de-finition/method “listening to painting, looking at music”
this pictorial piece works in conjunction with beethoven’s string quartet in f minor, opus 95 (serioso)
a square space large enough for four musicians to sit comfortably is marked out on the ground.
four stacks of canvases are placed around the square. some of the canvases are painted white while others are painted black. the canvases are assembled randomly (so that the black and white don’t alternate regularly) into screens of two, three, or four panels.
just before the first movement begins, a screen made of four canvases is unfolded more or less regularly along one of the sides of the marked-out space. before the beginning of the second movement, a new screen is added. the panels should remain folded enough to allow the screens to stand upright. this is repeated for the third movement. before the beginning of the fourth movement, the remaining screens are positioned so as to hide the musicians.
the remaining link between the musicians and the audience is the music.
the pictorial ensemble is superimposed on the music; it changes the way the canvases are viewed, the way painting is viewed, while also altering ordinary listening, particularly during the last movement. the musicians will not see the audience, and the audience will not see the musicians, yet the audience is not listening to a record, and the musicians are not rehearsing; both the audience and the musicians are at a concert.