A $175,000 Steinway Grand, transformed into a one-of-a-kind artwork by indigenous artist Judy Watson, is up for sale.

Created for the 2007 Queensland Music Festival by indigenous artist Judy Watson in the remote town of Winton, the first Australian Steinway Art Case Piano is both a vivid work of creative expression and a beautiful instrument. Now the unique piano-cum-artwork is up for sale.

Steinway have been commissioning “art case” pianos since 1857. Other recent artists who have created designs include fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld and American craft movement pioneer Wendell Castle. When Watson was first presented with the $175,000 Steinway to use as her canvas, the black and white keys immediately spoke to her as a metaphor for the history of Queensland and her family’s story. Describing her processes, Watson says, “I imagined the piano played in the desert at Winton quivering with heat and sound like a mirage. My memories of colour of this place are whites, yellow ochres, blues and oranges; mesa-shaped hills, caves, dinosaur country. The shells sing of the inland sea fossilised within the ground.”

Shells are embedded into the sound case of the piano. Watson explains, “I have placed a bailer shell on the piano, it is another cultural vessel. It was used to bail water out of Indigenous canoes and a receptacle for red ochre used in healing, for painting up and ceremony. It is essentially a female form.” More shells are pinned to the sides of the piano. “Pearl shells inscribed with red ochre evoke the trading routes that criss-cross Aboriginal Australia and the message sticks that relayed information between different language groups. These appear like finger pads sitting on the ends of the white keys of the piano.” The white keys are adorned with laser-etched thumbprints, collected from Watson’s family and other Indigenous people in reference to a time in Australian history when thumbprints were used to identify Indigenous people. Whoever plays the piano will be touching those fingerprints with their own.

Watson also took inspiration from the piano’s own materials: “A bloodline made from the same red bushing cloth that is a part of the piano’s construction twines across the space where the instrument will be played.” She also worked with the instrument’s shapes and colours, exploring layers of dialogue between Indigenous and European culture: “Some of the highly reflective black lacquer finish of the instrument has been retained and some of the wood has been burnt into scar like shapes. A vertical row of white rib-bone boomerang shapes float on the front-lid of the instrument.”

While using a piano of such a high monetary value as a canvas may seem extravagant, Watson didn’t baulk at working with such expensive materials – the budget pales in comparison to that of some of her public artworks. Despite the depth of symbolism and integration of the artistic statements, the instrument remains in perfect working order. Her work on the piano was undertaken in consultation with expert piano technicians so as not to compromise the instrument’s action or sound – she was limited to two shells embedded into the sound case, for example – because Watson, Steinway and the Queensland Music Festival wanted this instrument to be played. 

Paul Grabowsky, the Director of the Queensland Music Festival when the artwork was commissioned, was the first to perform on the instrument-artwork at a special launch before it was shipped to Winton for the festival’s opening ceremonies. Now up for sale, at Theme and Variations Piano Services in Sydney, there is an opportunity for someone to own a magnificent and poignant piece of art that also boasts a rich musical heritage. As Watson says, “Even when it is silent sound emanates from it. The piano resonates with invisible music. The shell contains the sound of the sea.”

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