The exhibition is an installation of 32 paintings of chess pieces, shown in the Old Morgue, Plymouth from 19 May – 22 July 2023.
For the opening launch, 40 chess players fight for a unique trophy in a blitz tournament surrounded by the paintings watching their game. This took place squeezed in every corner of the old morgue, and down the street, surrounded by all the guests and paintings looking at them play.
Click to see the launch event, buzzing with a blitz chess championship and watch the video below:
Each chess piece depicts someone who’s had a significant impact on my life – intended or unintended – and is accompanied by a line representing their relationship to me, taken from David Bowie’s epic song Heroes.
The abstraction of character, physicality and my own ever-changing relationship and understanding of each person is expressed through symbols within an ancient game. The brushstrokes, scale, colour and position search out their internal turmoil, outward appearance and connection to me.
The game started with a dare challenged by a cage fighter, with the aim to meet, play one game of chess, the winner selecting the stakes. The chess set became my world, a deeply personal story, a multi-layered dangerous game, each piece symbolising a significant character in my life. The interaction between love, passion, acceptance and humility mixed with power, trauma, jealousy and sublimation. A fine balance of rules, boundaries, compassion and surrender played out the rules and relationships we chose to play.
The series of paintings then began in lockdown, when I spent many months selecting characters, categorising, agonising over relationships and swapping people in and out of the game. As I listened to Bowie, stuck in my house, the chess board came alive. Each person assigned a line of his song Heroes, rather than the traditional parings of opponents and allies. My lockdown heroes playing out my inner world.
Whilst making the piece I felt controlled by others’ assumed place at the table, on the board, resulting in more significant players offering up their connection to ease my anxiety. It’s my game but somehow unspoken contracts make for uncomfortable decisions. Meanwhile how to chose black versus white and the presumed connotations. The intimate act of selection, then painting each portrait alone in my studio, was blown away when exhibited in the morgue with all my decisions exposed. The end of relationships for some, others cemented.
