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"Some
years ago a friend gave Edward Mackenzie an old piano. It was
a logical thing to do and probably an unspoken challenge to the
artist to make something with it. While Mackenzie doesn't play
the piano, his art is made from the found object - not towering
heaps of detritus, but small works from bits that can be held
in the hand. His work is intimate, evocative...also surprisingly
elegant, considering its practical origins..
Using felts, hammers, keys, and other less recognizable piano
parts (and some unrelated bits...) Mackenzie produces work that
evokes a wide range of emotions. He is often witty, as in...Myoperatic,
in which hammers form a one-eyed conductor conducting a one-eyed
chorus...there are somber military references in Bavarian Black
and Green Night of the Long Candles...There is also a rhythm that
runs through the exhibit, almost as if music were being played.
As with all of Mackenzie's work we are asked to see, with him,
the particular beauty and meaning of components, little scraps
crafted to do a job, that give delight when put into a new context.
The work comes from a particularly fertile and sensitive mind
that invites us to consider our surroundings more carefully before
we move on." |