During a recently surfaced interview with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers, Nick Cave discussed his connection to the Devil.
The interviewer initially mentioned the singer’s ceramic sculptures, seen in the documentary ‘This Much I Know to be True,’ which portray the Devil’s life based on Staffordshire pottery figures. When asked if he feels a connection to the devil and the inspiration behind creating these 17 sculptures, Cave replied:
“It is the life of the Devil, in 17 little meditations, like the Stations of the Cross. The devil is essentially just this man with horns: he inherits the earth, he goes to war, he comes back from war, he gets married, he kills his child, he is in remorse, he dies a bloody death.”
Clarifying The Sculpture’s Autobiographical Aspect
He went on to express pride in his ceramic sculptures, stating:
“I’m very proud of these things. I guess it is autobiographical in some way — not that I relate to the devil in his evilness, but I relate to the devil as a character seeking forgiveness in some way.”
Cave’s Commercial Exhibition Debut
With this collection titled ‘The Devil – A Life (2020–22),’ featuring 17 glazed ceramic figurines illustrating the life story of the Devil, the rocker will have his first commercial exhibition at the Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels next year. Cave previously described this body of work as ‘a journey towards some kind of absolution from a series of shattering events.’
Cave’s ceramic pieces premiered in Finland in September 2022 at the Sara Hildén Art Museum, featured in the group exhibition ‘We’ alongside works by Brad Pitt and Thomas Houseago.
In his latest series, the singer presents the Devil as a multifaceted, imperfect, everyday character. He describes the upcoming ceramic collection in Brussels as focusing on ‘the idea of forgiveness, the idea that there is a moral virtue in beauty. It’s a kind of balancing of our sins.’
