Psychedelic Chess

In Psychedelic Chess I explore what happens when structure begins to loosen.

The chessboard represents a system. Rules. Order. Black and white thinking. It is one of the clearest visual metaphors for logic and control. Every square is defined. Every move is calculated.

Yet within that grid, something begins to twist.

The form that moves across the board is not a classical chess piece. It bends, fractures, folds into itself. It appears to obey the grid while simultaneously breaking it. The longer you look, the less stable it becomes.

I am interested in that tension.

We live inside systems — political, technological, social. They promise clarity and predictability. But perception is rarely stable. Perspective shifts. Certainty dissolves. What once felt fixed starts to distort.

The drawing is executed in graphite, allowing me to stay within the strict language of black and white. No color to soften the confrontation. Only contrast. Only line. Only shade.

The A5 scale forces intimacy. You have to come closer. And when you do, the system is no longer clean. It breathes.

Psychedelic Chess is not about the game.

It is about the grid we think we understand —

and the moment it begins to move.