Is it art? Is it design? Is it a deck of cards? Well top my trumps, it’s all three

Once again, the art world has dealt us a very good hand indeed, and it arrives with the rather obtuse title A collection of nine Kippenberger editions, one Boetti watch, a cigarette and yellow. In short, it’s a special pack of cards (if you hadn’t guessed from that A-grade intro pun), which has been created by artist Jonathan Monk for publisher InOtherWords in a limited edition run of 750. Jonathan’s practice has long focussed on ideas of appropriating other moments and pieces from the canon of art history, and for this project that tendency has been translated into card designs that reference late 20th Century German artist Martin Kippenberger.

Arranged face down, the cards form a serene and odd composition: as the title would suggest, there’s also a watch and a cigarette, as well as a cordless telephone, a keyring, someone’s toes and some socks, among other things. It’s a bit like a very exclusive version of Kim’s Game (you know, the one you played at every Year Four birthday party that involved trying to remember what banal household objects were on a tea tray), and we’re promised that the cards’ graphite corse “ensures that even in high intensity light the faces of the cards aren’t visible to other players.”