unbordered

unbordered
oak table legs from furniture taken from closed chicago public schools
2017
dimensions variable

Infinite Games organized by John Preus
September 2017 - September 2018

Open House Contemporary, Chicago, IL

I wanted to approach work for this show that explored formal structures of play and game, but in a way that would emphasize open-ended, non-competitive and undefined qualities. I liked the idea of taking a known form (the puzzle), reducing the number of variables, and thereby opening the possibility for nearly limitless configurations.

I designed a simple interlocking puzzle piece where the positive tab protrusion on one side was matched with its mirror tab on the opposite side. The adjacent sides were designed with the corresponding blank cut to receive the matching protruding tab. The idea was to cut two versions of this identically shaped puzzle piece, half of them going horizontal with the grain of the wood and the other half oriented vertical, against the grain of the wood. This allowed for the grain of the wood to remain consistent, in one direction, as the pieces are assembled in this perpendicular fashion, alternating between the two orientations.

School table legs were first sawn into thin strips, planed and sanded, and then the pieces were cut from these thin sheets of wood. Some pieces were cut from the outside surface of the legs, so they maintain the finish and patina of years of use, interspersed with majority of pieces cut from the interiors of the legs.

This puzzle is not about finding the piece with its unique matching fit to complete a pre-designed image. Instead, each piece can fit together as their shape is not what is unique. There are no border pieces, implying the puzzle could continue to grow in any direction, to any size, limited only by the space that contains it.