Based on Albrect Dürer 'Four Apostles' (1526) where a community of feeling is created through the shared ritual of grief. In Viola's interpretation the actors form a narrow row and are asked to step forward to look at 'something they would rather not see... to say goodbye to someone who'd left them'. As each person moves to the front of the row they pause, as if overcome with emotion. Their shared mourning creates a solemn public event that gains added poignancy in the context of contemporary world events. The clothes worn by the actors are overtly contemporary, but their saturated colours pay homage to Dürer's original scheme, and the traditional colours worn by the Apostles.

Provenance

The artist.