Orphan: Seen and Heard: Nick Cave at Grand Central

From newyorker.com

Is it a fashion show? A dance performance? Sound art? It's Nick Cave!

So, have you heard? Nick Cave's art piece, Heard, was at Grand Central Terminal last week.

Video here and here.
Video of original performance here.

The work was first performed at University of North Texas last year, when Cave was the artist in residence. Cave studied dance at an Alvin Ailey-run program in Kansas City, so for the Heard performance in New York, he asked Alvin Ailey dancers to be involved.

I first learned of Heard after reading one of the many subway posters advertising the event. When I arrived in Vanderbilt Hall on Monday, March 25th at 2:00 pm, I realized that every other New Yorker was intent on seeing the performance too!

"The “everybody” in question included the usual never-ending surge of commuters, sixty Alvin Ailey dancers wearing black spandex and jazz shoes, two harpists, drummers, various employees of M.T.A. Arts for Transit and of the public-art nonprofit Creative Time, the choreographer William Gill, the artist Nick Cave, and thirty of Cave’s creations, which he calls Soundsuits. In Grand Central, these took the form of colorful horse-like sculptures, made of shaggy, vibrantly dyed raffia that the dancers would wear twice daily, from March 25th to 31st, for a twenty-some-minute performance titled “Heard NY.” Everybody was cooperating, rather in the way that elementary-school students cooperate as they are shepherded onto the subway for a class trip. Chaos loomed."
- From Wild Horses in Grand Central

Chaos loomed, especially with the chatter of the crowd, the building swishing of the raffia, the deep bass beats of the timpani, and bright jingling of the bells. Cave had created two areas for the dancers, who pranced and frolicked along with the harp, drum and bells. The music was minimalistic, but the colors and sounds filled the hall, bringing a festive brightness to the classic and formal interior. The performance was a suitable way to celebrate spring -- to celebrate the exuberance of nature that will grow and bloom in the sunny seasons yet to come.

When I saw the posters advertising Heard, I first thought of the examples of ceremonial dress on view at the Hall of the African Peoples at the American Museum of Natural History. I also thought of some images I had spotted on ARTstor this winter, including this one:

Gbetui Masker on Christmas Eve (Bolahun Town, Makona River area, Liberia)
From the Thomas K. Seligman Archive.

The second thought I had when looking at the posters, of course, was this:
Ideally, what would I wear to Heard?

I thought of the perfect shoes,

Masaya Kushino

Helmut Lang

Unknown designer, from tumblr

...and I thought about the perfect coat:

Here are a few shots from Tommy Ton's Streeview on Style.com

I also remembered two photos I had seen with celebrities sporting some raffia-like clothing:

Photos from people.com

So what did I wear? Well, I didn't wear a Soundsuit. I wore an office-appropriate pencil skirt made of a bright blue bouclé. Hey, I was on my lunch break!

Though the Grand Central performances have ended, there is still an opportunity to see a Nick Cave work in the Boston area. At the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, FreePort [No. 006] will be on view until May 27th. You even have a chance to meet the artist on April 18th.