#431 Scratch Ticket

The Scratch Tickets series also function as a simplified lottery. Under the filler on two of the pieces, there are lottery tickets, one with the text New which entitles you to a new work in the same series, and one with the text Free which allows you to have any available artwork from my website (only works with one panel). Shipping is not included. The third work is a blank. To claim the winnings, the filler must be removed to expose the text underneath (the work is thus destroyed), and photos of the text, including the control number, must be sent to me by email (see footer or contact page).

Lotteries are an expression of the capitalist ideology. We all potentially have the same chance to win. Fortunateness is considered a metaphysical concept. Like the "invisible hand" of the market, luck exists almost as a kind of divine justice. Differences in being fortunate shouldn't only be accepted but also affirmed. But the winners of capitalism (the rich) know that the only logic existing under the ideological veil is power and the right of the mighty and that justice is irrelevant in this context. Lotteries are for the masses, the losers of capitalism, to preserve the notion that the system has room for everyone and everyone's equal opportunity. Hope pours oil on troubled waters and prevents resistance and struggle.

At the same time, there is something beautiful about what is yet to become. The potential holds a beauty of its own before it is transformed into reality. There is value in preserving something unused as a pure possibility. The white sheet, the blank surface. Like a secret or a promise.

Passepartout is a series of paintings where the composition is solely made from strips around the panel's edges.

The passe-partout is commonly a piece of cardboard around a picture with the primary function of separating it from the glass. It is a French word that means "fits all", as in a master key. Where the frame is placed outside the image field - in the real world, and thus points to the register of matter, what the psychoanalyst theory would describe as the Real, the passe-partout position is more ambiguous. It borders the image field, which with its reproducible quality, signifies the registers of language - the Imaginary (pure language) and the Symbolic (applied language), clearly inside the frame and thus part of the image but not in an obvious way. You might say it facilitates the relationship between the image (language) and reality (matter). Not like the frame itself, which merely indicates the border but more discretely and imperceptibly. Like ideology. Ideology introduces limitations that the subject perceives as natural and primordial but that, in reality, is a discourse, part of language and thus can be negotiated and changed. The passe-partout is an element that makes an image of any shape, big or small, fit into the same frame. And even if it's not perceived as such, it is part of the image itself.

Template is a compilation of works made by using pieces of wooden plates as templates. They function a bit as a mould or matrix for the finished work.

Reminiscent of Richard Serra's Verb List, I use simple and clearly defined actions to shape the filler in my works. This method ensures there are non-cognitive aspects of the production process, which allows for unknown elements to enter.