This project is a third year university installation. We were asking to create an installation in an historical place. The place chose was a Fort Based in Chatham, Kent. The fort has been built after the invation of the French in Kent. The installation need to be insitu.
This installation is my recreation and development of a chess game. A game I played during her childhood with my father.
Playing chess require mathematics, strategy and tactic. I related this old and famous game to the Fort as a metaphor in response to the military history of the site.
Strategy has always been pivotal to the winning of battles.
The personification of the king and the queen pieces is for is essential and represent the power struggles between France and England at that time. I wanted to talk about the reason why the fort was actually built - the fear of a French invasion overland. To make visible this tension I decided to split the board game in two parts. In fact, the two armies represented by the pieces are displayed in two different levels, the space between these two parts represent the Fort. In fact, thanks to the steps it is more difficult to access the opponent part of the board and so to win the battle.
This installation is made from recycled material. I played with scale making this version bigger than usual, making it sculptural.
Going into the corridor to the actual chessboard, if you look at your left the audience will
find an explanation on how to move the pieces.
This installation is interactive. I wanted poeple to feel free to play and interact to the game.