“HONEY, IT’S Everything”
And with his new installation this spring, an open-to-all megadance party, that means literally.
ISN’T UNTIL AFTER A FULL TOUR OF his 23,000-square-foot art space, a thorough excavation of three giant boxes of sequined Chinese appliqués, and an introduction to his dog, a mutt named Bam Bam, that I learn it is Nick Cave’s birthday. “He’s not going to tell you, so I will,” says Bob Faust, a fellow artist and Cave’s personal and professional partner, as he pokes his head into our meeting. Cave gracefully brushes off the attention. He is 61 today, though if he told me he was 40-something, I’d believe it, silver beard aside. The guy is ripped, with a compact dancer’s build and presumably the most coveted skin care routine in contemporary art. Velcroed around his right biceps is an armband that reads “Grl Power!” in a superhero comics font, a little gift his older brother gave him earlier this morning. As for his plans for the day, he’ll mostly be in the studio, which is just as well. Parties are nice, but there’s work to be done.
“The studio” is putting it modestly: Facility, the multi-disciplinary space that Cave and Faust opened last year, occupies a former upholstery shop in a vintage brick building of the sort you’ll find scattered throughout the surrounding neighborhood of Old Irving Park. The place is like a Wonka Factory for those who get off on “making stuff," a phrase you’ll hear regularly if you spend enough time in Cave’s presence; yes, there is the lofty world of capital-A art in which Cave is revered, but he identifies just as much as a “maker” and a facilitator of kindred makers.
Facility now houses three separate studios: Cave’s, Faust’s design space, and one for Cave’s brother Jack, also an artist. Additionally, there are eight or so project areas meant to host performances, pop-up shops, and community workshops, not to mention an impressive array of NBA-player-size cacti. In the past year, Facility has collaborated with nearby schools and small businesses on a window display of 7,000 handwritten name tags arranged to spell out “Love Thy Neighbor”; hosted a group show, Disturbed Awakening, featuring students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s master of design program in fashion, body, and garment, which Cave heads; and in December put on Fall-A-Faire, where local artists sold wearable art and oddball sculptures.
Cave and Faust make their home in the loft on the second floor. “The fact
