Capitol 1 Giaco Guitar Sculpture (05/100)

Description

Following the inspiration of his work as an artist and award-winning documentary filmmaking in the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Pascal Giacomini set out on an audacious new experiment: using the material form and aesthetics of vintage American oil cans from the 1940s and 50s to fashion elegant guitars with perfect pitch. This endeavor of “recycling leftovers of American capitalism into art and music” would be remarkable for any artist. But considering that Giacomini neither reads music nor plays an instrument (and is functionally tone deaf), it is an especially stunning undertaking. Each guitar combines a vintage oil can with a proprietary resonating chamber lined with either mahogany or sweetly tonal Swamp Ash wood, custom Telecaster necks and a novel fabrication technique without the use of either glue or nails. The result is a masterwork guitar creation, delivering absolute continuity of sound, with a signature tone, sustain and resonance, and total originality of presentation.

As playable works of musical art, these guitars stand out as perhaps the first significant new hybrid guitar concept since Leo Fender and Les Paul unveiled the solid-body electric guitar around 1950. Each is suspended in a unique mount designed and sculpted by Giacomini from which it can easily be removed to play. The unique flat bases of the guitars allow them to stand freely without a stand in a performance setting or proudly displayed in a home environment. Giaco Guitars are a limited series of up to 100 original, numbered guitars already attracting much attention from leading musicians, guitar aficionados and art collectors alike. One of the guitars was recently featured in the 2023 exhibition Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and showcased at the famous Guitar Center in Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard in the summer of 2024.