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have been collaborating for over 10 years. The two are working together with Creative Time and MTA Arts for Transit to present Nick Caves HEARDNY. In celebration of Grand Central Stations 100th anniversary, a herd of thirty colorful horses will be brought to life twice a day by sixty dancers from The Ailey School, two in each full-size horse Soundsuit. These choreographed performances, or crossings, will be an intervention in the stations daily activity and commuters comings and goings.
I stole a moment with Nick and Bob a few weeks before the event to get a more personal viewpoint on the upcoming show. Bob Faust: When people look at the work they dont even think that there are two people. They are, in that moment, believing that its a horse. Nick: With the horses in HEARD, its visceral, textured and amazing. Its getting us back to that place where we dream. We dont really take that time anymore, to think about ways that we want to live, or who we want to be, or how we want to be useful in the world. Doug: You guys have worked together for a decade now. What is it that makes your partnership so unique? Bob: Well, from the very beginning when I met Nick and started working with him he was always pushing me to do more instead of telling me to do less. From a designers perspective that doesnt happen often. Our rst project was a catalog that we produced for one of Nicks exhibitions and I remember him telling me very frankly that he wanted this catalog to be an object, not an art book like most museum catalogs are. Nick didnt want a traditional bound book and what we ended up creating was this beautiful loose-leaf piece with images, vellum, and text all bound together with a large rubber band. The beauty is that when the viewer takes it apart and shufes it around now or twenty years from now, it will be the same book but in a different order. So its changing and being reappropriated much like Nicks work. Nick: What is exciting about working with Bob is that any text-related or printrelated associations toward my work can be consistent. I dont want 50 thousand different people working on a number of publications. I want to work with one designer. And ten years from now well look back at all that has been produced and each project will have a unique vision. How we collaborate, whether its a unique circus-inspired typeface used in HEARD, or a museum publication, these collaborations become markers. These things are the markers in our history, in our time that we are working together. Doug: HEARDNY in Grand Central Station: Can you tell me a little bit about what it represents? Nick: Grand Central Station represents people in transit just passing through, on the train going to work, going home could there be a moment where they could be affected by something that changed their mindset? You never know how things can affect you. Bob: Some of those moments can be your lightbulb moment, your wake-up call. Sometimes we think that giving time to do something that you love and nd joy in is a waste of time because there are all of these other things on your list. But if you give yourself a minute to absorb something special for you, then you can go through the whole day in a whole new way and all of the things on your list become a whole lot easier. I feel like HEARD is a wake-up call! Doug: How are the acts of loving and giving important to your work? Nick: I think at the end of the day Im just a messenger. Messenger rst, artist second. Im just dropping off a deed at Grand Central and then Im off to the next project.
GO VISIT HEARD NY: MARCH 25-31, 2013 GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL / VANDERBILT HALL DAILY CROSSINGS / 11:00 AM AND 2:00 PM / FREE

NICK CAVE BOB FAUST

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Artist

Designer

Doug Wolfe: What is your conceptual framework for creating the horses in HEARD and your earlier work with Soundsuits? Nick Cave: Its an emotional thing for me, I have to be emotionally affected. [I ask myself ] How do you bring an emotional component where it starts to push buttons? Ive always been interested in ideas of nostalgia and memory, but also reconsidering what the potential is in an object and what it can project. Its about not really knowing what the results are going to be and being comfortable with that fear. Doug: Youre going to have thirty horses with two people in each horse and theyre going to be grazing and galloping in Grand Central Station. How did you select the performers? Nick Cave: If I know that youre wearing it, then the conviction is not there. You have to be willing to surrender a part of yourself to become something else. Its not so easy. A lot of people collapse because they cant make that transition. Its about coming face-to-face with your fears and inhibitions. Thats where the real work gets done in all of this. If you step into it with open arms then you are able to understand, navigate, and move in a certain way.

NICK CAVE SOUNDSUIT 2013. PHOTO BY JAMES PRINZ PHOTOGRAPHY. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK.

NICK CAVE SOUND SUIT 2013. PHOTO BY JAMES PRINZ PHOTOGRAPHY. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK. TYPOGRAPHIC DESIGN BY BOB FAUST FOR CREATIVE TIME.

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2 NICK CAVE + BOB FAUST DIRECTION & INTERVIEW: DOUGLAS WOLFE DESIGN: LANGUAGE DEPT. EDITOR: KIRSTEN GARRISON PRINTING: LINCO