Alain Séraphine presents the work "Chekers", in virtual reality, which its first piece was titled "identity" and was realized by the end of the 1970s.

. "It was born under a triple influence: First of all, that of "the looking eye of Antigone "a personal mythology, emerged from the world of fantasy, populated by dreams, which will have allowed me, in my mother's quest, to go back to" the bubble " of childhood and of adolescence, without jolt, and which today still helps me shape myself by a constant self

constructing ...
Secondly that of La Reunion a young island, real sprout still emerging from the bowels of the earth. An island that was born at the crossroads of cultures, related to is history of settlement, and on which I had the pleasure of seeing the daylight.

Thirdly, that of my own career, and consequently of my artistic and political engagements, of an "Engaged Artist".

"Game of Dames" is a work done in relation to our contemporary time and means. It poses as a quizzical witness or as a red thread of my own occupation as a creator who remains also that of a son, who perhaps wants to understand and learn from the woman, the mother...

The artwork was conceived as a game, in the manner of partitions that would be eternally interpretable, intended to be constrained by a scene, but never by the stage of the games. As a result, the "Games of Dames" presents itself as an installation of sculptural pieces, placed on a large chessboard, and through the significant postures of a woman it become the scene of life of an emerging and coming societies. " Alain Séraphine ...

 

The installation, as if it was suspended in the universe, is 15m x 15m and will accommodate only 16 pieces in its reduced version. The full version is 30 m x 30 m and could accommodate up to 32 pieces.

Two sides of an angle of the reduced version are bordered by a tapestry in a state of levitation.

This tapestry, which was created in 1976/77, woven with the foal hair and carded wool from the land of prehistoric men of Niaux, already evokes a “Game of Dames”.

Indeed, it wants to be an allegory of the fight of a population against the repression generated by a system of electoral fraud institutionalized at that time on the Island.

In this city, port of union culture, the woman, dress tied at the bottom, is often at the head of the battles!

In the full version of the installation, the tapestry will only overflow on one side of the board.

Unlike the game of the same name, or the chess game, despite apparent similarities, this is not a game that would eliminate the adversary until extermination. Neither is it a strategy game, which would want to neutralize the opposing party. It is rather a game of search of meaning through postures of the woman of yesterday, today or tomorrow ...

Each piece wants to make sense, but like the stage of life, by interaction with the other, the pieces between them can generate new meanings.