Attention Nick Cave stans! A landmark exhibition of the Bad Seeds frontman’s work has just opened at The Black Diamond on The Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. Produced in collaboration with Gucci and the Beckett-Fonden, Stranger Than Kindness will offer the most comprehensive insight into the career and inspirations of the shadowy Australian cultural icon.
Spanning original artwork, handwritten lyrics, photography, and videos from sources including the singer’s own private collection, the Nick Cave Archive at Arts Centre Melbourne and the Royal Danish Library, the show takes stock of over 50 years of Nick’s life, tracing his evolution from childhood in Australia to the brooding international legend he’s known as today.
“What you see in this exhibition lives in the intricate world constructed around the song or book or script or score,” says Nick in his characteristically mysterious tone. “There is an enormous amount of this peripheral stuff — drawings, maps, lists, doodles, photographs, paintings, collages, scribblings and drafts. These are not to be seen as artworks so much as the wild-eyed and compulsive superstructure that bears the song or book or scrip or score along. They are a support system of manic tangential information.” The show promises to be “a spatial, multi-sensory exploration of his many real and imagined universes”, with the soundscapes heard across the exhibition’s eight rooms scored and recorded by Nick and his long-time musical collaborator Warren Ellis. It remains as yet unconfirmed whether stand-out responses from The Red Hand Files — the singer’s site where he offers direct responses to fans’ questions — will feature alongside excerpts of his singular songwriting, but attendees eager to take a piece of the show away with them will be able to pick up the exhibition’s accompanying book, also called Stranger Than Kindness.
Stranger Than Kindness runs 8 June 2020 – 13 February 2021 at The Black Diamond at The Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen. Tickets available here.
Credits
Photography Andreas Sune Berg