Artist Yoko Ono interacts with the exhibit “White Chess Set” at the Museum of Modern Art exhibition dedicated exclusively to her work, titled “Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971”, New York May 12, 2015

PLAY IT BY TRUST aka WHITE CHESS SET (1966)

Play it for as long as you can remember
who is your opponent and
who is your own self.

y.o. 1966

Yoko with her artwork ‘Play It By Trust’ at One Woman Show, 1960–1971, MoMA, New York 12 May 2015

Yoko: I love chess. I do everything like it’s a chess game. Not on a Monopoly level… that’s a bit more realistic. Chess is more conceptual.

I wanted to create a new chess game, making a fundamental rather than decorative change.

It’s called Play It by Trust.

The white chess set is a sort of life situation. Because the chess pieces on both sides are white, you always have to be aware of which are your pieces.

Life is not all black and white – you don’t know what is yours and what is theirs. You have to convince people what is yours. In the chess situation it is simple – if you are black, then black is yours. But this is like a life situation, where you have to play it by convincing each other.

Yoko Ono: Play It By Trust (aka White Chess Set), 1966, Indica Gallery, London, 1966.

There comes a moment when you feel like maybe you want to cheat, or you want to convince your opponent which pieces were yours.

Then there’s a moment when you feel like it really doesn’t matter which pieces are yours or the opponent’s.

Actually it’s the same. And we are together and we are all one. Life is not that defined. It’s not black and white. You are not there to be an observer; you have to participate. But it’s a participation that hits a very delicate chord in you.

John & Yoko playing Yoko’s White Chess Set, 1966, underneath John’s artwork You Are Here, 1968; Tittenhurst Park, 20 July 1971.

The board goes through many quiet changes, which correspond to the changes within you.

It immediately dispenses with the idea of war and a battle, because if you are the same, you don’t have a war. Who are we fighting? And why?

You start to really understand that it doesn’t matter. We’re together. We’re on the same side. You realize that it’s not important to win.

Play It By Trust, Large Version for 20 Players, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.

It’s interesting that, in the gallery show, the women immediately went to Mend Piece, and the men went to the chess piece – the result of society encouraging men to be competitive and women to be compassionate, maybe.

Yoko Ono: All White Chess Set; Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre.

I like the idea that Play It By Trust is repeated in different places, because the environment makes a big difference to the piece.

Yoko Ono: Play it by Trust, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 9, 2011-October 9, 2011.

I have been betrayed by so many in my life. I still trust people, since that is easier for me. I am healthy because I trust. Not trusting is bad for the health of your mind and body.

Yoko Ono at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1997.

White. You can make it into any colour and colours in your mind. Many of my pieces are white because I think that it’d be easier to put imaginary colours on white. Whiteness is the most conceptual colour. It does not interfere with your thoughts.