A Cave of Wonders – ericaamerica interpret the songs of Nick Cave
When planning the program for Nick Cave – the exhibition, the Western Australian Museum team discussed the idea of creating a display in the Perth heritage foyer outside the traveling exhibition gallery. The team approached local menswear fashion designers ericaamerica because we knew they love both the Museum and Nick Cave. Their mission was to create an installation referencing the themes of Nick Cave’s music, using both the Museum’s collections and ericaamerica creations.
Erica Wardle and Lucas Bowers, the dynamic ericaamerica duo, talk about their inspiration and experiences in putting A Cave of Wonders… together.
We wanted the exhibition to reflect not only the work of Nick Cave, but to show some of the inner workings that go on behind the scenes of the Museum, highlight some of the treasures that will soon have room to be on show in the new premises and create a space that harks back to an older, more Victorian age of preoccupation with the natural world…and our preoccupation with all things Victorian!
Each show case or display is a nod or a wink to one of Nick Cave’s songs, it will be up to each person how much. God, church and religion are by far the biggest influence in Nick Cave’s songs and literature and so it was by far the biggest influence on us when designing this installation. We wanted to explore religions beyond Christianity and we had amazing support from the museum’s Anthropology department when exploring world religions and ceremonies.
Some of the pieces are a wonderful collection of Christian religious statues by an artist called Edward Kohler. Dr Robin Taylor who is considered Western Australia's foremost expert on the subject of Edward Kohler supplied us with much of the information that know of this incredible artist. The last story on this amazing sculptor is his ambition to create a final masterpiece, in the form of a large scale sculpture of the Virgin Mary. Unfortunately for Kohler when attempting to remove the mold from his completed original both the mold and the original sculpture were irreparably shattered and in his heartbreak, Kohler never sculpted again. As creative people who are a bit sleep deprived, we can feel his pain!
Walking into the Museum’s Welshpool facility where four million or so beautiful, precious objects are so carefully stored, catalogued and coddled was an overwhelming experience for two collectors of the antique and unusual.
For anyone who has ever watched that scene at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' when the crate is wheeled into the storage shed, with a million other crates…we've lived it!
Erica Wardle and Lucas Bowers
A Cave of Wonders… is open in the Beaufort Street Foyer of the Western Australian Museum – Perth until 19 July 2009
