WHITE QUEEN parkour moves Chess Model of Free Motion
Krisztina Hollai Share on Facebook
Description:
WHITE QUEEN parkour moves Chess Model of Free Motion “Right now I’m specifically interested in the female figure — not as a motif, but as a position, a statement. I think of her as an actor who carries women’s lived histories while clearly speaking in the voice of the present. No single precedent could fully hold the discourses I wanted to engage, so I placed her at the intersection of several traditions: I fused together elements from the iconography of the Christian Madonna, the Venus figures of archaic fertility cults, and the White Queen of alchemy and chess into a cultural hybrid. Because the White Queen is primarily an alchemical concept, the emphasis naturally shifted toward symbolic space. The visual and conceptual language of alchemy often resonates with the aims of women’s art. In this light, the ars regia is not only spiritual self-work but also identity work — a metaphor for the transformation of female roles and social positions. Key reference points include Hilma af Klint, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, and Ana Mendieta, for whom mysticism becomes a tool of social reflection. As the exhibition White Queen Does Parkour unfolds from a distinctly feminine perspective, the male figure may at first appear absent. But he is present indirectly — in the chalice, the red rose, the soda bottle, and the color red itself. At its core, the work examines the alchemical relation of masculine and feminine principles. My starting insight is that the symbo- lism of white and red forms one of the earliest narratives of cooperative equality. Their allegorical figures, the White Queen and the Red King, are a proto-egalitarian pair: their union does not erase difference but preserves and consciously harmonizes it. This is a model of cooperation I wanted to illuminate because it remains relevant and expandable today. An exciting discovery in the process was that chess also has a White Queen, and she connects strongly to this discourse. She is the most freely moving piece — she does not avoid obstacles but passes through them. This inspired the parkour parallel: in urban movement logic, the obstacles of the city are not barriers but possibilities. I have long used the chessboard motif for its double meaning — it can be both floor and dual structure. In my work it is not game or visual decoration but a symbolic structure, a distinct philosophical theme. Following Titus Burckhardt’s thinking, I envisioned the checkered ground of the exhibition as a narrative: chess as a model of cosmic order, black and white squares as polarities, pieces as principles. Now the White Queen steps onto the board. It may feel slightly unexpected that within this archaic-mystical space her game is very much focused on the present. Her aim is not checkmate but stalemate — a win–win situation in which the cooperation of masculine and feminine principles, and ultimately all identities, can become a shared experience of freedom.” HOLLAI KRISZTINA visual artist