Bruce Tennyson with David Byrne.
Shortly after my visit to the Museum of Modern Art, I went out with friends to partake in a few adult beverages (or should I say, acute alcohol poisoning). While out, I was the life of the party. So much so that my friends soon forgot about me (as did everyone else in the bar) and I was left alone, locked inside for the entire night. When I finally escaped my tavern entombment, it was just in time to make it across town to the opening of David Bryne’s Playing the Building, a musical instillation art piece constructed in the Battery Marine Building on the southern tip of Manhattan. After downing a full days caloric intake in the form of hot dogs, ice cream and beer, I had a chance to talk to David about his piece.
Bruce Tennyson: “Hello David, long time no see. You’re looking good these days.”
David Byrne: “One must never underestimate the power of a good hairdo.”
BT: “Wow, well I certainly guess not. Anyway, tell me where the idea for Playing the Building came from?”
DB: “One night, after dinner and drinks with my friend David Shrigley, I was biking home. Rather intoxicated, I wrecked my bike when my tire slipped on the cobblestones of West 14th. As I fell to the ground, I clearly remember the diegetic sound of my ribs cracking from the impact of the street below. It was a mysterious sound; I believed to be in the key of E minor. I began thinking of the sounds object made when struck. I have always been fascinated with small things such as paper, animals and a house or building. It was then I decided to see if I could turn a building into its own musical instrument. Something that could be played by certain combinations of wind, vibration, and striking.”
BT: “So what is Playing the Building about? What is its goal?”
DB: “People going into an art institution are usually treated as passive consumers, as vessels to be filled with art on the wall or music emanating from the stage. Playing the Building only exists, and comes to life, when the public participates in it. Because it’s not an instrument that’s been around for a while, there’s no virtuosos. The public senses that. So they lose some of their natural inhibitions about playing on it.”
BT: “So its art that is out of the institution and is fun? Why that’s not art at all! Art is stuffy expensive elitist material that only a few select people in the world even have the ability to comprehend!”
DB: “That is my point exactly! Look at this; it is opening night and just check out the crowd! The line to play the organ traverses all the way to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. There are little kids (well, with their parents), students, twenty-somethings, hipsters, artists and musicians, city officials, and some folks even older than myself! Hundreds of people just hanging out having a good time listening to my iPod. That’s why I served hot dogs and beer and ice cream, to lighten the mood. To make this a fun experience for everyone.”
BT: “That’s great David. Well, except for the fact that you just used 3 terms to describe the same group of people. New York students are basically all just twenty-something hipsters. But seriously this has been an amazing experience, thanks for sharing.”
DB: “Thank you for coming.”
BT: “Oh one more thing, any truth to the rumors of a Talking Heads reunion? When is that going to happen?”
DB: “I’ll tell you later.”
And like that he was gone. And I, well I was left alone, to bang on an old abandoned building.
