We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands.

  • Details

    Date
    1998-2001
    Media categories
    Ephemera , Time-based art
    Materials used
    limited edition boxed set of audio recordings, documents, texts and music scores
    Dimensions
    32.0 x 32.0 cm box
    Signature & date

    Not signed. Not dated.

    Credit
    Gift of Darren Knight 2002
    Location
    Not on display
    Accession number
    19.2002.a-d
    Artist information
    Slave Pianos (Michael Stevenson, New Zealand/Germany b.1964; Danius Kesminas, Australia b.1966)

    Works in the collection

    3

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  • About

    Stevenson and Kesminas are the two visual artists that initiated Slave Pianos, but Neil Kelly and Rohan Drape, two Melbourne musicians, are also integral to this project. Slave Pianos grew out of the artists' common interest in the history and practice of visual artists' music works. Stevenson and Kesminias have collected original recordings of music by artists as diverse as Hany Armanious and Joseph Beuys, which have been recomposed, arranged and transcribed as musical scores for piano. These are performed by the Slave Pianos itself - a computer controlled mechanical piano reproducing the arrangements of the artists' music. The Slave Pianos becomes a visual personification of the original artists' performance. Kelly and Drape transcribe the music and Stevenson and Kesminias are responsible for the artwork and publication of the scores and for other visual accompaniments.

    'A diagnosis' 1998-2001: Audio recordings, documents, texts and scores edited by Christoph Keller; essays by Robert Adlington, Giovanni Intra and Mark von Schegell; liner notes by John MacDonald.

  • Bibliography

    Referenced in 2 publications

    • Terry Ingram, The Australian financial review, 'Get ready for a big boom in sonic art', Sydney, 17 Jun 2000-18 Jun 2000, (illus.).

    • Jeff Pressing, Age, 'A long tale with many notes', Melbourne, Jul 2000.

Other works by Slave Pianos (Michael Stevenson, New Zealand/Germany b.1964; Danius Kesminas, Australia b.1966)