The House of Chance and Mischief

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Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Pho…

Artist/Maker Renée Stout (American, born 1958)

Date2008-10

MediumAcrylic, latex paint, spray paint, plastic rhinestones, wood, glass, metal, varnish, collage, and found objects

DimensionsOverall: 77 × 28 1/16 × 20 in. (195.6 × 71.3 × 50.8 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick ’34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund

Object number2016.2

Not on view

DescriptionIn her handmade assemblages, installations, and tableaus, the artist Renée Stout combines African American tradition and street culture with aspects of the theatrical and the carnivalesque. She often creates trompe-l’oeil moments within her works, employing techniques and experiences she gleaned as a sign painter that may lead the viewer to question which elements are real and which are artificial. The House of Chance and Mischief evokes and pursues this very uncertainty, mixing reality and fantasy. On the front panel of the sculpture, Stout painted a portrait of a man she had encountered on the street in her hometown of Washington, DC. On the back of the piece, she recorded, “The man on the front of this piece calls himself ‘Hollywood.’ People say he looks like George Clinton, but Hollywood has his own thing goin’ on. He hangs at that funky (and I don’t mean funky in a good way) diner around the corner from me. We meet at the House of Chance and Mischief.” Stout assembled a number of found elements—among them, a wine crate, bottle caps, and turned wood posts (perhaps from railings)—into a towerlike form that evokes a funhouse or carnival game. Not only does the window on the front evoke such a game, but viewers are also invited to place a wish inside the assemblage through a hole on its right side. “Got something you want to confess?” Stout wrote above the opening. “Well it’s time to unburden yourself at the House of Chance and Mischief. Just write your secret, wish or confession on a piece of paper and push it through the hole.” In addition, references are made throughout the work—especially in the numbers that appear on the back—to gambling, luck, and superstition. The Wellin Museum purchased The House of Chance and Mischief after the conclusion of the traveling exhibition Renée Stout: Tales of the Conjure Woman, which was on view at the Wellin in Fall 2015. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017) "The House of Chance and Mischief (2008-10) includes both traditional and contemporary renditions of Elegba. The painted male figure on the front of the sculpture is decked out in 1970s regalia, with a wide-brimmed zebra hat, oversize white sunglasses, and beads in his beard. A structure resembling a funhouse entrance rises above the painted base, framing a bust of Elegba with a red cross at the top. To the right is a palm with little male bobble-head figures attached to the fingertips, like the Mano Poderosa of Mexican Christian art. The rest of the work is collaged with scraps of decoratively painted found wood and objects such as a top, playing cards, and numbers. All of these elements are particular to Stout's self-styled tools of divination." (SOURCE: A. M. Weaver, "Formal Divination: Renee Stout," SCULPTURE v. 36 no. 2 (March 2017), p. 53).

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Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 128, illus.);

2015-16
Charleston, SC (Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston) "Renée Stout: Tales of the Conjure Woman," October 18 - December 14, 2013 (cat no.). Traveled to: Atlanta, GA (Spelman College Museum of Fine Art), January 30 - May 17, 2014; Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College), October 3 - December 20, 2015; Washington, DC (American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center), January 23 - March 13, 2016; Kalamazoo, MI (Kalamazoo Institute of Arts), July 23 - October 23, 2016.

Provenance 2016: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College), by purchase from the artist.

Markings None noted.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 278;

A. M. Weaver, "Formal Divination: Renee Stout," SCULPTURE v. 36 no. 2 (March 2017), 48-53 (illustrated p. 51).

Signature Signed and dated "Renée Stout 2008".

Inscribed "Florida Avenue, NW", "First Street, NW", "Georgia Avenue, NW", and "Rhode Island Avenue, NW" around base of uppermost finial, in white paint; "While I worked on this: / Barack Obama became the / 44th president of the United States. / The man on the front of this piece calls himself "Hollywood." / People say he looks like / George Clinton, but Hollywood has his / own thing goin' on. He hangs at that / funky (and don't mean funky in a good / way) diner around the corner / from me. We meet at the house / of chance and mischief." on back in yellow paint; "Music I listened to: / Chaka Khan - Funk This / Return to Forever - This is Jazz / Meshell Ndegeocello - Comfort Woman / Stanley Clarke - The Bass-ic Collection / Lamya - Learning from Falling / Music - Juslisen / Verve Remixed / Joe Sample - Sample This / Herbie Hancock - The Joni Letters (River) / The Funkadelic Collection - Volume 1 / Jean-Paul Bourelly - Trance Atlantic" on back in yellow paint; "Perfumes I wore: / Onda / Fumerie Turque / Vintage Chanel No. 5 / Habanita / La Nuit / (perfume is / my escape)" on back in yellow paint; "Got something you want to confess? / Is there someone you've been admiring / secretly? Well it's time to unburden / yourself at the House of Chance and / Mischief. Just write your secret, / wish or confession on a piece of paper / and push it through the hole" at side in green paint.