The Van Cliburn keyboard, 1977

In September of 1977 the Van Cliburn competition was held at the Landreth Auditorium on the TCU campus.  I wanted to create a soft sculptured piano keyboard to be mounted on the wall which was 19 feet long.  I raised money for the project by offering small scale models of an octave which were made of canvas, and in some cases, satin.

The Cliburn keyboard, a site-specific installation 

This was  a valentine keyboard made of velvet and satin.
 It was actually a study for the larger ones.

A satin keyboard scaled the same as the finished project keys

One of the octaves from the finished keyboard

After the competition the keyboard went to the Cliburn Foundation, where it hung on their wall for a long time.  I don't know what finally happened to it.  Strings that went up from the keys on the wall were lost after the first installation and never found.

In the back yard at 6633 Campana, later that same year