The Changing Players

An android and a primate are ready to play chess in a liminal space where mixed realities collide; fuchsia dunes, clouds passing overhead and a cracked ceiling bringing focus back to the disintegrating chequered floor. As game commences, the ape is distracted and plays with his heart on the table whilst the android sharpens his focus. Lights flicker, the static on the back wall flickers rapidly, the pace picking up as the android closes in on the winning move - check-mate on humanity (the heart). But is it really check-mate? There is a third character, appearing as a digital glitch from the archway of light in front of which the game is played. It is the spirit of the machine, intervening perhaps as a savior or perhaps not… Directly inspired by the 1831 painting by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch entitled, Die Schachspieler or The Chess Players, which depicts the Devil battling with a man for his soul through a game of chess, The Changing Players widens the discussion to encompass the role of AI - which the artist used to generate his characters. The liminal space within which they play is a reference to our time, this inbetween of realities, not quite human, not quite computer where boundaries are unclear. In this composition, the machine breaks its own rules, cords emerging from hidden portals and sinking into the chess board floor.