Chess game
Winter Queen, Gallery installation, Nov 2014
List of chapters in 2014 “A walk on the dark side”:
Jan – Dark Night, Feb 2014 – The Tunnel, Mar 2014 – The Invitation, Apr 2014 – Underground Palace, May 2014 – Foxy Gentleman, Jun 2014 – Crystal Lizard, Jul 2014 – Three Little Mice, Aug 2014 – Mr. Mad, Sep 2014 – Chess Game, Oct 2014 – Lost Children, Nov 2014 – The Garden
Chess game
As I touched the wall at the end of the corridor, I could feel it taking on a liquid form. On top of that, the wall had extended two arms to both sides of me. It whispered again, “If you like, I can get you out of here.” The voice was deep and comforting. I didn’t have time to judge the moment at that split second, but my body took a dive back into the wall. As ridiculous as it sounded, I trusted the wall more at that moment.
The arms quickly wrapped around me. As I was swallowed into the wall, before it all closed up in front of me, I saw Mr. Mad’s mouth wide open reaching for me. Right after that I could feel there was someone turning me around to face the other side, and I could see an opening again. It felt like I had just walked through the wall, without delay.
“Hope you are ok.” The deep voice said, “I knew he was gonna do that, so I blocked the corridor to help you. I hope I didn’t scare you.”
Just when I thought the day couldn’t be more strange, I was about to talk to a wall, literally. “Thank you so much for that. I’m really lost here, and I haven’t had a smooth day either.”
“I was going to introduce myself a little earlier, but I wasn’t sure if I should.” The shape of a tall man started to form at the surface of the wall, he then pointed to my left, “If you are looking for the test room, it’s this way.”
I followed his finger, and saw a black door to my left, there was a sign on it which read, “Test Room One”.
I looked back to him, “Thank you indeed. I don’t know why but I feel like I can trust you, in a place like this, I need all of the trust I can get.”
He moved back and disappeared into the wall, “Glad to hear, I can be anywhere, whenever you need me.” And then the wall was flat again, as if the conversation never happened.
I knocked on the door, it wasn’t locked. The door pushed itself open, so I looked into it and said, “Hello?” No one answered, so I thought perhaps I should wait inside. I opened the door, as I stepped in, I saw someone in the middle of the room on all fours, he was wearing a bunny mask, almost naked with red and white picnic cloths on his back.
“I’m glad you’ve made it, that means we can start to have all the fun.” The familiar Winter Queen’s voice had appeared again without her presence.
“You could have told me about Mr. Mad you know.” I was still upset about what happened.
“Oh no dear, you have got the wrong idea.” She responded, “You are responsible for your own safety here, no one is going to look after you.”
Not that I was expecting someone to take care of me, but that sounded rather harsh. She then continued, “Anyhow, I saw you made some friends too. I’m not going to tell you who is naughty and who is nice. This place is not huge, and you will see some of them again, I see everyone equally. There is no such thing as evil or good here, no one is judging anything.”
I wasn’t sure whether that statement made me scared or excited about the possibilities, since I had gone so far and seen so many things, I wasn’t ready to leave yet.
“Okay, so what is going to happen here?” I asked.
“Let’s play chess, shall we?” Winter Queen’s cold voice echoed in the background.
I realised that the man was still on the floor with picnic cloths on his back.
It started to play Danza macabra, op.40 in the background. The side door had opened, two girls wearing polka dot dresses, one white and one black, had walked in from the next room, each were holding a potted plant in their hands. One of them had mini chess pieces in her pocket so when they both sat at the opposite ends of the “table”, she started to assemble the chess pieces on him.
The potted plants were placed on both sides of them. As they started to play chess, they formed a symmetrical image. Everything seemed so familiar, as if I’d imagined them only a few seconds before they’d begun. I just stood there, watching the scenario unfold in front of me secs after my thoughts of next steps, much like a visualisation of my imagination.
There had to be animals now, I thought. Shortly after I thought to myself, rabbits, foxes, dogs, bears had appeared from hidden corners of the room and gathered around the table. They were carrying tea pots, cups, dishes with chocolate cookies, kiwi tarts and orange cake. Some had flowers in their mouths. All moving in a circle, serving food and drinks for the girls during their round of chess.
All of the sudden, there seemed to be a disagreement between the girls, perhaps the girl in the black polka dot dress cheated, they started arguing while slapping the “table”. The girl in the white polka dot dress was trying to explain where it all went wrong, the other girl got even angrier, and swept away the chess pieces onto the floor. The girl wearing white polka dots got even more mad, and pushed the table out of the way. They started to pull each other’s hair and whistle on the floor. All of the animals were trying to avoid the fight while still witnessing the process.
At some point, the fight stopped, everything slowed down, girls started to kiss and caress each other, and animals were trying to take care of each other and making sure no one was hurt.
Music stopped.
List of chapters in 2014 “A walk on the dark side”:
Jan – Dark Night, Feb 2014 – The Tunnel, Mar 2014 – The Invitation, Apr 2014 – Underground Palace, May 2014 – Foxy Gentleman, Jun 2014 – Crystal Lizard, Jul 2014 – Three Little Mice, Aug 2014 – Mr. Mad, Sep 2014 – Chess Game, Oct 2014 – Lost Children, Nov 2014 – The Garden