Based Upon x Steinway & Sons: The Manhattan Piano.
The Manhattan Piano.
It was never about gratuitously dislocating a revered classic form for the sake of controversy.
That, for us, is never what it is about.
Nor is it the impulse to disturb the familiar iconic objects and replace them with our version.
We do, though, see and engage with these iconic pieces and instinctively imagine and envisage alternatives, parallels and possibilities.
We, after all, consumed the works of Guy Debourd and the Situationists.
We definitely commit to the line
“Be reasonable, demand the impossible”
So.
We lived with a Steinway for long enough to understand that the sound, the tone and the dynamic resonance of the instrument must not be, in any way, whatsoever, altered.
We also spent countless hours viewing the piano from every angle in every light.
From this we made a considerable archive of images in many medium.
Photography, both static and moving, drawings, paintings, sculpture,modelmaking and the written word.
All informing, and reminding us, that The Steinway remains the definitive, the apogee of, acoustic piano.
How would Bill Brandt shoot it? How would Elsworth Kelly offer it up?
In low light, the instrument offered languid curves that incanted sensuality.
This silhouette, like the flawless voice of the Steinway, became critical.
Working within this beguiling organic flow form, we worked with monastic solemnity to remove. To reduce. To lovingly eradicate. To ghost out. To change and to subtly shift. Away and up.
Paul McCartney pointed at a Steinway and said, “in there, on that, is the universe of music. Everything that can be played is within those keys.”
Exploring this vastness, we channelled the Manhattan skyline into the sublime
surfaces as a love gesture to the eventual home of our Steinway.
Frequently, throughout the transfiguration, the piano would be played and recorded to ensure that the precious sound was in perfect condition.
The beautiful contradiction.
As with many of our works, the result is a simplified, pared back and
essentialised object. A fascinating comment on the original.
It is also, however, a far more complex, intimate and imponderable version.
Objects that demand contemplation.
This is a critical commitment in our belief system. Always has been.
Study it. Think about it. Think beyond it and behind it.
Only stop thinking about it when it is being played. All of the powers of thought
and comprehension should be dedicated to the piano and the person whose
hands are moving through and drawing the overwhelming wonder of the sound.
A Steinway is a Steinway whichever way you look at it.
Based Upon 2022.
