4 for Four
1st & 3rd
The wolf's Theme
Blind Test
A Song for Andre Renard

1st & 3rd
Installation; Sheet music, stands, violin, pot plants, malachite
2010

The installation 1st and 3rd is inspired by the fact that David Oistrakh played the 1st and 3rd movements of Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata no 1 at Prokofiev’s funeral. The piece had previously been dedicated to Oitsrakh and is one of Prokofiev’s darkest. Oistrakh and Prokofiev were both artists who were seen to represent the voices of the Soviet people through their music and performances. Both suffered from the restrictions and authority of the Soviet regime. This led them to lead lives that, in many ways, could be seen to represent the complexities and conflictual nature of speaking politically.
In the installation, an object is placed in the 1st and 3rd sections of the space, one for Prokofiev and Oistrakh respectively. In the 1st section, potted flowers are placed for Prokofiev. These recall that, at his funeral, all the flowers had been reserved for the funeral of Stalin, which led to some people bringing pots of flowers from their house to place beside his grave. In each pot, a small sphere of malachite has been buried. On the day of Prokofiev’s death, he was thought to have been working on corrects for his most recent ballet The Tale of the Stone Flower. The story of the ballet is based on an old Russian legend of a man who is enslaved by the Mistress of the Mountain through his quest for a perfect artistic creation, a flower carved from malachite that appears life-like.
A violin is placed for Oistrakh in the 3rd section of the space. A small sound hole is cut into the back of the violin, at the point where it touches the player’s shoulder.