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Carolyn Kay will participate in The Seminar on Visual Culture: Money, Money, Money at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, School of Advanced Study, London, UK on March 25, 2009.

Images

Calculating Devotion

2008

slot machine parts, acrylic sheet, MDF, found objects

84in x 21.5in x 20in

The main cabinet of this slot machine has been constructed with clear acrylic sheet, the door removed and placed in reverse on the floor, and the front glass panels and reel strips removed for the viewer to see the inside. Gear shaped foam objects are arranged within the belly of the machine on the right side appearing as an extention of the handle mechanism.

A digital frame in the belly of the machine displays photographs of milk cartons printed with iconic slot machine images (cherries, seven, bar) and arranged on a refrigerator shelf.

Along with original wires and computer components, a variety of devotional type objects (a buddha statue, a cross, a candle, a bronze beauty compact, stones, beads, mandala images, etc.) are placed throughout the machine.

Grasping

2009

poker table, felt, paint

84in x 42in x 30in

The screen printed image of an emaciated body on a poker table references the insatiable quality of addiction. The term ‘grasping’ refers to Buddhist teachings on how attachment causes suffering. The image further marks the first figurative work that I have done since the mid-nineties.

Stacked

2009

poker table, felt, paint

84in x 42in x 30in

The screen printed image of a reversing stack of books refers to how funding for education is raised by lottery games, legalized gambling, in many states. The lottery is commonly referred to as “the poor man’s tax” because the demographic of players skews to lower income brackets. The title alludes to the common phrase “the odds are stacked against you.”

Win Home Sweet Home Lose

2008

poker table, felt, paint

84in x 42in x 30in

The screen printed image of a overlapping boarded up homes refers to what can be lost at the poker table. It is not uncommon for problem gamblers to lose the mortgage payment at the casino. Currently, the imagery may allude to the current foreclosure rate stemming from the various bets the market took on borrowers and unregulated lenders.

Grocery Marker

2008

poker table, felt, chips, playing cards, found objects

84in x 42in x 30in

This casino style poker table has been modified with felt grocery objects seeming to emerge from the playing surface.

A "marker" is a loan of money to a gambler. Typically, a player who may run out of money while playing will ask the dealer for a "marker" in order to continue playing.

Milk Run Win Lose II

2008

custom printed die cut milk cartons, cardboard, ink

80in x 20in x 20in

This cardboard display for these custom printed cartons has been constructed to resemble a slot machine. "Went to store, be right back" is handwritten on the belly.

The cardboard buttons have handwritten labels reading "beg," "lie," "steal," "debt," and "play."

Milk Dealer

2008

folding poker table, felt, paint

78in x 36in x 30in

This is an example of a continuing series of original layouts silk screened on felt for a variety of gaming tables.



Milk Run Win Lose 2005 custom printed die cut milk cartons, cardboard, acrylic room dimensions: 24ft x 24ft, 14ft ceiling height	This colorless hybrid casino of wins and losses conveys a memory of trips to the grocery store in a gambling town where slots occupy prime retail space in every corner store. Psychological probabilities and subliminal narrative weave through the arranged rows of iconic images.



Construction for Budget in Progress 2005 Green‐board dry wall, plastilina clay, plastic and canvas drop cloths. window dimensions: 8ft h x 10in w x 18in d
	This site specific art work was installed in the right front window of 15 Nassau in downtown New York City from May 29 through August 19, 2005. The project was made possible by Swing Space, a program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, generously supported by the September 11^th Fund and presented as part of the Vanilla Boxing exhibition in the 2005 River to River Festival. The window was viewed by the public passing on the street. The New York Stock Exchange was visible from the vantage point of viewing the window.

Referencing the Vanilla Boxing

concept, the installation consisted of

hundreds of black plastilina clay

numbers arranged to give the

appearance of constructing a grid‐like

cityscape or three dimensional

accounting spreadsheet.

Fiscal

2002

Analine dyed maple plywood, casino quality pyramid

rubber, foam, fabric, acrylic felt, oil paint, 1000 dice, green

dyed rattan dice stick, plastic & rubber “Debit”/”Credit” puck, mirrors.

