We visited Canberra last week, mainly to attend the birthday dinner of one of MBH's good friends. The rest of the time we mostly caught up with family but did also manage to see the Nick Cave Exhibition at the National Library. I remember the first time I heard 'Deanna' and 'The Mercy Seat'. I immediately knew that this man was the coolest of the cool and I went out and bought 'Tender Prey', the Birthday Party album with 'Shiver' on it and subsequently 'Let Love In' and 'Henry's Dream'. I saw Nick Cave perform 'Where The Wild Roses Grow' at the Big Day Out with Kylie Minogue some time in the '90s, I watched his cameo performance in 'Johnny Suede' and I've even read 'And The Ass Saw The Angel'. But after many years as an unquestioning Nick Cave fan something just happened. I suppose I just started to lose interest over time after being saturated by his prolific talent. And frankly, the Kylie duet didn't help. What a sell out.
Nevertheless, I was interested in the exhibition and I'm very glad we went along. For me, the most interesting part was a book from Mr Cave's personal collection of Louis Wain illustrations, the artist known for anthropomorphic cats. Nick is a big fan and collected lots of Louis Wain originals over the years. Wain's illustrations are very recognisable and supposedly show the deterioration of his mental health.
The Nick Cave exhibition is on at the National Library until 29 November 2009.
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