Portrait (for a screen play) of Beth Harmon

– a project by Tamsin Clark & Sean Edwards

May until 3 June 2017
PV, Wednesday, 3 May, 7–9pm
Screening event at Close-Up Cinema, Saturday, 27 May, 1–3pm

Artists: Richard Bevan & Wolfram Wiedner, Erika Blair, Bronwen Buckeridge, Alejandro Cesarco, Alice Channer, Lucy Clout, Mike Cooter, Melanie Counsell, Haris Epaminonda, Matt Fitts, Anne Hardy, Etan Ilfeld, Lauren Keeley, Gareth Long, Sara MacKillop, Lorna Macintyre, Jonathan Monk, Madeleine Pledge, Laura Reeves, Giles Round, SMT, Hayley Tompkins, Rhianna Turnbull, Phoebe Unwin, Stuart Whipps, Lillian Wilkie

Eight year old Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control. By the age of sixteen, she’s competing for the U.S. open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on the professional circuit, the stakes get higher, her isolation grows more frightening and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting.

- Blurb from The Queen’s Gambit, Vintage Books edition

The Queen’s Gambit was written when Walter Tevis’ previous novels were known more for their film adaptations – The Colour of Money, The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth. The novel follows the life of Beth Harmon, an orphan who is discovered to be a chess prodigy, from the age of 8 through to adulthood. The book was praised for the accuracy of its portrayals of the professional chess circuit and the internal workings of the mind of a chess player (Tevis himself was a class C chess player). The screenplay of the book has had a troubled past, with Tevis himself writing a synopsis and script in 1984. Most recently Heath Ledger had been working on it as his directorial debut at the time of his death in 2008.

Portrait (for a screenplay) of Beth Harmon is an ongoing project inviting artists to read the book and is a way of expanding the character of Beth. Beth Harmon was fascinating, but she only existed on those 243 pages of the novel.

https://tenderpixel.com/exhibitions/portrait-for-a-screenplay

- Exhibition documentation by Original&theCopy

Install shot
With works by
Lauren Keeley
Madeleine Pledge
Alejandro Cesarco
Giles Round
Anne Hardy

Rhianna Turnbull
Walter Tervis
2017
digital print on A4 paper

Rhianna Turnbull
Jolene
2017
text on A4 paper

Rhianna Turnbull
Jolene
2017
text on A4 paper