First Version, 1998-1999
Six handprinted chessboards, six chess scores, ten handmade
wooden stamp-chess pieces, one hanging shelf
Dimensions variable: Chessboards (24 x 24 in each),
chess scores (5 1/4 x 8 in each)
Installation at Houghton Gallery, New York, 1999
PL CAT#: 98.xx.424.0001.25.345
View of installation
Eight Visual Dialogues (Ocho Dialogos Visuales)
Second Version, 1999
Artist book based on 1998-1999 games, chess case with altered
brass chess pieces and rubber stamps, chess board sheets
for visitors to record their own games (unlimited supply)
Dimensions variable: Artist book (8 1/4 x 8 1/4 in),
chess case (12 x 12 x 2 1/2 in), chess board sheets (11 x 11 in each)
Installation at Baltic: The Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England
PL CAT#: 99.xx.424.0020.25.345
Sample page from artist book component
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| Three views of chessboard , chess pieces, and artist book components | |||
This work and artist's book document a set of chess games, which concluded in 1999.
Eight people were invited to play. Six of them accepted.
Two structures were devised to trace these non-verbal intellectual dialogues.
The moves were transcribed into Uedelmann code, originally designed to play
chess over the telegraph. The code reduces the moves to a series of monosyllabic
utterances.
In addition, the chess pieces themselves were turned into stamps, whose imprints
subdivide the squares on which they once stood, allowing a layered and static
apprehension of the game.
The final players were:
Michio Hayachi, David Weir, Doug Ashford, Hans Haacke,
Andreas Killen, Day Gleeson, and Pedro Lasch
While still being able to view the past games through the artist book, the 1999 version
also allows new players to use the chess stamps and chess board sheets to record their
own games.