Clue
Lindsay Siu has been fascinated by the board game Clue, intrigued by the ridiculous floorpan, the teeny tiny weapons and the morbid and taboo nature of a game about weapons and murder.
Even more than those elements, she was drawn to the extravagant characters on the box and their implied relationships.
For years I thought it would be a great character study, to examine not only the characters themselves, but how the dynamics of race, class, sexual orientation and bias influence their personas today.
This project was one that had been written down in her notebook and remained there merely as an idea for years. It required the right time, crew, and cast to bring it to life. She collaborated with makeup artist Anya Ellis and retoucher Istvan Pinter with the goal of creating cinematic images that started from the Clue framework but had a bit more to say.
This personal series is a current-day exploration of Clue, with a nod to the original from 1948. Lindsay presents the old but also adds new murder weapons and examines some of the unspoken and often overlooked causes of death in today’s society.
This series was photographed In March 2020, just one week prior to the Coronavirus lockdowns. It was the last shoot before covid testing, N95s, face shields and foggy glasses. They did not realize how different things would soon be, and how conceptually, Covid would become the new killer.
As we come out of the pandemic, these images now emerge more layered, with added complexities to consider, such as colonialism, racism, and feminism. A dinner party takes on new meaning post lockdown.
