Ceremonies of the Horsemen, 2006 and 2007

Heavily influenced by the Surrealist and Folk-Art movement, Marcel Dzama is an acclaimed artist whose works span a wide body of mediums including film, painting and sculpture. Perhaps the most celebrated of his works are his intricate watercolour and ink drawings that depict a variety of characters including chess pieces; trees with hands and masked semi-nude females – the latter can be seen in The Renowned Union Jackoff, an erotic and ritualistic, yet disturbing piece. Dzama has repeatedly cited Marcel Duchamp as one of his biggest inspirations – chess was quite often a central motif throughout Duchamp’s work, and is a motif that Dzama has adopted himself – for his video, A Game of Chess; the video depicts life-sized Kings, Queens and Rooks battling for supremacy.