Created by the conceptual artist and musician Yoko Ono, Play It by Trust is a bewildering chess set. The game, normally a battle between white and black pieces on a black-and-white chequered board, is in all white. By changing the pieces and board to a single colour, Ono radically transforms the game and how it is played, as the players will likely lose track of which pieces belong to whom as the game progresses. As suggested by the artwork’s title, the two players must trust each other and cooperate, perhaps inventing new rules or objectives.
Play It by Trust is a powerful example of Ono’s longstanding anti-war activism, turning a strategic competition into a collaborative experiment rendered in white, a colour that symbolises peace. The process of playing the game leads to conversation and creativity rather than conflict. Originally designed for a solo exhibition in London in 1966 and initially titled White Chess Set, this particular set was commissioned as a tribute to the experimental composer John Cage on his seventy-fifth birthday in 1987. Although earlier versions were made of wood, this set is the only one Ono made in bronze and it marks the first time she worked with the material, which would become an important part of her practice.