Oliver Opie
American Diplomacy, 2020
Ceramics, Glaze
22.5 x 16.5 inches
This piece of work is inspired by the board game, Diplomacy. Diplomacy is a strategy game set in Europe, North Africa, and part of the Middle East during World War I. The objective of the game is for one player to control half of the starred territories. This objective typically takes around 7 hours but one can end up playing for up to 10 hours. This game appeals to my love for geography and history.
I chose to make the game based in the United States due to my dissatisfaction with what I see as the current divide between regions. I do consider myself a patriot, for I love America very much, which is exactly why this piece’s motif is so important to me. The seven regions, or ‘nations’, my American rendition of Diplomacy consists of Hawaii, Pacifica (California, Oregon, Washington), Texas, the Deep South (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina), the Union (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine), the Great Lakes (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota), and finally the Great Plains (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah). Colorado takes on the role of Switzerland in the original Diplomacy, being impassable due to its neutrality and mountainous terrain. Free territories consist of Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. When designing the map I tried to make it look as similar to the original Diplomacy game board so the game will not only be playable and balanced, with each region/nation starting out with equal power, but represent what I see as the cultural divides that make up this country for better or for worse.
