Chess in a Round

Medium: Participatory performance, video documentation
See the sculptural pieces here
Year and Locations:
2026, Governor’s Island, NY
2025, Brooklyn, NY
2021, Washington Square Park, NY
2018, Land fall residency, NY

A socially engaged project that aims to empower people through a series of collaborative chess performances with a handmade sculptural set.

In Chess in the Round, up to ten players engage in a single game of chess. Through a collaborative process of seeing and discussing the possibilities of the board, each participant takes a turn to decide the next move. This pedagogical, empathetic approach becomes a platform for learning the game, connecting with one another, and practicing the act of listening to collective opinion before deciding on the next best move.

All of the original rules of chess are kept intact in the performance. Through queering the pawns and pieces, the artist breaks some of the binary paradigms of thinking embedded in the game and create the conditions for a more fluid reading of the board.