Further Reading

Friday, 22 February 2008

"Chess"

In Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, Alice journeys to Wonderland? Where straight streams run across the land and living fences separate the space between the streams into equal squares.

In my opinion, Wonderland strikingly resembles a chessboard,” said Alice. “This whole world is chess! This is one huge match!”

Sometimes, the players are people who want to control their fellow man like they would chess pieces (considering them to be pawns). Sometimes, a chess match is played between God and Satan. The sequence of black and white squares symbolizes destiny, dishing out curses and blessings.

Chess is the combination of eternal collision of good and evil, light and darkness, brain and heart. This is reflected in the picture, where stallions stampede in the background, and wispy, neverending towers symbolize the unconstrained power of immigration. In the foreground, a heated battle between warriors ensues in the name of kings. The 64-sqare board originated from the four-sided (8*8) board of the Hindu god Shiva who controlled cosmic forces on the board. In the traditional Hindu version of chess, there were four players (because there were four sides). Players would roll dice in order to determine who would make the next move; both logic and fate were mixed into this game. (Vladimir Kush)

"Chess"
Original artwork by Vladimir Kush