OLIVER BEER: OMA

A scroll of perforated sheet music visibly circulates through the pianola’s centre, annotated with a text recounting Oma’s story in her own words and the script of her hand. Topped with an eclectic selection of objects, many of them musical objects from Oma’s home, the installation references both the domestic mantlepiece and a votive shrine. The wall behind the pianola features a salon-style hang, including the graphic musical score that heightens the sense of an altarpiece or a metaphorical portrait, charged with a notable absence. 

Oliver Beer

Oma’s Music, 2020

Pianola with ink on paper score, framed

Score: 113 x 83 x 4 cm (44.49 x 32.68 x 1.57 in)

Pianola: Dimensions variable

Hanging from the ceiling, Beer presents two new ‘vessels’– humble yet beautiful objects drawn from Oma’s life that each emit a unique musical tone. Building on his work with the collection of The Metropolitan Museum in New York, for the first time the objects shown are activated by the viewers’ presence using movement sensors. The pitches that naturally resonate within each vessel are amplified in real time by microphones and speakers, rendering audible their pure and unwavering tones.

Oliver Beer

Resonance Vessel, 2020

Japanese Meiji period circa 1890 Arita vase, microphone, speaker

Dimensions variable

Resonance Vessel, 2020

Blue and white jar from Jingdezhen kilns made during the end of the Chinese Emperor Kangxi's reign 1666–1722, microphone, speaker 

Dimensions variable

In Recomposition (Four Piano Keys), 2020, the white square opens on hinges to reveal a tilted inset square, each side of which is composed of a piano key extracted from the artist’s grandmother’s piano, which was also his childhood instrument. Without any musical training, Oma was never able to play this piano and, poignantly, this silencing of her music is represented metaphorically through the silencing of the piano keys. Embedded within the resin, the keys instead become two-dimensional images of themselves, no longer functional and by turns revealed or concealed behind the hinged doors. Anatomical in its scope, the square image shows the keys’ white and black veneers, as well as the felt pads, which begin the process of producing sound in the instrument. The internal hammers of the piano are also visible, retained in their three-dimensional form as the handles that open and close the piece. 

Oliver Beer

Recomposition (Four Piano Keys), 2020

Four piano keys from the artist's grandmother's piano, sectioned and set in resin; gesso

Open: 47 x 46.5 x 2 cm (18.5 x 18.31 x 0.79 in)

Closed: 47 x 23 x 4 cm (18.5 x 9.06 x 1.57 in) 

Created using a volume from the artist’s grandmother’s library, Book End (Conducting A Choir: A Guide for Amateurs by Imogen Holst), 2020, reconfigures the well-loved choral guide published in 1973 by Imogen Holst CBE (1907–1984). There is a playful irony to Beer’s treatment of books in these works, encased in resin blocks that can be opened on hinges to reveal pages that have been rendered unreadable. The term ‘book end’ is a pun on the block-like form of the work and the end of the book’s lifespan as a functional carrier of knowledge. The only daughter of composer Gustav Holst, Imogen Holst was dedicated to musical education and an inspiration to the students she encountered through her involvement with the Dartington Summer School of Music and the Aldeburgh Festival. She was also the musical assistant to famed English composer Benjamin Britten for many years, a role which overshadowed her own compositional career. Holst’s own music has received comparatively little critical attention, an oversight that Beer draws attention to through the homage to her in this work. 

Oliver Beer

Book End (Conducting A Choir: A Guide for Amateurs by Imogen Holst), 2020

Hardback book, sectioned and set in resin; gesso

Open: 39.5 x 19 x 10 cm (15.55 x 7.48 x 3.94 in).

Closed: 19 x 19 x 18.5 cm (7.48 x 7.48 x 7.28 in)