Manchester Art Gallery, January 2025
Spring Steel Wires, 6 channel sound installation installed in Manchester Art Gallery’s entrance hall on the occasion of Which Human is Correct? by the Black Wall Art Collective.
Constructed from field recordings captured in the vicinity of public pianos in various railway and tube stations, this piece was installed in Manchester Art Gallery during Which Human Is Correct?
By sequencing and processing the recordings over an extended duration, the composition is sensitive to the idiosyncrasies of each uncredited piano player, whilst also appealing to the desire for the piano to exist as a cultural symbol outside of the flow of time, echoing the architectural principles of MAG’s neo-classical entrance hall where it was installed.
Postcards (pictured below) were deposited around the gallery for visitors to keep, bringing the ephemeral nature of the work into sharper relief.
By sequencing and processing the recordings over an extended duration, the composition is sensitive to the idiosyncrasies of each uncredited piano player, whilst also appealing to the desire for the piano to exist as a cultural symbol outside of the flow of time, echoing the architectural principles of MAG’s neo-classical entrance hall where it was installed.
Postcards (pictured below) were deposited around the gallery for visitors to keep, bringing the ephemeral nature of the work into sharper relief.