photo: Frank Oleski
Washboard Band
Washboard Band
1967
S 1967–3
two-piece construction made of wood, washboard, cymbal, gong, cowbell, harmonium, blowers, wood, leather, metal parts, computer (formerly punched tape), pneumatic system
220 x 77 x 44 cm
Private collection Düsseldorf
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Hamburger Kunsthalle 2003,
Jan-Peter Gehrckens (© NDR 2003)
0:53 min
In the US, in the 1930s, in order to earn money, unemployed Blacks would travel around the country working as one-man bands.
“I speculated […], that I would build a machine that would not try to play music written for performance but would in some way play itself and retain the mechanical sound as an inherent element. I wanted to remove the live performer in favor of an anonymous performance.”
(S. v. H. in: Interview with the magazine MIZUE, Tokyo 1973; reprinted in: Stephan von Huene, Split Tongue, Texts & Interviews, München 2012, p. 55)
