Spend a bit more time in the weird wonderland that is Nick Cave’s sculptural installation Until, however, and your perspective tilts. You’ll see guns and bullets amid the spinners, racially charged traces in some of the knick-knacks, and power woven from pony beads – urging you to ponder your agency.
Cave’s also asking us, “Is there racism in heaven?” – what do you think?
Cave describes Until as “an elaborate community forum, as much as a work of sculpture” – a conduit for social change.
Its catalyst was the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin and others like them “presumed guilty until proven innocent”. The work also fuelled the Black Lives Matter movement in America – but think carefully about the violence perpetrated against our Indigenous men and women by police and others in power before you let Australia off the hook.
Until is imbued with hope for a better world and free at Carriageworks until March 3 – so make a date to catch its drift.
