MOST VALUED

Most Valued examines how value is assigned through systems, rules, and collective belief. At its center is the queen, the most valuable piece in the game of carrom, enlarged beyond the scale of the other pieces. The queen is not necessarily more complex or materially different. Its elevated status exists because the rules say so. By enlarging it, the work gives physical form to an abstract idea of value, allowing the object to grow in proportion to the importance assigned to it. The subtitle, Deserved or Not, questions whether value is truly earned or simply inherited, assigned, or accepted. Through a familiar object, the work reflects on the systems that determine what and who is considered valuable, and how these hierarchies become accepted as truth.