“There are certain sores in life that, like a canker, gnaw at the soul in solitude and diminish it”1 While the media constantly bombards us with news of tragic events, thanks to contemplation and meditation, daily life goes on in our homes. At the same time the likes of Farkhondeh2 and Asakare3 never stay idle. They object and protest, and often become victims of ignorance of their fellow countrymen. We are accustomed to rejecting one another: seeing homeless people in the streets, watching underage girls coerced to marry, air strikes, acid violence, and saying farewells, we are used to all of those and yet the life still goes on.
Frightened and confused, I have been observing the world for the past three years, irritated by my weaknesses to change it. Irish writer, Patrick McCabe in his best seller The Butcher Boy puts: “Dumb people must have black holes in their stomachs from not being able to cry out.” However, I think all humans have a black hole in their stomach.
The Current set called Chess Pin was born from one of those black holes. Initially inspired by Chess, 9 characters including: King, Soldier, Executioner, Buffoon, Sentenced to Death, Intellectual, Woman, Anonymous and Immigrant slowly evolved to their current identities; although, they are pinned in the chess board of their own lives.
1 Opening sentence of the famous novel Blind owl by Sadeq Hedayat, translated by Iraj Bashiri.
2 Younes Asakere is an Iranian Arab citizen that committed self-immolation because of his shop confiscation by municipality on March 2015, in front of municipality building.
3 Farkhunda is a 27-year-old Afghan woman who was murdered in Kabul on March 19, 2015. She was falsely accused of burning the Quran and brutally killed.
