Well-Lit Chess Pieces was created as a Public Art Project for Washington Square Park in New York City. This large-scale 2-part project consisted of a topiary style chess garden of 11 game pieces and 34 lampshade covers over park lamp posts along each corner entrance and fountain area at Washington Square Park. Due to popular demand, the installation was triple extended for nearly a year from April 2005 - April 2006. Well-Lit Chess Pieces was a fiscally sponsored project of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

The eleven life-sized chess game pieces included one King, one Queen, one Bishop, two Knights, two Rooks, and four Pawns. Each piece ranged from 3-6 ft. high and contained thousands of colorful Abet Laminati chips encased over a welded frame. They were placed in strategic positions in the infamous chess corner of Washington Square Park. Each game piece tested the viewer’s choice as to where the next best move could be made through an artificial intelligence model called the Thinking Machine 4, created by Martin Wattenberg and Marek Walczak. The designs of these game moves were also painted directly onto the lampshade covers as tendril-like marks.

In addition, there were thirty-four Empire style lampshades installed over the existing lamp posts of the four corner entrances and fountain area of the park. Each of the hand painted lampshades measured 33 - 42 inches high. By day the lamps were decorative poles of color; from dusk to dawn they became magical stained glass nightlights for the pathways throughout the park.

Both the lampshade covers & topiary style chess pieces are larger than life in scale.
I am testing the attraction people have with public spaces and how they instinctively desire to make them part of their own property. In this case I am producing lamp covers in a reading lamp style that you would use in your living room, making the park your very own outdoor living area to enjoy. The test of the chess topiary-like pieces is to attract everyone from novice to expert and cause each one to interact by observing game strategy, order, and chance moves that essentially mimic nature and life itself.