WHERE
Be enchanted and awed by Rodney
Berry’s living organ composed from
weather balloons and pipes set in the
atmospheric Old Quad, the historic centre
of the University of Melbourne.
Old Quadrangle
University of Melbourne
WHEN
M
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W
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F
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TIMES
Fri
Sat & Sun
THE VITAL
ORGAN
& THE LAUNDRY
ORGAN
2PM & 4.15PM
2PM, 4.15PM & 6.30PM
Grainger’s self-designed instruments
seemed to possess a life and soul
of their own. Artist Rodney Berry’s
musical ‘organs’ take it one step
further: instruments that breathe and
sing, inspired by Grainger’s Free Music
Machines.
Built from the most unlikely of materials,
Berry’s musical machines are organs for
a secular age. His Vital Organ uses PVC
pipes and weather balloons to create an
instrument that exhales, while Percy’s
Laundry Organ repurposes washing
machine parts, rubber, a vacuum cleaner
and more to pay tribute to Grainger’s
experimental designs. As enchanting as
they are alien, these artificial lifeforms
straddle the same boundaries between
the worldly and the sublime that drove
Grainger’s often outrageous artistic quest.
Rodney Berry is an artist, composer,
lecturer and researcher whose practice
has ranged from sculptural musical
instruments and sound installations to
computer-based interactive artworks.
THE LAUNDRY ORGAN
As you make your way across campus
be sure to visit Rodney Berry’s Laundry
Organ - a Free Music Machine composed
of everyday domestic objects. The
Laundry Organ sits silently in the
heritage-listed underground car park
until, at the press of a button, it whoops,
gurgles and grinds its cacophonic tribute
to Grainger.
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