Geoffrey Baer VO: The Merchandise Mart is big and famous, but is it one of the most beautiful places in Chicago?

Well, I'd say after dark it is.

That's when the walls come alive with a delightful and ever-changing projected display of digital art by a variety of artists called Art on the Mart.

(playful music) VO: During one two-month period, Art on the Mart featured the work of Chicago multi-media artist, Nick Cave, who's most famous for his sound suits.

(charming music) GEOFFREY BAER VO: What's the story behind these wearable works of art?

I got the answer from the artist himself when I visited a major retrospective of his work in 2022 at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

- [Geoffrey] When you're wearing some of these, can you see out of them?

- All of them.

- All of them?

- Even that one there.

- Oh really?

You put like little holes?

- Well you know, the opening in here is all meshed screen.

- Yeah.

- And so I can see out, you can't see in.

- Yeah.

- And so that's also something I'm interested in, that I can move through the world with this filter.

- [Geoffrey] Cave's sound suits seem playful, but he was inspired to start creating them in response to a horrible event.

- [Nick] The original idea came from the Rodney King incident.

[Nick] And it was really me as a young black man really struggling with trying to sort of reckon with just what I was encountering.

And I happened to be sitting in Grant Park, and I looked down, and there was this twig, and I don't know, I started collecting all the twigs in the park.

And so this twig made me think about something that was dismissed, discarded.

I took these materials home, then made what I thought was a sculpture, but then didn't even think that I could wear it, and then the moment that I put it on my body and moved, it made sound.

- Yeah.

- And so then that led me to think about protest, in order to be heard, you gotta speak louder.

- What does that feel like, to see your art occupy two and a half acres?

- [Nick] I think for me, I'm thinking more about the accessibility of it, that I'm always thinking about ways of getting the work into the world.

I think that becomes this beacon for the two and a half months that it's up.

This is for the community.

- [Geoffrey] So much of your work is imbued with social justice, and really, these really difficult issues in our society, racism, and yet they seem so joyful.

- [Nick] I think that that's life.

And how do you balance that?

In spite of the despair, and the sort of injustice, there's also optimism, and hope.

I'm still dreaming.