Silver Stallion – Sculpture by Taras Yoom, Yoomoota Art Universe

Rarity and Collectible Value

Silver Stallion is a limited-edition sculptural interpretation of the chess knight, produced in only 11 examples. The work belongs to Yoomoota’s gaming line, in which familiar pieces from traditional games are transformed into autonomous characters and collectible art objects. The artist’s official project description identifies Silver Stallion as a continuation of this series and emphasizes its fusion of jewelry-grade craftsmanship with contemporary sculpture.

Its rarity is reinforced by the small edition and by its material character. Rather than reproducing the knight as a conventional chess piece, Yoom reimagines it as a gleaming sculptural creature whose precious surface and exaggerated anatomy shift the object from gameplay into the realm of collectible design.

Origin and Conceptual Context

The knight is one of the most distinctive pieces in chess because of the exceptional logic of its movement. Unlike every other piece, it moves in an L-shaped pattern and is able to jump over intervening pieces. Silver Stallion translates these unusual rules into character.

The sculpture’s asymmetrical pose and mismatched gaze reflect the unpredictability traditionally associated with the knight’s movement. Yoom’s own description links the creature’s divergent eyes with the L-shaped trajectory of the piece, while its stance suggests the knight’s ability to leap over obstacles and deliver unexpected tactical attacks.

This transformation is consistent with the broader Yoomoota universe, where familiar human, biological and cultural systems are reimagined as fictional creatures. Taras Yoom describes Yoomoota as a parallel realm reflecting the inner structures of the human body and mind, informed in part by his earlier medical education and interest in biology.

Craftsmanship and Decoration

The 17 cm sculpture has a polished metallic body shaped as a stylized horse in motion. Its anatomy is deliberately elongated and expressive: the neck arches dramatically backward, while the body is supported by thin articulated legs with rounded joints. The overall silhouette retains an unmistakable connection to a chess knight while departing completely from conventional chess-piece geometry.

The most striking feature is the dense pavé-like covering of faceted synthetic diamonds across much of the body and neck. Their reflective surfaces create a brilliant, jewel-like effect, emphasizing the sculpture’s transition from gaming object to precious collectible. Selected areas — including the face, limbs and structural joints — remain exposed in polished metal, creating contrast between smooth reflective surfaces and the granular sparkle of the stones.

The photographed piece stands on an angular geometric plinth, which further recalls the base of a chess piece while giving the work the presence of a small-scale monument.

Human Touch

The humor of Silver Stallion lies in the way a familiar strategic object is given personality. Its elongated neck, eccentric posture and eyes directed in different ways make the character appear alert, curious and slightly unpredictable — qualities that mirror the knight’s behavior on the chessboard.

At the same time, the use of faceted synthetic diamonds introduces a deliberate contrast between playfulness and luxury. A piece traditionally associated with calculated strategy becomes decorative, precious and almost theatrical. The sculpture therefore operates on several levels at once: as a reference to chess, as a character from the Yoomoota universe, and as an object positioned between sculpture and jewelry.

Taras Yoom is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist whose practice combines art, collectible design and biological references. His works have been presented internationally, including at PAD Art + Design, Art Miami, Collectible Fair and other exhibitions, while Yoomoota objects are represented in institutional collections including the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the Red Dot Design Museum Xiamen.

Silver Stallion condenses this approach into a compact form: a universally recognizable chess symbol transformed into a whimsical creature whose unexpected movement, luxurious materials and expressive anatomy embody the very idea of making a “knight’s move.”