#429-31 Scratch Tickets

64x84 cm each panel, installation dimensions variable | Filler, oak panels

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 The Artling.

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.