Brigade's current group exhibition brings together five artists to confront the concept of Zugzwang, a situation in chess, where every possible move worsens ones position, mirroring the modern paradox of entrapment in the very systems we as humans have created. Through their works, the exhibition maps this collective paralysis, exposing the invisible rules and strategies that lure us into the system.

Here, Jordan Sears discusses her work, whether or not she plays by the rules, and the absurdity of the game.

Can you expand on the series of work you have included in the exhibition and how you think it relates to the concept of  Zugzwang?

Zugzwang became a useful framework for understanding the tensions that already existed within my work. I see a similar condition happening within contemporary image culture. The structures that shape our desires and identities (advertising, beauty standards, and consumer culture) are also the frameworks through which we understand ourselves. We participate in them even when we recognize their limitations or contradictions. Rather than the work offering a resolution, the paintings remain inside this condition. I'm drawn to the seductive surface of these images while also remaining aware of the structures they reinforce. The work occupies a space between attraction and critique, asking what it means to navigate systems that both produce and constrain our sense of self.

Zugzwang, refers to a state of entrapment within the rules of a game. How do rules affect your process when working?

I almost always begin with photographic source material and work through selection and cropping. The challenge is maintaining enough of the image for it to remain recognizable while pushing it toward abstraction. That tension becomes a kind of rule that guides each painting. I'm really interested in working within limitations and simplicity rather than having complete freedom. Decisions about composition, scale, and what information to include, create a framework that each painting must negotiate. In that sense, the process shares something with the idea of Zugzwang in that the work develops through a series of necessary decisions, and each decision closes off other possibilities.

The "damned if you do, damned if you don't" logic suggests an element of absurdity to the exhibition. Perhaps reality is not as black and white, but do you find any truth to this?

 I do find truth in it. What interests me about the concept of Zugzwang is that it highlights impossible decisions. We often imagine that our awareness alone will allow us to step beyond any given issue, but in many cases we remain implicated in the very structures that we critique or that work against us. That tension is crucial to my work. The work doesn't attempt to draw a clean line of opposition, but instead it acknowledges the complexity and contradiction in many of the systems we are implicated in. Because of this, the absurdity feels very real. We are often asked to make choices between imperfect options and I'm really interested in that space between those positions, where attraction and critique, agency and constraint, can coexist.