Nick Cave, Sound Suit #20, 2005

Narrator: This is Nick Cave’s Sound Suit #20. The title lets you know that it’s not the only sound suit he ever made. In fact, he’s made hundreds! Many of them are made to be worn. Those make a sound when you move in them—whooshing, clacking, rustling. This one is too fragile, with its sequined and hand-beaded surface, he really thinks of it as a sculpture. But what if you could hear the pattern? It’s bright and busy, and seems noisy and exciting. 

The Sound Suits are fun, and seem to suggest a world of possibility. But they’re also meant to disguise any person who might wear them, protecting them from discrimination based on race, gender, or anything else. Cave associates making noise with protest, and wants his sound suits to be used in making positive change.