Stenasalen
Göteborgs konstmuseum 2007
Beyond a corridor of red curtains, you entered a room draped with the same
red curtains. In the middle of the room stood a table with a chess board on
top. A small lamp on the table was the only light source in the room. As you
stepped closer toward the chess board, a few pictures slowly emerged from
within the hard shadows of the chess figures. In the shadows of certain pawns,
you could see pictures of me dressed as a farmer. But the pawn that had advanced
to the last row displayed a picture of me dressed as a queen.
In chess there is a rule that if a pawn – usually the weakest piece
of the game - advances to the last row on the chessboard, he can change his
gender, becoming the queen - the strongest figure of the game.
In a short period of time the pictures vanish. Around you a flickering light
seeped out from the narrow gaps between the curtains and a droning sound in
the background became louder and louder. As you turned your head to look around,
an image appeared for a split second in the corner of your eye. The image
of the Grim Reaper. After 5 minutes the sound dies out and the flickering
light disappeared, leaving once again only the lamp to illuminate the room.
If you approached the table again, the photographs once more appeared in the
shadows of the chess figures...
