The game of chess is originated in India in 6th century. Neighboring to Persia, it quickly was picked up by Persians during Sassanid before Islam. The game was evolved and its name became “Shatrang”. This name steadily changed to “Shatranj”, which is currently called in Iran. Then lately at 10th century, it spread into Europe and was modernized at 15th century.
My idea is based on one of the chess pieces which was in the past called “Ferz” meaning counselor, then changed to “Farzin” and later to “Vazir” meaning minister. This piece is called “Queen” in Western countries. Even today, the name for the queen piece is ferz in Russian, vezer in Hungarian and vazir in Persian. For me it refers to patriarchal structure of ancient societies. Although Iran represents a great civilization, to some degree, it’s historical and traditional nature has patriarchal structure. One of my objectives in my artwork is to examine these dominant patriarchal elements and its impacts on women’s life and activities.
I suspend sixty-four cubes in the size of 30 x 30 x 30 cm from the ceiling at the same horizontal level. This represents a three dimensional chessboard rather than the ordinary two-dimensional.
One of the Farsi letters is placed on one of the walls. The letter “ آ “ is the first letter in Farsi alphabets and is sounds similar to letter “A” in English. However, because of its wavy part at the top, it is called “A with a hat”. I metaphorically mention this as masculinity for both its name and form. I symbolized "hat" as a masculine cover.
