Pianos hang from the ceiling like carcasses in a slaughterhouse in an exhibition by Dutch designer Maarten Baas, at Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam.
Crescendo! sees Baas venture into sculpture for the first time, creating a series of musical instruments that are distorted beyond use.
A pair of pianos provide the show’s centrepiece. These two full-scale sculptural pieces are suspended on a set of hooks like those used by a butcher, while a third hangs on its own behind.
The form of each piano appears to have slumped down, with keys and pedals bent out of shape. The effect is similar to how an animal’s flesh stretches out after it has been slaughtered.
In a video tour of the show produced by Galerie Ron Mandos, Baas says the idea was to show how something can be stripped of life and turned into a commodity.
“The pianos are hanging almost like a piece of meat from a butcher,” said Baas. “Just like how an animal used to live and used to have a soul, it is now a few kilos of meat.”
Baas also created a series of trumpets and flutes. Some of them appear to be melting, while others have been flattened and vacuum-packed.
The most abstract of the musical pieces feature in the series titled Variations in E Minor, for which Baas has turned various wood and wind instruments into balls.
“This exhibition is about the tension between big dreams and the sometimes limiting reality behind them,” Baas explained.
The designer said there is a dual meaning to every piece, for instance, the Variations in E Minor pieces are both expressive and secretive.
“The whole orchestra is compressed to a ball, but it looks like they want to come out again as a full orchestra,” said Baas.
“All the pieces have this duality, like it’s the end and the beginning… but it also can potentially become something again,” he added.
The show includes a mini-retrospective of Baas’ career to date, with works including his childlike Close Parity furniture, his burnt Smoke pieces and his moulded Clay furniture.
This section includes some new pieces, including a collaboration with Dutch artist Ted Noten.
Noten is best known for his satirical sculptures featuring objects encased in acrylic resin. Here, he contributed a work featuring an alligator that appears to be snorting cocaine.
Baas responded by turning it into a drawer for a special edition of his Clay bedside table. He also added a mirror that can be removed to reveal a secret storage compartment.
The designer described it as “a hidden compartment for all your secretive belongings”.
Bass has also created a new version of the grandfather clocks he has made throughout his career. The clock face is a video in which the designer appears to be painting the time on by hand.
Other new works include an assemblage of bronze wall mirrors with a smoky finish and a bedside cabinet with oversized bronze drawers.
The photography is by Jonathan de Waart unless stated.
Crescendo! is on show at Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam from 18 January to 9 March. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
