Nina Simone’s Gum

Religion 363 students seek to answer: How does a thing like, say, a piece of gum, transform into a religious artifact?

In Religion 363, Holy Sh*t: Religious Things, we begin the course reading a book titled Nina Simone’s Gum by musician Warren Ellis. Collaborator and frequent bandmate Nick Cave introduces the book by initiating readers into the intimate details of one night: Simone’s London performance on July 1, 1999, in which Warren Ellis nabbed the gum chewed by Simone, “a god to me and my friends.” From backstage that night, Ellis tracked the chewing gum as Simone removed it from her mouth and stuck it under the piano. After the performance, Ellis dashed on stage to snag the gum and used Simone’s sweaty hand towel to wrap it. Ellis preserved the gum in shopping bags, a briefcase, and a home shrine over 21 years before he “released” it to the world, to end up on display at Nick Cave’s 2021–22 exhibition at the Royal Danish Library. The gum is a compelling object of study because it allows Ellis to construct his musical journey, demonstrate collection practices and detailed observations, and express his devotion to Simone through preservation of her thrown-away object. The journey of the gum exists because Ellis kept it; students curate their own briefcase collections over the semester as we contemplate collection, values, insurance rates for the gum, 3D modeling, and a modern transformation of a thing into a religious artifact. 

Tags: Academics, Object of Study