LIFE, 2022
Game board (Game of Life, 1960s first edition), 52 × 45 × 2 cm
On the back of the internationally famous board game The Game of Life, which was first published in 1960, you can see the negative silhouette of the eagle, which is also shown on the back of the American one-dollar bill and represents the Great Seal and emblem of the United States. Instead of an olive branch, the headless eagle in LIFE only holds three arrows in its claws, while it is surrounded by another ten arrows that have been lost.
The total of 13 arrows represent the 13 English colonies, which also formed the first 13 states, the Congress and the Constitution, which would decide on war and peace from then on. Under the key sentence “all men are created equal”, the 13 colonies, which also formed the 13 states, adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, breaking away from the British Kingdom and founding the United States. At that time, one in six of the three million inhabitants of the 13 colonies were enslaved; and neither Native Americans nor women were included with any claim to equality.
The board game The Game of Life is based on pure luck, while it is primarily about capital and status in terms of career, (nuclear) family structures and financing. You either win or lose.
