Norma Drimmer Presents her Backgammon Board

Shesh Besh

Games are defined by rules, agreed upon by the playing parties beforehand. Very often people will play their part according to rules they believe are rooted in nature, when in fact they are set by conventions and habits, by inherited hatred, prejudices and grievances blown out of proportions. Sometimes if suffices to create awareness of what that game really is about, in order to agree to a common set of values, of rules, in order to change into different game patterns.

My Shesh Besh set has deliberately super imposed new patterns on the familiar game board. Images have been chosen to show people from different background and different cultural perspectives where everybody will view familiar things and where everybody could agree to the text and the tune. Their combination makes it difficult to keep ones prejudices without putting them into question. There is pattern enough to make you understand that you will need some set of rules to abide by, in order to be able to live together peacefully.

A game is not about tolerance, it is about understanding the moves of others and agree to play in a future oriented way so as to be able to establish a common goal, a common world.