Torgeir Husevaag / home / poker

Poker-projects (2004- )

> At the bottom of the pyramid (2009)

> SuperSystematic (2008)

> Poker-drawings (2006 / 2008)

> Conversations (2007)

> Freeze Out II (2007)

> Freeze Out I (2004)

Working with (the card game) poker as a starting-point has allowed me to combine several themes I have been investigating In previous projects I have been mapping, categorizing, playing with language, and generating visuals by structuring randomness.

Poker has parallels to politics, finance, - every area involving power-struggle or negotiations. It´s a game about communication and psychology, where each player have to confront both his own mind, as well as the dynamics within a group made up of individual personalities with different patterns of behaviour.

There is only five basic acts in poker; bet, raise, call, check, and fold, but they create a quite complex language, since each of these “word” have the potential to chance meaning according to the context it is implied within.

A poker-player must change between being an (active) participant, and a (seemingly passive) observer. The participant communicates, tries to direct and manipulate, while the observer reads patterns, analyses opponents, and tries to see himself from the outside.

My works based on poker translate these processes into visual imagery; the performances focus in on the group-dynamics, the video and installations use the flow of values, as well as the game-aestetics as their starting-point (green felt, focused lightning, hands, cards and chips in motion).

In my drawings the above-mentioned basic acts of poker (and their consequences) are translated into signs, directions and connections. A language created to describe the use of another language, - that of the game.