The genesis of this conceptual piece was a concert of “piano theatre” that Pauline Oliveros proposed, probably near the start of 1976. I don’t recall what else was performed, but Pauline hoped to offer Translyvanian Etude, a short scene in which the lid of a grand piano would be opened very slowly from inside, and Ed Harkins, in full Dracula garb, would rise spectrally from the bed of the piano. This would require a piano with all the works removed, which Pauline managed to obtain from a local piano firm. The opportunity suggested to me a set of what I then called “piano tableaux”, which in the event were distributed without notice through the program. The empty piano was placed behind a second stage curtain, together with a stanchion bearing an announcement placard, vaudeville-style. Between other acts the piano behind the second curtain was repositioned to represent five “tableaux” in succession: Piano at Work; Piano at Play; Piano at Prayer; Piano Asleep; and Dead Piano. For each tableau, the second curtain slowly opened, remained open for about three minutes (time enough for the laughter to die down and the image to be fully appreciated), and then slowly closed.
My calendar for 1976 records, for February 12, “pick up piano”; and, for February 18, “piano theatre concert” (I have not yet been able to confirm the date or the location with another source). Photographs were taken, but they may have been lost; in any case I cannot now locate them. However, early in 1978 I received a letter from someone in Wisconsin—not yet identified—who requested information about the UCSD concert. I sketched five pictures depicting the various tableaux the best I could, and I wrote Jay Kinney, who was an artist and a member of the Bryant’s Ridge community to which I still officially belonged, to ask him to make proper drawings. I don’t believe Jay ever did that—or even responded—so there the matter rested. But I considered the piece complete, though only in fair copy, and in subsequent work lists over the next several years I listed the title as Exhibit.
The matter is complicated, however, because in 1977 and 1978 I titled this work Field Study, reserving the title Exhibit for a different theatre piece, in which a case is constructed around a grand piano. Correspondence with Conrad De Jong—instigated by Pauline Oliveros—makes this clear.