COLOR AND SOUND
Painted pianos are coming to Stamford’s downtown
STAMFORD — The Stamford Downtown Special Services District plans to put pianos in almost every public space imaginable this summer. But first, the artists need to finish them.
“I have lots of surfaces to cover,” Amrita Majumder said.
Majumder’s one of the artists tasked with painting a piano for this year’s Art in Public Places exhibit. She has until May 17 to finish her piece of the “The Piano Project.” Majumder decided to turn her upright piano into a puppet show, and the instrument is her stage. The DSSD will place all the pianos across Stamford’s main streets by June 1, where they will remain until September.
“It’s always like that,” said Diana Smith, another artist for the initiative.
“I’ll be going right up to the deadline.”
To complete her work in time, Majumder plans to spend plenty of hours crouched in weird positions to paint the instrument’s nooks and crannies. She’s trying to create an intricate Kathputli display — a type of Indian puppet show common in the state of Rajasthan.
“I wanted something colorful to
“All the pianos are in working condition, so we’re putting it out there with the intention of letting people just play.” Annette Einhorn, Stamford Downtown Events Director
grab some attention from cars when they zoom by,” she said. The DSSD hasn’t told her where her piano will eventually go, but she knows it will catch peoples’ eyes no matter what.
Smith’s piano concept, however, breaches into more psychedelic territory. Smith painted flashes of red and green and yellow on every panel possible. Little dots litter the entire instrument. They make rippling designs on top of the colored patches.
The dots are a reoccurring theme in Smith’s work. “I’ve been painting dots for years,” she said while craned over her piano, placing little circles. They first showed up in her work when she was in her 20s. Back then — in the 1970s — everybody was learning in to trippy aesthetics. For her, it just stuck.
Altogether, the DSSD and its donors are sponsoring 25 pianos, each decorated by an artist from the tri-state area. A panel of judges whittled down almost 150 applications into the group they eventually chose. Artists could submit up to four different designs for the jury’s consideration.
During the exhibit’s formal run, the DSSD wants to ensure that interactivity stays at the forefront of people’s minds. They’ve organized a virtual walking tour complete with artists renderings and notes about each piano through the Otocast app, but that’s just the beginning.
“All the pianos are in working condition, so we’re putting it out there with the intention of letting people just play,” Stamford Downtown Events Director Annette Einhorn said. The business improvement district’s staff also hopes to bring in local musicians to put on a show and help fill the city’s downtown with music and laughter after a particularly silent year.
After such a difficult 2020, Majumder sees the piano installation as almost an artistic communion. The 2021 season is her 4th time participating in Stamford’s biennial interactive art show — she has painted rocket ships and art shapes, even dinosaurs. The enduring community of regional artists is what keeps her coming back.
“The most important thing is that you get to meet so many artists and exchange so many ideas,” she said.