Nick Cave, Sound Suit #20, 2005

Nick Cave: A Sound Suit really came out of the Rodney King incident in '92.

Narrator: Artist Nick Cave.

Nick Cave: It was the beginning of a body of work that was based around sort of creating this sort of shield, this sort of suit of armor, this sort of device of protection. And, so I was very interested in hiding gender, race, class, forcing you to look at this object without judgment. How I got to the form of this object was, I was thinking about the role of power and what brings us those ideas sort of translated. So, I was looking at the miter, the headdress from the Catholic Church. I was looking at the head of a missile. I was looking at the shape of a condom, and bringing all of these forces together brought me to this form.

Narrator: Cave has made more than five hundred sound suits. The first one was made out of twigs. After it occurred to him that he could wear it, he was excited to discover its rustling noise. 

Nick Cave: The moment it made sound, it just led me right to this whole notion of protest. In order to be heard, you've got to speak louder. So, it was really about this very urgent condition that was built within the object, that was alarming and interesting for me in that aspect.

Narrator: This suit is not intended to be worn, but Cave still thinks of it in terms of sound. 

Nick Cave: Sound is not something that you necessarily have to hear. It could be orchestrated through the way in which pattern is organized on a surface, the way in which light reflects as you move around and amongst a work of art.