Monash University Museum of Art Presents
slave pianos
the gift: redaction and decontamination
Saturday 23 july | 3.30 - 4.30 pm
MUMA presents a performance by
Slave Pianos on the final day of the
acclaimed exhibition Slave Pianos
| Punkasila | Pipeline to Oblivion: 3
Projects by Danius Kesminas and
Collaborators.
Slave Pianos is a provocative and
highly inventive collective of artists,
composers and musicians devoted
to the exhibition, collection, analysis,
performance and re-composition of
sound work by visual artists.
The closing day performance The
Gift: Redaction and Decontamination
will combine theatre, music and
art to activate elements of the
exhibition. Taking place in the
museum, the performance will
build on the installation work The
Execution Protocol III: Mutually
Assured Production (The MAP Room)
2007-11, which includes a parlourgrand piano housed in an electric
chair, a control console, a motorised
coordinate plotter and geophysical
map-mural. Incorporating texts by
playwright Joanna Murray-Smith,
art historian John C. Welchman
and author Julian Barnes, The Gift:
Redaction and Decontamination will
feature actor Richard Piper, a tesla
coil (a high voltage discharge device)
and members of Slave Pianos in an
execution and musical ultra-reduction
of sound works from the avant-garde.
The exhibition Slave Pianos | Punkasila
| Pipeline to Oblivion will then be
ceremoniously closed with tastings
from the Dipsomanic Organ vodka still,
and traditional Lithuanian food and
folk music.
Ground Floor, Building F
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
Slave Pianos:
Founded in 1998 by Rohan Drape,
Neil Kelly, Danius Kesminas and
Michael Stevenson, and including
Dave Nelson, Slave Pianos investigate
and recontextualise artists’ music
projects through the process of
transcription, re-enactment and
creative appropriation.
Slave Pianos’ work has been
performed by Arditti String Quartet,
Michael Kieran Harvey, Flux String
Quartet, Krasnyi String Quartet, and
the Royal Australian Navy Band.
Slave Pianos has written multiform
acoustical theatre works which have
been performed by Chamber Made
Opera (Australia), Astra Chamber
Music Society (Australia), Jauna
Muzika (Lithuania), and Barney McAll
(USA). Their work was exhibited in the
17th Sydney Biennale 2010.
www.monash.edu.au/muma
Telephone +61 3 9905 4217
muma@monash.edu
Tues – Fri 10am – 5pm; Sat 12 – 5pm
Richard Piper:
Actor Richard Piper has a
distinguished theatrical career in
England and Australia appearing in
over 50 stage productions, television
series’ and West End musicals. Most
recently Richard has been critically
acclaimed for his leading role in
the Melbourne Theatre Company
production The Gift.
This event at MUMA is FREE.
For enquiries please contact us via
email muma@monash.edu or phone
9905 4217.
Slave Pianos with Richard Piper, The
Gift: Redaction and Decontamination
2011
photo: Andrius Lipšys