14th October, 2011

This artistic piece of work was dedicated to the artist's (Vicki Shield's) mum - "who loved to play the piano". Vicki lived in Bondi for over 45 years, and walked the Bondi to Bronte path regularly, which inspired this exhibit.

piano by the sea

Wow .. it's amazing what can be created using only chalk and varnish, and of course an imagination.  The above stairs were the entry statement to the Sculpture by the Sea, 2010's walk, providing a moment of fantasy as you step onto the life sized piano. People got to enjoy their moment on the piano steps as they left the exhibition.


The piano, bold in it's pitch and exquisite in harmony it is one of the most popular instruments in the world (Wikipedia, 2011). I have always loved to hear the piano played, and one day still hold onto the hope of learning how to play myself. The word piano is a shortened form of pianoforte, the Italian word for the instrument (which in turn derives from the previous terms "gravicembalo col piano e forte" and fortepiano). The musical terms "piano" and "forte" mean "quiet" and "loud," and in this context refers to the variations in volume of sound the instrument produces in response to a pianist's touch on the keys: the greater a key press's velocity, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the string(s), and the louder the note produced (Wikipedia, 2011).

Below, we can see how a piano was incorporated into everyday life, to see if people would take the stairs instead of the escalator if it was fun to do.

piano stairs

"Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator and feel better" is something we often hear or read in the Sunday papers. Few people actually follow that advice. The FunFactory.com, a site "dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better", went out to see if they could, in fact, do just that. See the results here