Objective:
Option 1- Chess Set:
To design and create a chess set and a playing board. The set can be a partial or total unit depending upon the complexity of the design, however the final sculpture must appear to be a chess set. A chess set usually has 52 pieces (you can do 26) and will need a modular clay tile chess board to fit your full or partial set. Chess pieces are to be no smaller than 5” H and no lager than 8” H.
Option 2- Toy Multiples:
To design and create your own toy. The design should consider how this toy would appear in multiples and consider connections and or assembly - like leggos, tinker toys or building blocks. Toys are for play as well as education. What does your toy do or teach? Is it for an adult or child, or both? The design can also consider a more complex original toy and its display. The complex toy must be also made as multiples. As in the chess set, the toy option considers design relationships and display of multiple parts to create the aesthetic effect. This option was inspired by Ray Gonzalez’s sculpture, www.gonzalezstudio.com. Also recommended are the sculptural works of Boomer Moore. Please note: Be original --- Do not copy a Gonzalez Sculpture, do not use found toys or Barbie for this project option.
Option 3: Multiples Installation: To create a sited installation composed of molded multiples. The installation is to be a social commentary that is related to the site of the installation, the site must be a 4x4’ space. The installation must include 40 multiples.
Form Type:
Option 1- Chess Set:
Open to choice and to be related to the concept you choose. The form can be representational, non-objective, abstracted or a combination of styles. Each form must be a sculpture, expressed fully in the round, and clearly readable as a chess piece. One basic form design can be the basis for all chess pieces since the press-molded form can be adapted through modeled additions.
Option 2- Toys Multiple:
Open to choice and to be related to the concept you choose. The form can be representational, non-objective, abstracted or a combination of styles. Each form must be sculptural and expressed fully in the round.
Option 2- Multiples Installation:
Open to choice and to be related to the concept you choose and the site.
The scale is to be oversized with a minimum vertical measurement of 8 inches. The sculpture must be visually detailed and compelling.
Note: When deciding upon the scale, consider the design and how it can be sectioned to make a plaster mold. Streamlined forms can work well at smaller scale.
Technique:
Plasticine or Amaco Versa Clay No. 20, Vincent’s Cadillac or any smooth clay for Models, Alginate Casts for detailing surface, Sectional Plaster Molds, slip cast or press molded final forms. We will make models and take molds from the models. The final chess pieces/sculptures will be press-molded or slip-cast depending upon the visual design. You will be using your mold to create multiples. Think about the design carefully to see how one basic chess form can be used to generate others. Detail can be applied individually to pieces. Think about the Chinese warrior army which was made from basic molds and further developed beyond the mold. Thus you can easily make more than two pieces; perhaps a king and queen from each side which are glazed differently. Or perhaps more knights to give a sense of the area of the board.
Conceptual Key: The Interpretation of Chess Pieces and how dichotomy or opposition relates to our culture.
Conceptual Resource Information
In 1968 the Metropolitan Museum of Art featured an exhibition with catalogue that centered upon chess as a universally played game; one that crosses cultures and time periods.
Charles K. Wilkinson, Curator Emeritus of Near Eastern Art in his catalogue essay states (about Chess):
“In Europe and America it is known as an intellectual game with precise rules played with thirty-two pieces on a board of sixty-four squares. In the representational sets we have almost a miniature world of fashion. They (referring to chess pieces/sets) also reflect all sorts of historical events, reminding us especially of wars, both foreign and domestic, and of revolutions and uprisings. Some were made for purposes of propaganda: to further a favorite cause or to express disagreement with international arrangements. Conflicting ideologies, both political and religious, are shown, and even frivolous oppositions are embodied in these small objects, such as that presumed to exist between blondes and brunettes. In fact, all kinds of confrontations are manifest in chessman, some whimsical, some meaningless, almost all reflecting the artistic fashions of the age in which they were made. They thus form a running commentary on decorative art as it changes from century to century.”
YOUR CHALLENGE IS TO CONTINUE THIS COMMENTARY through your design of chess pieces.
In his description Wilkinson offers the following historical background:
“Chess is a game of war played on a marked surface between symbolic armies of a certain composition, usually but not always, two in number. Although there are other games of a warlike nature, with pieces being besieged or captured, in chess the opposing sides represent the four main branches of a military force once used in a certain part of the ancient world: chariotry, elephant corps, cavalry, and infantry. It was an army of this kind that Alexander the Great encountered when he invaded northwest India in 326 B.C. Originally in chess each army had, in addition to these four branches, a king and a counselor or minister. Pieces were captured, pieces could be promoted. The game came to an end by checkmate (where a king rendered vulnerable, was unable to move or screen himself) by stalemate (when the side whose turn it was to move could not do so), or by bare king (when a king was the sole survivor of one side).
Despite the changes the game has undergone, with the loss of many of it original symbolic meanings, ca continuity can be established. They was variety even in the early days of chess, and there is today. The inventions of new forms has never ceased.”
PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS WHEN DEVELOPING YOUR IDEA. Answering these questions will help you clarify your idea. Specificity will lend power to your sculpture.
How will you relate the chess pieces to our time and to contemporary aesthetics?
How will you make a contemporary design? Will you consider an artistic style like post-modernism, cubism, or an artist like Brancusi’s work to consider a reductive vision?
Do you wish to reflect a social, political, or autobiographical event?
Chess portrayed battle often war, how do you choose to relate this; as a serious dichotomy, as duality, as opposition (i.e. good versus evil), as war?
Other references: (these are the books used for the visual presentation)
June/Jul American Craft magazine p. 40, “Checkmate! Design Students Reimagine the Chess Set.”
“The Imagery of Chess Revisited”, Edited by: Larry List, Introduction by Ingrid Schaffner, George Braziller Publishers, New York, 2005, NK4696.163 2005
“Chess: East and West, Past and Present”, Introduction by Charles K. Wilkinson, Curator Emeritus of Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 731.89794140411C, (on reserve at the FAA Library)
“The Connisseur”, Jan.-April 1987, Chessmen: Their History is Ancient, their Appeal Universal, by
Robin Duthy, pages 120-124. 705C752
“Architectural Digest”, Sept. – Dec. 1992, Antiques: Chess Sets, by Richard Coniff, pages 154-157. 724.979405A673
“Art and Antiques”, Jan.- May 1995, Chess: It’s Your Move, by Maura Sheely, pages 39-41. N6505A551
Websites:
Chess sets have been repopularized.
http://www.thechesspiece.com/categories.asp?id=81
http://www.thechesspiece.com/products.asp?id=84
http://eyelevel.si.edu/2005/11/game_of_kings_a.html (there is a list of artist links on this site follow them).
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/gallery/2003/06/17/MaxErnstset_chess.jpg
http://www.chesshouse.com/Art_Chess_Pieces_p/6361.htm (The Art of Chess Pieces – author Linder)
http://www.chesshouse.com/chess_sets_and_boards_s/1.htm
http://unique-gifts.novica.com/gifts-for-him/auto-part-chess-set-rustic-warriors/103619/ auot part chess sets a bit mainstream kitsche)
http://www.emuseumstore.com/category/53
Technical Demonstrations - (these are designed to parallel project content and to present materials that will expand your skill base)
Model making: tips on use of plasticine, or water based modeling clay to be bisque fired
Alginate Lecture and demo
Plaster Lecture and demo
Sectional Molds; how and where to section, separating planes, sequencing sections
Press molding; tamping slabs, Xixing malletts
I will work with you to establish a safe firing schedule and will teach you how to operate the
equipment. All kilns must be filled so it will be important for you to work together with other
students.
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