Cally Trench,Vegetable Thieves

CALLY TRENCH

Vegetable Thieves

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Cally Trench's board games

In Vegetable Thieves (2010), an original board game by Cally Trench, rival thieves try to steal beds of vegetables from an allotment and load them onto their lorries while taking potshots at their competitors.

Players are sometimes presented with a choice between theft and attempted murder, and most players make their choices without compassion, playing to win. Only once has a player objected to the rules of the game; on one occasion, a child of four or five asked if we could just steal the vegetables and not shoot each other. I agreed. The violent and illegal nature of the actions in the game contrasts with the beauty of the drawings on the board, which are uncovered as the beds of vegetables are taken away.

Cally Trench, Vegetable Thieves
in The Effort Presents a Puzzle
at The Windmill Brixton, 10th July 2011

Cally Trench, Vegetable Thieves
in At Play 2012
at New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham

Cally Trench, Vegetable Thieves in Floraphilia
Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow
1st September 2012

Cally Trench, Vegetable Thieves
in In Dialogue, Primary,
Nottingham, 4th October 2014

Cally Trench, Vegetable Thieves
at OVADA Stammtisch, Joe Perks & Co., Oxford
24th November 2016

Vegetable Thieves was played at the Games of Money and Death salon at Hanbury Hall, London (on 23rd October 2010), curated by Island Projects as part of This Is Not A Gateway (TINAG) Festival; and at the Beyond the Dustheaps Christmas Party at the Charles Dickens Museum, London (on 11th December 2010), curated by Island Projects.

Vegetable Thieves was played at Cally Trench's Board Games at the High Wycombe Quaker Meeting House (on 30th January 2011); at The Effort Presents a Puzzle at The Windmill live music venue in Brixton (on 10th July 2011); and at an OVADA Stammtisch at the Port Mahon pub, Oxford (on 28th July 2011).

Vegetable Thieves was included in the exhibition At Play 3 at South Hill Park, Bracknell (summer 2011). It was also played at Rubik's Cube at the Joiners' Arms, Hackney (on 11th September 2011); and at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (on 6th October 2011) to coincide with an exhibition of a series of photographs of the games in the Link Gallery at the hospital.

Vegetable Thieves was played during the private view of the exhibition At Play 2012 at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham (summer 2012). It was also played at Floraphilia at Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow (on 1st September 2012), curated by Folie A Trois - Sarah Grainger-Jones and lili Spain.

Vegetable Thieves was played at the In Dialogue conference at Primary, Nottingham (on 4th October 2014), convened by Heather Connelly, Rhiannon Jones and Rebecca Beinart.

Vegetable Thieves was played at an OVADA Stammtisch at Joe Perks & Co, Oxford (on 24th November 2016). It was also played at Cally Trench's Board Games at the Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading (on 4th February 2017); and at Festal Favours (on 10th June 2017), curated by Clare Carswell as part of Charlbury Festival.

Vegetable Thieves was played at Board? Gaming is the Answer at Thought Foundation, Birtley (on 10th February 2018); at two Cally's Board Game Evenings at Wycombe Museum (on 15th February and 25th October 2018); and at Cally Trench's Original Board Games (on 22nd September 2018) at The Heseltine Gallery, Middleton Cheney, during the exhibition Nick Trench / Cally Trench: Siblings Cannot Agree.

Vegetable Thieves was also played at Cally Trench's Original Board Games at Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot (on 8th October 2022) during the exhibition Tineke Bruijnzeels / Cally Trench: Exploring inside the box.