WATCH: Rick Unger celebrates his birthday with a piano burn.
WINNIPEG – The candle at Rick Unger’s birthday party was suitably unusual and rather difficult to extinguish.
Unger, a Winnipeg artist and musician known for his outlandish creations, celebrated his 48th birthday with a piano-burning party on the weekend.
“I told everyone ‘I can’t blow this out,’ “ he said with a laugh.
Unger burned a friend’s old wood piano, which was damaged enough that it wasn’t worth repairing, on a rural Manitoba property Saturday. He invited musician friends to play as it burned and photographers documented the scene.
“A piano, when it’s run its course and is no longer usable, what’s better? Sending it to the landfill or giving it one last epic performance?” Unger said Monday. “I think it’s a fitting tribute.”
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GALLERY: Artist burns piano. Photos courtesy of Dan Dyck, Matthew Veith and David Dyck.
Unger stuffed newspaper into the bottom of the piano and added lamp fuel to help the flames, with fire extinguishers and a hose nearby. Lamp fuel isn’t as volatile as other flammable liquids – it requires a wick to burn in most conditions, Unger explained.
“I don’t want any explosions. I want flame,” he said.
Unger creates unusual artwork such as his and Gilbert Detilleux’s Phineas Farnsworth’s Phanto-graphic Stereo-morpho-scope installation at the Winnipeg Folk Music Festival in 2014, which returns in 2015. He’s been known to go tobogganing in an old wooden rowboat, conceived of a series of photos in which he recreated scenes from the movie The Lazarus Project at Canadian Mennonite University but with himself in the position of actor Paul Walker, and he builds and rides unusual custom bicycles.
He first got the idea for a piano burn four years ago, when another friend with a piano that was no longer worth repairing asked Unger – knowing his predilection for unusual art – if he wanted it.
Unger first decided to make it a piece of yard art at his Winnipeg home, but thought he’d better make sure it was far away from his fire pit because it could burn. Then inspiration struck.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this piano would burn really well.’ “
The 2011 piano burn was a formal dress affair at which a pianist sat down and performed as the flames started to consume the instrument. This time, it was more of a party atmosphere, but Unger admitted the music was lacking.
“As soon as the heat hits the strings, there’s just no sound,” he said of the piano.
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