Prisonchess - 2010

While imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement for 170 days in the infamous Abu Salim prison in Tripoli, Libya, Chaddad collected plastic caps of water bottles and assembled them into a chessboard.

Some of the chess pieces were wrapped in aluminum that was collected from meals delivered to his 2x2 meter cell block; the chess board was made from cardboard collected from food boxes.

This artwork was part of a groupshow titled We Move Amongst Ghosts in Jakarta, Indonesia. Chaddad was captured and imprisoned during Gaddafi’s reign, while photographing and documenting the remnants of Libyan Jewish culture in Tripoli; he reflected on this resulting challenge and ordeal in an essay on the theme of isolation for Apartamento Magazine in March 2020.

Plastic bottle caps, aluminium paper, cardboard

Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, Jakarta, 2020