ARTIST STATEMENT
Contemporary violence is often unseen. The manipulation of words becomes our most underestimated powerful weapon, despite its invisibility. The game of chess, like the game of life, is about strategy to win. Power is often seen in the King or Queen, yet our words, like humble pawns can become powerfully dangerous wielded in the wrong hands. The transparent resin blade symbolises our valuable rhetoric which can stab deeper than knives. Like Excalibur’s ‘sword in the stone’, our instincts will us to unsheathe the dagger from the board. Similarly, do you reach for words as your weapon of choice?
ARTWORK PROCESS
I created a clay prototype of the dagger to make the silicon mold around. My teacher helped me pour resin into the mold. I then turned the wooden chess pieces on a lathe. I found a piece of perspex, cut an acrylic sticker for the chessboard pattern and stuck it onto the clear perspex. Then I drilled pilot holes and cut a sliver in the centre for the dagger to go through. Lastly, I glued the resin dagger to the pawn piece and assembled the 'game'.
