The Piano Roll Project: Shared Sensibilities invited thirty artists to respond vintage piano roll altering them in anyway they can imagine, some rolls are as long as 40 feet. This exhibition of Artists’ Piano Rolls Inspired Works was on display at Bates Mills, 35 Canal Street, 2nd Floor, from July 16 through October 30. Also read the Portland Press Herald Review by Daniel Kany: Art review: Symbiosis happens in two artist-curated shows in Portland, Lewiston – The Portland Press Herald : Maine Sunday Telegram
My ‘song’ is Mr. Sandman and I titled the work ‘Bring Me a Dream’.
It is difficult to see the full piano roll in images. Here is a video of the artwork with Mr. Sandman sung by The Chordettes in 1954.
My artist statement for the project:
Bring Me a Dream
by Kimberly Callas
When I was invited to participate in the piano roll project, I had been researching the Global Dream Initiative’s new project called ‘Dream Tending’. I thought I would use this ‘dream tending’ with the piano roll as a way to capture images and significant symbols that come through dreams. I thought the scroll like nature of the roll would be a good format to record an ongoing series of images. When I received the roll, I was pleasantly astonished that the song was “Mr. Sandman”.
In this piano roll you can see the initial vestiges of this idea: a forested night landscape that has trees with eyes, buried cars, giant keys, a snake that lifts the covers. I decided though that the dreamscape needed a dreamer and the dreamer became the landscape and the body became the place of change brought about by the dream images. “Before the lover leaves the bed, the trees with their strange eyes come, and so begins the spiritual changing of the flesh…”
Work in progress photos:
