I want to play a game (2013)

200 x 150 x 70 cm

Since China’s leadership change in 2013, the new leader has often been likened to a chess player engaged in a strategic contest with Western counterparts. “I Want to Play a Game” unfolds as a hybrid chess match where Western chess and Chinese chess converge. The pieces, crafted from papier-mâché using daily newspapers, follow the movement rules of their respective traditions. Western pieces confined to squares, Chinese pieces to intersections. Operating independently, they never directly engage, and the game appears to lack winners or losers.

Beneath this surface, however, lies a hidden layer of complexity. Secret rules are concealed within mechanical lockers under each player’s seat. Once discovered by participants, the game’s nature would fundamentally shift, transformed into a mechanism whose meaning exists only from within each player’s perspective. To beholders, the participants’ behavior appears increasingly opaque, prompting contemplation on what is seen, what is hidden, and who the game is ultimately for.