Lennon piano center of anti-war exhibit
Source: Reuters
By Ed Stoddard DALLAS, Dec 8 (Reuters Life!) - The piano on which the late John Lennon composed his famous anti-war song "Imagine" in 1971 has taken center stage at a photo exhibit in Dallas that explores the toll that conflict takes on people and places. The plain-looking beige piano is on display at the Goss Gallery in Dallas. Its owner Kenny Goss is the long-time partner of British pop star George Michael who bought it in 2000 at an auction for 1.45 million British pounds. The photos celebrate the work of three photographers - Britain's Don McCullin, Italy's Gabriele Basilico and Chile's Tomas Munita - who have worked in various war zones. "The reason we chose to do this in Texas, is because this is the home of the man who put us in Iraq," Goss told Reuters at the exhibit, referring to U.S. President George W. Bush who is a Texan. "The exhibit shows what war does to countries," he said. McCullin's black and white series is from Vietnam. It includes a harrowing photograph of a dead North Vietnamese soldier on the ground. A photo of a young girl lies beside him amid scattered bullets - the tools of his trade. In another, an American soldier kneels in the open air for confession before a priest seated by a mountain of sandbags. Basilico's contribution, also in black and white, features five stark portraits of Beirut in 1991. Once beautiful buildings stand abandoned and derelict, pockmarked with bullet holes and other scars of war. One previously elegant building looks as if its guts have been ripped out, its entrails a pile of rubble at its base. Munita's photos from Afghanistan focus on day-to-day life in a conflict zone. In one, a smiling family sits huddled around an outside fire for warmth against the backdrop of a rusting mass of spent vehicles and a haunting, pink-grey sky. At the center of the exhibit stands John Lennon's piano, which made its American debut last month with an odd appearance at the site where U.S. President John F. Kennedy was gunned down on the 43rd anniversary of his assassination on Nov 22. The ex-Beatle Lennon and Kennedy were both icons of the 1960s who were assassinated but had little else in common. Lennon was murdered outside his New York apartment building on Dec 8, 1980. The exhibit runs until January 13.
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