Table dimensions: 18ft x 48in x 40in ht

Room dimensions: 30ft x 13ft x 10ft ht

Installed at cherrydelosreyes in Los Angeles, an elaborate

18 foot long green craps table surrounded by mirrors and

green walls conjures the dynamics of fiscal culture,

connecting the flux and flow of accounting, economics and gaming.

Accounting Revolution

2000

acrylic, wood, rubber, lazy susan

dimensions 2ft x 3ft – revolving

Requires 4’ clearance for revolving motion.

This revolving wall sculpture is reminiscent of

children’s toys, but instead of a tiny metal ball,

numbers tumble within the spreadsheet maze.

Spreadsheet

2003

Reinstallation in Essex Street Market, New York, New York

Fabric, pins, acrylic

Dimensions approx. 27ft x 8ft

This massive literal spreadsheet is subverted by a composition of black, numeric,

illogical calculations ‘printed’ as if from a

calculator but appear upside down, backwards, smeared and

overlapping at odd angels.

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Red Tag Sale

2001

canvas, plastilina, wire, concrete block

dimensions approx. 8ft x 8ft x 3ft

“Red Tag Sale” was an installation of oil‐based

clay numbers “caught in the act” of moving a

large green canvas.

K/L

2002

pigment, plastic, acrylic

open dimensions 3in x 3in x 5in

non‐extant

This small sculpture explored the economics of vanity by

manipulating makeup into a composition of illogical ciphers.

A series of digitally executed drawings intersect older work with numbers and recent use of iconic slot machine imagery. Teasing a win configuration, the rendered numbers simultaneously illicit a sense of cashing‐in and attrition.

Above image: Cherries Win Lose #2 2005 ink jet print on paper dimensions 11in x 17in	Image below: Cherries Win Lose #4 2005 ink jet print on paper dimensions 11in x 17in

Mother’s Milk

2004

ink on paper

dimensions 21in x 9in

This work on paper marks a shift in imagery. New drawings and installations in development

multiply images of slot machine milk cartons cast from memories of the commonplace slot

machine clusters in Las Vegas grocery stores.

Carolyn Kay

C.V.

Resides in New York City.

EDUCATION

2001	Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. Master of Fine Arts: Sculpture/Installation.
1989	Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California. B.A. degree. Majors: Economics and Psychology. Minor: Studio Art through Scripps College.

GRANTS/AWARDS

2005

Commission for site specific art work,

Swing Space, a program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council generously supported by the September 11 Fund.

2002

Artists’ Resource for Completion Grant,

The Durfee Foundation

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2008	Postcards from the Edge. Visual Aids benefit. Metro Pictures. New York City. Group show.
	School of Visual Arts Sculpture and New Media Residency. New York City. Group show.
2005	Milk Run Win Lose, Oulous Repair Shop, Chinatown, Los Angeles, California. SOLO SHOW.
	Construction for Budget in Progress, commissioned by Swing Space, a program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council generously supported by the September 11 Fund and presented as part of Vanilla Boxing exhibition in the 2005 River to River Festival. Downtown Manhattan, New York. Group show.
	Painting’s Edge 2005, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, California. Group Show.
	Painting’s Edge 2005, Parks Exhibition Center, Idyllwild Arts, Idyllwild, California. Group Show.
2004	Network (Part 2), Raid Projects, Los Angeles, California. Traveling Group Show.
	Network, de Parel at W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Traveling Group Show.
2003	Crossings: Artistic and Curatorial Practice – Artist Projects in the Essex Street Market, a multi-site exhibition in conjunction with the 2003 College Art Association conference curated by Anne Ellegood and Rachel Gugelberger. Essex Street Market, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York. Group show.
2002	Girl on Girl, Miller Durazo Contemporary Artists Projects, Los Angeles, California. Group show.
	Projecting Profitability, Gallery G, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, California. SOLO SHOW.
	Big Wave IV, Andrew/Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Group show.
	Fiscal, cherrydelosreyes Gallery, Los Angeles, California. SOLO SHOW.
	Wall Space 2, Miller Durazo Contemporary Artists Projects, Los Angeles, California. Group show.
2001	Reduction, Miller Durazo Contemporary Artists Projects, Los Angeles, California. Group show.
	+/- (Space)4, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, California. Group show
	Big Wave III, Andrew/Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Group show.
	Mind, Matter, Memory, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, California. Group show.
	MacGyver, Crazy Space, Santa Monica, California. Curated by Mary Leigh Cherry. Group show.
2000	Positional Notation, Peggy Phelps Gallery, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. SOLO SHOW
	Stuffed, Progress Space Gallery, Pomona, California. Group show.
	Inland Specific, Wignall Gallery, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, California. Group show.
	Wall Space, Miller Durazo Contemporary Artists Projects, Los Angeles, California. Group show.
	Square Variations, Humanities Building, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, Calif. Group show.
	26th Annual Ink & Clay Juried Exhibition, W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery, California State Polytechnic University. Pomona, California. Juror: Richard Heller, Gallerist.
1999	Big Wave, Andrew/Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Group show.
	Go Between, Da Gallery, Pomona, California. Group show.
	Tenth National Juried Exhibition, Viridian Gallery, New York, New York. Group show. Juror: Susan Harris, Curator.
	Blue, Bradbury Building, Los Angeles, California. Group show.

