Games of Chance (1992-1997)

Many of these works started with the Dame of Chance in the Studio Wall Series in which Polansky referenced historical paintings about games of chance. With these works we see Polansky overtly addressing current events in her artwork. For Lois Polansky art was always a mirror of reflected meanings as well as an instrument for “self consciousness” in the context of a multifarious reality. She focused on systems that were invented, designed or discovered for human survival in an incomprehensible world that is cruel, random and governed by chance. She believed these systems take the form of religion, society, GAMES, magic, science and other frail defenses against nature’s capricious forces. Polansky believed there were three kinds of games: games of chance, games of skill and guessing games.

“I believe that chance controls events, events shape people, people act, actions change the “design” and generate ongoing change and variation. CHANGE AND VARIATION SET UP THE POSSIBILITY OF CHANCE.” —Lois Polansky

The Babes of Chance (1992) is a series of baby books about children who are born by chance into hopeless lives. A Babe of Chance: African Child’s Book/Noone’s Book examines the fate of one child who stands for thousands of malnourished Somalian refugees. Treading a fine line between documentation and interpretation, the work manages to balance its polemic with artistic devices that downplay outrage in favor of empathy.” - Helen Harrison, The New York Times

Polansky’s House of Cards (1994) is a four volume large sculptural work that documents the process involved in developing her Tarot, A Deck of Chance. The House of Cards plays with the possibilities inherent in the Terence (185-159 BC) quote: “I am a man, and nothing in man’s lot can be indifferent to me.” Polansky changed that quote to say, “I am human, hence nothing human is alien to me, which she shuffled and rearranged to create an endless variety of meanings.” The design is not constant and can be presented in multiple forms.

Polansky’s The Game of Leopard (1995) is inspired by an Asian hunt [skill] game. Hunt games are usually played by two people; one has possession of a larger number of pieces and represents the hunters. The second player has a much smaller number of pieces and stands for the quarry. Polansky layered text from a few years of New York Times headlines into palimpsest of current international conflicts, disasters and ancient signs from the Kabbalah. The text in the piece includes instructions for the game and Polansky’s one paragraph interpretation:

“In life and The Game of Leopard a single tiger or tigers are stalked by, and outnumbered by many hungry leopards; a slight shift in the balance of power determines the outcome. Who are the hunters and who is being hunted? They are one person, they are you, they are me, they are us. Well cooked principles all taste the same.”

Caidoz/Zodiac was completed in 1997 however the project began April 1994-April 1995 when Polansky documented every day’s reality by saving, reprinting and artistically transforming the front pages of The New York Times to create an imaginative zodiac of images for the year. She also incorporated the images that she had created to interpret the tarot in terms of contemporary iconography; personal zodiac symbols, musical scales, and a color wheel.

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Tarot, A Deck of Chance