A chess set by Luis Alberto that brings together two meteorites, Sikhote-Alin and Seymchan, and transforms fragments of the cosmos into one of humanity's oldest games of intellect and strategy.
One side is formed from complete Sikhote-Alin iron-nickel meteorite specimens, which keep their natural sculptural surfaces and distinctive regmaglypts, the impressions created during their violent passage through Earth's atmosphere. Sikhote-Alin was a witnessed fall over Siberia on 12 February 1947.
Opposing them are sliced and etched specimens of Seymchan pallasite, discovered in the Magadan region of eastern Russia. Their exposed interiors reveal a crystalline architecture formed beyond Earth, a structure measured not in human history but in planetary time.
The pieces stand on a chessboard hand-cut from smoky quartz and clear quartz, bringing terrestrial crystal and extraterrestrial matter onto the same field.
Chess is a game built upon the human belief that every move can be calculated. A meteorite belongs to another order entirely, shaped by forces, distances and time beyond human control.
We make our move. The Universe makes its own.
Materials: Sikhote-Alin iron-nickel meteorite; Seymchan pallasite; smoky quartz; clear quartz
Dimensions: largest pieces approximately 4½ in (11.4 cm) high; board 19 × 19 in (48.3 × 48.3 cm)
Artist: Luis Alberto
More meteorites.
A chess set by Luis Alberto that brings together two meteorites, Sikhote-Alin and Seymchan, and transforms fragments of the cosmos into one of humanity's oldest games of intellect and strategy.
One side is formed from complete Sikhote-Alin iron-nickel meteorite specimens, which keep their natural sculptural surfaces and distinctive regmaglypts, the impressions created during their violent passage through Earth's atmosphere. Sikhote-Alin was a witnessed fall over Siberia on 12 February 1947.
Opposing them are sliced and etched specimens of Seymchan pallasite, discovered in the Magadan region of eastern Russia. Their exposed interiors reveal a crystalline architecture formed beyond Earth, a structure measured not in human history but in planetary time.
The pieces stand on a chessboard hand-cut from smoky quartz and clear quartz, bringing terrestrial crystal and extraterrestrial matter onto the same field.
Chess is a game built upon the human belief that every move can be calculated. A meteorite belongs to another order entirely, shaped by forces, distances and time beyond human control.
We make our move. The Universe makes its own.
Materials: Sikhote-Alin iron-nickel meteorite; Seymchan pallasite; smoky quartz; clear quartz
Dimensions: largest pieces approximately 4½ in (11.4 cm) high; board 19 × 19 in (48.3 × 48.3 cm)
Artist: Luis Alberto
More meteorites.
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