This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 8, 2012 - The World Chess Hall of Fame is inviting eight St. Louis artists to transform its gallery walls this September.
Dubbed "Screwed Moves," the artists will begin working Sept. 13 and will finish their piece Sept. 28. The Hall of Fame will be open 24 hours a day during that time.
The "interactive arts experience" will feature Bryan Walsh, Christopher Burch, Stan Chisholm, Kris Mosby, Justin Tolentino, Jason Spencer, Daniel Jefferson, Daniel Burnett and Christopher Harris, according to a press release. The artists are all part of the Screwed Arts Collective, a group that focuses on collaborative projects and "the evolution of participatory culture."
As Walsh noted in the release, "It’s not like we make a sketch or a plan of who’s doing what before we begin, so the work will change every day and feel almost like performance art. We’re eight artists with very different styles, but at the end you won’t be able to identify which artist worked on a particular section of the piece because we work toward a cohesive whole."
World Chess Hall of Fame director Susan Barrett said in the announcement, “This exhibition is a great fit for us because the Collective’s process can be seen as a metaphor for the game of chess. The artists play off of one another’s work as they spontaneously create the mural."
The WCHOF's home is a residence turned business that spans 15,900 square feet. It features permanent collections, as well as temporary exhibits on players, historic games and the history of chess.
Barrett hopes the exhibit makes people see chess in a different way. With her own background in design and architecture, Barett has helped bring other exhibits to the WCHOF.
"It seemed natural to expand the museum so it’s not just about historical references and its not just about chess," she said. "Because of the scope of the building and the mission, we could expand it and show how art and culture is influenced by chess."
After the museum's move to St. Louis, she wanted to do something local.
"We wanted to bring it home to St. Louis and show that chess has some sort of connection not just to those sort of bigger, international artists, but it has a connection locally," she said. That idea led her to the Screwed Arts Collective.
Stationed in St. Louis, the Screwed Arts Collective produced "Screwed In" in 2008 and "Screwed Again" in 2010 at the Regional Arts Commission. All the featured artists in Screwed Moves, except Harris, also worked in Screwed Again.
WCHOF's website will broadcast the artists' progress live over the projects' two weeks.