Isabel's Piano (2014)
HD colour video, sound
74 minutes
Isabel’s Piano is a portrait of the artist’s uncle, Steven, filmed during his restoration of an antique grand piano. The instrument was inherited from his grandmother, Isabel. Taken apart into thousands of pieces, it inhabits Steven’s material and psychological landscape. Sited in and around his home, the video covers a period of two years. It follows Steven as he attempts to cope with the extraordinary complexity of the piano, originally made by perhaps a hundred factory workers in 1895.
The film accepts the camera as a physical agent in the act of portraiture – the cinematography is haptic in its methods. Steven’s inventive experiments frame scenes for Stephanie’s own exploration via the camera. The resulting video, Isabel's Piano, takes form from the convergence of these parallel investigations: an uncle, a piano, an artist and a video camera.
Cinematography: Nicola Stephanie
Editing: Ling Lee and Nicola Stephanie
Sound: Gisburg
Music: Robbie Lockwood
Previous screenings include the Freud Museum, London; Museum of Arts & Design, New York and the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, CT.
Video available by request.
Isabel's Piano (2014) video stills