​Your Move: Australian artists play chess / 14 October – 16 December 2011


Image: Robert Jacks, Black on black, white on white, 2010, acrylic, enamel on timber, 90 x 72 x 72 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and BLOCKPROJECTS, Melbourne. Photography by Ian Hill.

"From my close contact with artists and chess players I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists." Marcel Duchamp

Inspired by the international exhibition The Art of Chess, Bendigo Art Gallery has commissioned thirteen of Australia's leading artists to respond to the notion of the game of chess.

Your Move features artists Benjamin Armstrong, Lionel Bawden, Sebastian Di Mauro, Michael Doolan, Emily Floyd, Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Robert Jacks, Danie Mellor, Kate Rohde, Caroline Rothwell, Sally Smart and Ken Yonetani who have responded to the commission in entirely different ways, and the ideas and issues adopted in their works relate to a diverse range of current social, political and environmental concerns.

The exhibition will intrigue not only chess enthusiasts, but also followers of contemporary art. Your Move illustrates that in the 21st century, chess has lost none of its inspirational power.

"Chess is thought to have originated in India or Persia around the seventh century and since this time has maintained its prominence and popularity worldwide. During the early Middle Ages, chess became a source of inspiration and fascination for artists and writers alike and has continued to do so over the last 700 years…" Tansy Curtin, curator, Bendigo Art Gallery, from the Your Move exhibition catalogue.

Education resource 

Media release 

Your Move on SA Life (video)   

 

Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia, acknowledges the Kaurna people as traditional custodians of the land upon which the Museum stands.