Multiple Clues

I have spent time exploring the idea of working with multiples in an ongoing series of photographs based on the board game Clue. Entitled “Miss Scarlet”, “Professor Plum”, “Mrs. White”, “Mr. Green”, “Colonel Mustard”, and “Mrs. Peacock” respectively, the final series of images represents the multiplicity of outcomes not only in the board game, but also in our everyday lives.

Clue, the crime mystery board game, requires its players to deduce a killer, a murder weapon and location from only simple questions. With only six characters, six weapons and nine rooms available, there are still 324 possible outcomes from which only one is the truth. Every time you play a round of Clue, you play the same scenario – yet as it unfolds, there is always a different truth to the same circumstance. My photos mean to represent this idea of multiplicity. Whether you call it an alternate reality, parallel universe, destiny or fate, the concept that multiple outcomes could exist for a single situation underlies every decision we make in our life.

Using the familiar world, characters and circumstances of Clue to represent our own world, I am free to explore a range of possible personalities and emotions from which to approach a single moment. And through visualizing these possible approaches at once, I can make clear the dramatic realization that for every action there are an infinite number of potential results. The viewer can then see that something as simple as a childhood game can be interpreted as a lesson in the metaphysical nature of our own reality.

The visuals themselves are a reflection of this reality – Miss Scarlet almost camouflages herself into her surroundings in the opulent dining room, while Professor Plum seemingly becomes a living extension of his dreary library. In both cases, choices they may have made have affected their lives in such a way as to lead to their guilt or innocence.

The final message the viewer is left with is whether a seemingly trivial change in emotion or approach to a situation can lead to an important transformation. It then falls on them to realize that even a small truth, such as whether the act was committed in the Dining Room or Library is the difference between winning and losing.