JACKY TSAI
Gambling Skull, 2014
92(w) x 125(h) cm
Double-sided 8 colour screenprint on die cut museum board 1650 gsm
From a suite of 15 unique over-sized playing cards, ace to king plus two jokers
Gambling Skull is Eyestorm’s sixth screenprint edition with Chinese artist Jacky Tsai and quite a piece it is. The second in an on-going series of over-sized playing cards by the artist - the first being the spectacular ‘Poker Skull’ released last year - Gambling Skull sees Jacky take imagery from the Chinese gambling world to create his latest skull, a symbol he has become renowned for and has developed over the years since he created the well-known ‘floral skull’ image for the Alexander McQueen fashion label in 2008.
As with ‘Poker Skull’, the mighty Gambling Skull is large in scale and mimics the shape and form of a regular playing card, with the image on the front his latest skull creation made from a collage of illustrations. The series is made up of 15 unique pieces, each representing a different card from the deck, Ace through to King with two Jokers. Where ‘Poker Skull’ was the suit of hearts, Gambling Skull is diamonds, which Jacky has exemplified by using illustrations of the precious stone within the imagery, the most prominent one placed in the centre to form the nose cavity of the skull.
In contrast to ‘Poker Skull’, which focussed more on imagery from the deck of cards that’s used to play popular gambling games such as poker in Western society, Gambling Skull draws our attention to the gambling scene in China, which is a huge industry. The mouth of the skull has been created by tiles (representing teeth) from the popular Chinese game ‘Mahjong’, which each displays a different Chinese character. Roulette tables form the eyes and patterns have been taken from Eastern influences. A few figures appear as well; iconic beautiful women inspired by traditional paintings from the Tang Dynasty, as well as Chinese acrobats.
In terms of colour, the palette remains inspired by the Western pack of cards. This is of course echoed by the shape and concept of the finished pieces which see thick museum board printed on both sides to emulate real playing cards, with laser-cut curved corners and the pattern on back a bespoke design by Jacky that incorporates an illustration of a diamond and a skull in a repetitive pattern.
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