Vanessa Lam
13 April 2015: Brightly coloured pianos have been hitting all the right notes across campus thanks to arts and design students from Shanghai Normal University (SHNU), who visited the University of Canberra to take part in the public art project.
Five students and their lecturer travelled from China to paint pianos for permanent display around campus, as part of a joint project between the University of Canberra's Faculty of Arts and Design and UC Music.
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Shanghai Normal University lecturer Kevin He paints a piano that represents the landscapes of Canberra and skyline of Shanghai. Photo: Vanessa Lam
The four pianos were donated by members of the public and staff from the University of Canberra and placed around campus during Orientation Week, taking their place as public, interactive art. Many of the designs on the pianos show some Canberra inspiration, while some represent the juxtaposition of Australia and China.
"The piano painted with a black and white design has vertical lines representing the skyscrapers in Shanghai, where public space is quite limited, while on the front of the piano there are horizontal lines which represent Canberra's horizon landscapes," University of Canberra assistant professor of graphic design Fanke Peng said.
The students travelled to Australia for the first time as part of a six-day trip where they visited many of Canberra's cultural institutions and took part in workshops with design staff to gain an understanding of Australian art and design.
Dr Peng said that the aim of the project was for students to apply the experiences and learning from this trip into their future artworks and to also add work to their portfolios.
"It was a good hands-on project because it will give them the opportunity to apply what they have learnt from the whole trip and the inspiration they took from sightseeing around Australia in to their work back home. Most importantly, they had a chance to exhibit something in Canberra, which I think for them is really meaningful."
Shanghai student Junyi Sun said that he really enjoyed his time in Australia.
"It's a very cool place, totally different from China because it's more of a natural landscape," Mr Sun said.
He said the red and yellow colours in his piano design were chosen to represent parts of China and Australia's national colours, and that it also features Chinese characters that symbolises life as a young artist.
The other SHNU students and lecturer who participated in the project were Yinong Qian, Chengyu Wang, Zhang Hao He, Ruiqi Wang and Kevin He. Along with Dr Peng, the project was also coordinated by assistant professor of media and graphic design Lisa Scharoun and UC Music director Rasa Daukus.
The University's partnership with SHNU will also see University of Canberra honours students from the Faculty of Arts and Design travel to Shanghai in November for a two-week exchange, where they have an exhibition in M50 Creative Park, an art district in Shanghai.
