《CHECKMATE !》

 : A state in which two artists make their respective moves while suspending victory and defeat.

★ ◆

《CHECKMATE !》, the title of both the exhibition and the drawing performance, originates from the chess term checkmate - a situation in which a player’s King is placed under direct attack and no longer has a means of escape. However, in this exhibition, checkmate does not signify an ending or the determination of a winner and a loser. Instead, it refers to a state in which each move is carefully observed by the other, while the final remains deliberately suspended.

Working through distinct artistic languages, ★ and ◆ have each continued to construct spaces that situate between reality and surrealisitc worlds of their own. Within this exhibition, they attempt to play against each other within a shared field. One explores the shifting ways in which sensation, desire, and subjectivity emerge through encounters with social structures and systems, while the other collects and reinterprets symbols and images to create transitory spaces where reality and fantasy intersect.

Each work functions as a move aimed toward the other, yet neither converges toward a single conclusion nor arrives at a final resolution. Instead, they remain in a sustained state of tension, acknowledging one another while remaining open to alternative possibilities. Rather than determining victory or defeat, ★ and ◆ reveal the process through which relationships emerge through the coexistence of their moves. This process is neither an act of absorption nor compromise; rather, like chess pieces on a board, each retains its own logic and movement while forming connections through its placement in relation to the other.

The term checkmate, therefore, ceases to signify an ending. It becomes a condition in which structure and symbol, reality and fantasy, logic and illogic remain interlocked;  a state in which conclusions are deferred, and perception continues to unfold. Within this space, viewers are invited to encounter the possibility of multiple systems operating simultaneously, forming a complex network of overlapping relations.

The collaborative wall is organized around the shared metaphors of the ‘star’ and the ‘wing’, both recurring motifs in the artists’ practices. Yet each employs these symbols for different purposes. For ★, they function as signs that express personal states of being and desires for escape. For ◆, they serve as points of connection to mythology, religion, and literature from the past. Across this wall, paintings, drawings, and mixed-media works form a new field of meaning through a constellation-like arrangement. This relational structure extends beyond the collaborative wall and emerges throughout the exhibition space as a whole through the placement of individual works. Video works by two artists are each presented through a monitor screen and CRT television, while ◆ presents sculptural forms reminiscent of an altarpiece corresponding to ★’s text-based vinyl works.

Within the drawing performance 《CHECKMATE !》, the concept of checkmate presents itself in another form. Whereas the exhibition’s installed works generate fragmented tensions and collisions through their spatial arrangement, this on-site performance introduces immediacy and presence into the encounter. Accompanied by music of each artist composed by different methods, ★ and ◆ perform on a stage reminiscent of a chessboard, producing drawings that record their moves.

After the performance, two objects are installed on the stage, functioning as monuments that symbolize each artist. Resembling a checkpoint and a rabbit hole, these objects are not positioned within the square of the floor installation like conventional chess pieces. Instead, they occupy the intersections between four squares, further destabilizing established boundaries. Throughout the exhibition, video documentation of the entire performance and the music used within it are continuously replayed, extending traces of immediacy and liveness back into the space.

Through this exhibition, ★ and ◆ seek to bring two distinct inner worlds into collision through both physical and non-physical means, exploring the possibility of forming new networks of relations through the points of connection revealed in the process. Within their shared space, binaries and boundaries begin to dissolve, and the relations that emerge continue to expand through their encounter with the viewers, opening toward new possibilities.

For this exhibition, I constructed a transitional space that evokes the interior of a theatrical stage or a religious architectural structure - a space suspended between reality and fantasy. Within this setting, four works representing my own personas function as stage devices, forming a mise-en-scène. Throughout the space, Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere mei was played on repeat.

The four works are composed of elements collected from structures that create fissures between reality and fantasy, such as the stage, literature, poetry, and mythology.

Miserere mei takes the form of a religious triptych, resembling a kind of puppet theatre. In its lower section are depicted the most human of dramas: six scenes of tragedy, along with Adam and Eve - the first tragedy. The work is structured as an ascent: from the human to the celestial, from image to text, ultimately converging at a single point.

The Tin Man is a portrait inspired by the tin man from The Wizard of Oz. 

Cherub is a mixed-media work depicting one of the three types of angels described in the Bible closest to God, rendered in the form of a marionette. Like Miserere mei, The Tin Man and Cherub are separated from the surrounding space by their own frames (picture frame, wing-like epaulet), each establishing its own autonomous stage.

Limbo is based on the first circle of Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Constructed from a combination of colored and transparent glass, it takes the cylindrical form reminiscent of a column ornament in religious architecture. It has a velvet circle under, same material used as curtain throughout the space, which symbolises the spotlight of a theatre.