I decided that I wanted to explore the destruction and appropriation of everyday objects and work within a series. I decided to use playing cards because they are something which I didn’t feel too precious about destroying and I was able to easily obtain a set. I scanned in the originals onto a computer to preserve a digital record of the card before and after I altered it. These methods of destroying/altering the readymade cards were quite systematic, I made a checklist of processes to follow. This links to the 1967 piece by Richard Serra, Verb List Compilation: Actions to Relate to Oneself, Serra used a series of verbs to act as actions to trigger him to make artworks. I am interested in works being process based and consequently often transient and preserved through documentation, e.g. photographs/ digital scanned images.
Overall I consider this series to be an experimental piece, exploring possible methods of destruction/alteration of everyday objects. I found that the strong graphic elements (e.g. images of the kings/queens) detracted from the destruction of the cards, as they were still easily recognisable as playing cards. I found when I sanded back the cards, peeled back layers, or used correction fluid to mask the suits, these were more successful. I enjoyed the results when the materiality of the cards were exposed, and some of the graphic symbolism was lost.
