UPDATE: Long-Awaited Nick Cave Statue To Be Crowdfunded For Singer’s Hometown
ORIGINAL STORY: Aussie music icon Nick Cave once joked about having a gold statue of himself erected in his hometown, but it now looks like it might actually happen one day.
Speaking with GQ, Cave has revealed that his hometown of Warracknabeal in Western Victoria has been in touch about possibly making the statue a reality, after Cave first raised the idea years ago.
Cave’s original idea (which was kind of a joke in itself) was for a large bronze statue of himself to be erected somewhere in Warracknabeal, but, of course, there was more to it than that.
“The idea was to make the statue, have it rejected by the town, and dump it in the desert — this Planet Of The Apes-type of scenario, the desert eventually swallowing it up,” Cave says.
“There was a kind of perverse allure to the whole thing, of having a statue in a town where everyone was, ‘Who the fuck is this guy?’”
The design for the statue reportedly already exists, and Cave is said to have a small prototype of it. Here’s how GQ describe it:
“It shows Cave, with long hair and wearing nothing but a loincloth, heroically posed on a rearing stallion, his left arm brandishing what Cave describes as ‘this sort of eternal flame’.”
For an idea of what the statue might end up looking like, here’s sculptor Corin Johnson’s model:
Image: Corin Johnson
Back when Cave first proposed the statue in 2008, he reportedly emailed Warracknabeal’s local newspaper the Wimmera Mail Times that an all-star cast would rock up for the statue’s eventual unveiling.
“Russell Crowe, my mate, has promised to attend,” he wrote. “Snoop Dogg, a rapper, says he’ll come if they let him into the country. [And] Kylie Minogue said she wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Cave has since said that while he might “deserve” the statue more as he gets older, it’ll just become “less interesting” for him as he ages.
Despite that, and after seeing Corin Johnson’s model, all we can say is that Warracknabeal needs to MAKE. THIS. HAPPEN., even if it makes their hometown hero a little nervous.
