Mind games

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Tags: art, UQ Art Museum, winter-2011

Madeline Stone admires Alastair Mackie's Amorphous organic (2008)

The UQ Art Museum recently paired two remarkable chess-themed exhibitions for a national exclusive.

Famous artists including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin were among the players in two chess-themed exhibitions on show at St Lucia recently.

The Art of Chess, which featured works by 15 of some of the most acclaimed international contemporary artists, was secured by the UQ Art Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery for an exclusive Australian tour.

“The game of chess is traditionally perceived as a subdued, cerebral and introspective activity,” curator Tansy Curtin said.

“However, the creation of new artworks informed by the notion of the game of chess adds a new dimension to the game itself: chess acquires a new visual persona; beauty and drama alongside intrigue and threat become implicit aspects of the game.”

The exhibition incorporated innovative chess sets commissioned from artists including Maurizio Cattelan (Italy), Jake and Dinos Chapman, Rachel Whiteread, Oliver Clegg, Paul Fryer, Alastair Mackie, Gavin Turk (UK), Tom Friedman, Barbara Kruger, Paul McCarthy, Matthew Ronay (USA), Yayoi Kusama (Japan) and Tunga (Brazil).

Facing off against this stellar line-up was Your Move: Australian artists play chess.

Thirteen artists were invited to produce 12 works, commissioned as part of the largest grant ever awarded by Visions of Australia.

Artists featured in Your Move included Benjamin Armstrong, Lionel Bawden, Sebastian Di Mauro, Michael Doolan, Emily Floyd, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Robert Jacks, Danie Mellor, Kate Rohde, Caroline Rothwell, Sally Smart and Ken Yonetani.

Players in the away team included a finely crafted set of glass and silver pill bottles with surgical trolley chessboard by Damien Hirst, and a good versus evil set by Maurizio Cattelan that pits Hitler, Rasputin and Al Capone against Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Superman.

Players in Your Move included human-animal hybrids, literary characters and beer bottles and coasters set up to play on a rickety Australian picnic table.

Rachel Whiteread's Modern chess set (2005)

“You don’t have to play chess or know its history to enjoy the strategies played out by the artists in these exhibitions – and, indeed, not all the commissioned artists themselves are chess players,” UQ Art Museum curator Michele Helmrich said.

“But, as the legendary artist and chess player Marcel Duchamp said: ‘while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists’.”

During the exhibitions’ opening week, visitors were able to watch members of the UQ Chess Club do battle in the museum and even participate in a game.

The Art of Chess and Your Move: Australian artists play chess appeared until the end of April.

The UQ Art Museum is open to the public from 10am–4pm seven days a week, with parking free on weekends.

By Michelle Helmrich

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