Monumental Commission by Nick Cave to Welcome Visitors

When the Museum’s director, chief curator, and curator of modern and contemporary art first sought to commission a work of art for the soaring entrance court of the new Museum, they had only one artist in mind: Nick Cave. “We thought immediately of Nick Cave,” said Chief Curator Juliana Ochs Dweck. “His Soundsuits, which ask very personal questions about identity and the place of the individual within a community, and the exuberant multimedia installations he had created for transit stations in New York and Chicago—transitional spaces, like our entrance court—resonated with our hopes for the space.” 

Acclaimed for work that bridges the visual and the performing arts, Cave is best known for his Soundsuits—the sculptural, wearable forms made of mixed media, including found objects, that conceal the wearer’s race, gender, and class. When the new Museum opens in 2025, a towering character based on a Soundsuit Cave created in 2008 will greet visitors as they approach the building through the light-filled outdoor courtyard that leads to the Museum’s main entrance. 

Named Prince Brighton, the colossal glass-mosaic figure is the centerpiece of Cave’s mixed-media wall relief, titled Let me kindly introduce myself. They call me MC Prince Brighton. Cave has described Prince Brighton as a self-portrait that reflects critical moments of personal growth in his own life, which were “made more meaningful, memorable, and possible because of the welcome feeling that was shared with me.” He designed Prince Brighton, one of the first works of art many Museum visitors will encounter, to elicit feelings of welcome and embrace, modeling the character after a Soundsuit that “has a pose that brings both greatness and humility to it.” Cave compared Prince Brighton to a “pied piper” who engenders “ease and connection.” Instead of a pipe, they are outfitted with “a collection of toys and globes that suggest the sound of a global parade.” 

The Chicago-based artist—who has been the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Guggenheim Museum, New York—surrounded Prince Brighton with seven, five- to eleven-foot-long gold-colored adinkra symbols, which originate in West Africa. “The symbols make it clear that Prince Brighton has a culture they want to share. And because these symbols have such a big role in the work, they implore the viewer to look into their meanings. Visitors will become more attached and invested in the piece when they put in the work to know more about it,” Cave wrote.  

Prince Brighton and the adinkra symbols are united by a radial burst made from elaborately carved wood repurposed from elms that once stood on the Museum site and were removed either to make way for the new construction or due to disease. The wood elements, crafted both by hand and by machine, serve a dual purpose: they represent the central figure’s “ether,” and they soften the cast-concrete exterior. “The architecture suggested Brutalism, which led me to think how arts-and-crafts material making would add humanity to it,” Cave explained. 

Making the enormous wall relief a reality has required artisans, engineers, and experts across a range of fields. Kizy Art Productions—which specializes in realizing and fabricating artists’ visions into large-scale fine art installations—was charged with translating Cave’s plans into a three-dimensional installation that will span more than 2,250 square feet, stretch 37 feet high, and project as much as five inches from the building’s facade. “We are the wizards behind the curtain who take an artist’s ideas and bring them to materiality,” Creative Director Sean Kizy said.  

To realize Cave’s design, Kizy Art Productions is overseeing its fabrication and installation, using both in-house specialists and firms from around the globe. For instance, the 1,320-square-foot glass mosaic is being crafted and assembled in Germany by Mayer of Munich, while two New Jersey companies, Alfred Kopp Woodworking and Romaniello’s Custom Stair and Rails, are kiln drying and laminating the wood. Fabhaus, in Newburgh, New York, is milling and finishing 129 unique wooden elements as well as fabricating the oversize adinkra symbols in gold acrylic. Two international engineering firms—Techne and Aspect Structural Engineers—are ensuring that the artwork can safely perform as a facade. Finally, Mayer of Munich will install the glass mosaic, while the New Jersey–based company Torsilieri Inc. will put up the remaining elements.  

The rich materiality of Cave’s design, combined with the hybrid interior-exterior nature of the site, added a layer of complexity to the planning and permitting. Kizy Art Productions coordinated studies to determine how various materials will react when exposed to the elements in the semicovered entrance court. Because each material expands and contracts differently, they needed to be arranged so that they can respond to climate conditions without disrupting the overall composition. The artist noted, “There’s an underlying system of connection that allows each element to interact with the others. Independence is never stifled. Rather, the foundation allows the unique expansion, contraction, and growth to occur harmoniously.”

When Let me kindly introduce myself. They call me MC Prince Brighton. debuts with the new Museum, Cave hopes that as visitors approach his larger-than-life alter ego, their meeting will inspire “a sense of welcome, fun, awe, and settledness.”