the single performance.
The event began with the artist himself carrying a beaded shroud across the Schermerhorn stage as a gospel choir sang powerfully, “I wish I never was born.” Cave covered himself with the shroud and remained still as representatives from various Nashville institutions — like Thistle Farms, Conexión Américas and the Down Syndrome Association of Middle Tennessee — came to cover his body with other beaded blankets. By the end, when Cave slowly wormed his way out from beneath hundreds of plastic beads, it felt like witnessing a rebirth.
But the majority of the night was spent performing “Up Right,” a ritual wherein community members like TSU art professor Brandon Donahue, Fisk art professor Jamaal Sheats and Frist curator Katie Delmez transformed a group of college students and dancers into half-Muppet, half-Zulu warriors in Cave’s sumptuous Soundsuits. The process was filled with minor but dramatic details — like taking time to delicately brush the multicolored hair of the Soundsuits that flowed out like Martian antennae. It was a powerful rite of passage that underscored the original intention of the Soundsuits: symbolically protecting young black men from police violence by outfitting them in noisy, over-the-top armor. Nashville was lucky to be able to facilitate, participate in and view this once-in-a-lifetime performance. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER
