Entanglements

2023

Mixed Media

Varies

My piano teacher once told me I needed to “free my mind of entanglements” to learn something new. The lessons didn’t quite stick, but they left me with a deep appreciation for the piano as an musical instrument and and an intricate mechanism.

A cast-off piano has an abundance simple machines, seamlessly working together to form a complex apparatus. Inspired by its hidden mechanics, I set out to create a playable sculpture that repurposes the components. I was fascinated by a piano’s “whippen assembly”: an elegant series of levers and linkages that transforms the press of a key to the resonant strike of the string.

After some experimentation, I found that the whippen assemblies can function as a module for a playfully chaotic framework. They can be connected into a loop to create an organic and energetic structural system. The structure cannot be forced. It rests upon adjacent elements and creates relationships that are not intended. The form is impermanent. It will shift and settle over time. The system can be overwhelming to visualize and understand, but it is still aesthetically appealing.

The number of modules became a metaphor for the passage of time, with each module representing a year of life. A composition with 7 modules is elegant in it’s simplicity but lacks the depth and interest of a more complex network. A composition with 53 modules is more elaborate and layered, but is also challenging and ambiguous.

As with all of my work, the viewer is invited to physically manipulate the piece.