Resampled & Rearranged: Musical Objects Recomposed
Musical instruments that were once glorified and held in high esteem by musicians and audiences alike are gleaned for their parts and reimagined to become the raw material for my exhibition Resampled & Rearranged.
As a culture, we have assigned great significance to musical instruments, awarding the piano the highest position. But what happens when a piano is broken and no longer playable? Once beautiful and masterful, these instruments have been discarded at the dump or left on the street in the rain.
And yet, even at the dump, when I take one apart, onlookers are dismayed. We have assigned meaning to these objects, so what happens when they have lost their value as instruments? Even in their brokenness, our connection runs deep. The dichotomy of what they were and what they are now is at play. The “aura” in what remains is what I find most fascinating.
I want the viewer to see beneath the layers—to see what piano strings look like, since most people have never seen them outside of a piano. The patina of age, the “blue” they turn from corrosion, is beautiful.
Resampled & Rearranged orchestrates my love for these objects, for what they once were and for what remains. Perhaps the repurposing of their broken parts—made whole and new again in a different way—not only reveals their infinite possibilities, but also functions as an act of healing and unity in today’s divisive times. It is also an exploration in rearranging and in finding a new story… whimsical, serious, or simply a different way of seeing.
2019
