Scratching Chance No. 5
Jonathan Calm, American, born 1971
2005
Diptych, two digital C-prints
Overall: 25 × 19 1/2 in. (63.5 × 49.5 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Anonymous Gift
© Jonathan Calm
2018.37.28ab
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
Not on view
Label
With interests in architecture and documentary journalism, Jonathan Calm examines the sociocultural, historical, and geopolitical effects of public housing on both sides of the Atlantic. He began his series Scratching Chance Grids (2004–6) after encountering a sycamore tree with a number of losing lottery scratch cards lodged in the trunk—a visual metaphor for economic systems becoming inextricably intertwined with our landscape. Part of Calm’s exploration of the ecosystems of urban housing projects, these images, taken around the boroughs of New York, “flesh out the stakes of pleasure, reward, escape, despair, resignation and addiction in a world,” he states, “where life itself often proves a gamble.”
From the 2019 exhibition New Landscapes: Contemporary Responses to Globalization, curated by Jessica Hong, Associate Curator of Global Contemporary Art
Exhibition History
New Landscapes: Contemporary Responses to Globalization, Class of 1967 Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 15-August 18, 2019.
Offline & Infamous, Caren Golden Fine Art, New York, May 20 - June 25, 2005
Provenance
Caren Golden Fine Art, New York, New York, date unknown; private collection; given to present collection, 2018.
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