PRESS/PUBLICATIONS

2002	"I am not a Millionaire." by L. Hermes Griesbach. Rim Magazine. No.1, Summer, 2002: Published by Scripta, Mexico.
2000	Inland Specific, Exhibition Catalog: Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont.
2000	24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas, Andres Martinez, Villard Books, New York, New York, 1999.

Carolyn Kay

Artist’s Statement

My installations, sculpture and drawings attempt to materialize abstract systems of monetary valuation and calculation.  Manifested are corrupting reflections

of a positional existence where logic once reigned but are now objectified as visual calculations subject to valuation by perception and expectation.  In

economics, beyond the abstraction of paper money, it is the strictly administered arrangement of numbers, the movement of those numbers, and the prospect of

their future position that engage expectations and become valued values.  My work intends to subvert these expectations as suggested systems mutate,

transform, and fall apart, engaging the viewer in an effect of instability.  Systems of valuation and organization, such as numeric forms and grids, materialize

into peculiar compositions that imply calculation but are neither rational nor random.  Compositions assert a rhythm, a shifty symmetry that activates space

and insinuates movement.  Conspicuous forms, such as numbers, aspire to an animate presence through gesture and materiality, and conspire in subliminal

narratives occasionally laced with a bit of subtle humor.  A limited color palette focuses the viewer on form and may trigger monetary imagery such as

gambling imagery, accounting ledgers, financial statements, calculator paper, and, of course, U.S. paper currency.

The memory of growing up in Las Vegas, my experience as a financial professional, and the everyday encounters with money, are the source material for a

body of work that explores perceptions of value and the parallels between the value systems of art and money.  Consider money as an abstract concept of

arbitrary value realized only in the documentation of its action, just as a painting or sculpture is an arbitrarily valued document of an artist’s action both

physical and conceptual.  Harvard Professor, Marc Shell, suggests in his 1995 book Art & Money, that the action of Art = the action of Money.  Both are

documents of a transaction, economies of values, hyper states of perception, and products of obsessive systems.  My work attempts to articulate these shared

characteristics.  By employing systems, symbols and slogans of popular fiscal culture and reflecting the obsessive calculation of the bottom line, my work

seeks to engage the conventions of accounting for monetary values as a way to engage conventions of art.

Artist’s Bio

I was born in Dallas, Texas in 1967.   My father, a professional gambler, moved our family to Las Vegas, Nevada when I was seven.  Detesting the decadent

money obsessed slot machine soaked vortex in the desert, I left Las Vegas after high school to attend college in Southern California where I majored in

economics and minored in art.  After ten years of finance related day jobs I earned a M.F.A. degree from Claremont Graduate University.

With so many aspects of my life, childhood, family, college, accounting jobs, saturated by the abstraction of money, it was natural that my studio work began

to absorb fiscal themes.  In 1996 I abandoned painting and have since used the mediums of drawing, sculpture and installation to articulate my personal visual

language.  Against the backdrop of Glitter Gulch memories, Information Age overload, and the daily grind of “number crunching,” my work explores

conventional notions of value and calculation through the imagery of numbers and grids, rigid, rational systems as they meet expectations of fact and truth.

I currently live and work in New York City.