Poker Chips and Cards

Artist unknown, ca. 2014

Paper and plastic

Variable dimensions

Obtained object in Collingwood, Ontario

Personal collection

Gambling is the act of betting or putting a wager on the outcome of a certain event,game, or other creative occurrences such as how long it will take to sing the national anthem at the super bowl. Gambling can also be without wagers, and games can be a friendly, yet competitive form of entertainment. Ever since I can remember my family has played several different forms of gambling for both enjoyment purposes and setting bets. This object is representative of our family’s love for competition and trying to best and outsmart other family members. Coming from an extended family of twenty-five people, large games always get extremely fierce and go on for quite an extended period of time depending on the game.

In the photo depiction of the artifact, I placed three separate objects that all contribute to the same theme and play a strong role in my family’s past, as well as present. The photo shows three objects: dice, playing cards, and poker chips, and represent our three favourite games: Texas hold ’em, cribbage, and liars’ dice. The games were all played by my parents and their siblings as kids and have been passed down to my siblings and I, which now represent a huge part of our upbringing. These items tie into my other artifact of the Little Brown Jug Whisky because many of the games were played in the St. Lawrence Seaway cabin, which is also where I obtained both objects. The objects also speak to the feeling t I get from playing with family and friends. They remind me of being at the cottage where I am isolating during the pandemic, and of being with people I love, engaged in traditions that will be passed down for generations to come.

Jackson Lobb-Macdonald