Jigsaw Puzzle- Object writing Aug02
admin August 2nd, 2008
Pictures mounted on cardboard backing, curly edges, a shattered picture, humpty dumpty pieces on a table, cardboard backing is rough. Picture is glossy, pieces scattered around the edge being sucked into the vortex. Making the borders first, a border - like a country each piece is a country of its own making, a world, hedgerows of pieces, each piece is a tooth in the mouth of the puzzle, it’s a mystery, the picture on the box is the guide, the map, but it doesn’t give directions - like a vision or a dream. It’s there, but doesn’t tell you how, you have to work it out, puzzling, furrows plowed into the forehead, perplexing.
Start with the borders. the edging, the Berlin wall around the outside, then keep the prisoners in, the pieces are all experiencing freedom on the outside , but then they’re plugged into their spot, just like us, locked into place, locked into a life , a behaviour a course of action, as fixed as the bee to pollen. Stuck in the furrows, puzzling our way through, holding up the pieces of our lives examining them, wondering where they fit, do things fit? Does anything fit anymore?
Trying to force pieces into a place they don’t belong, just like us, just like a pair of shoes that don’t fit, pinching on the toes and the sides of the feet, each step uncomfortable, why did I buy this pair? Because they were CHEAP, my mother saying ‘cheap and cheerful’ learning later through a series of misplaced puzzle pieces that the reality is that this means ‘cheap and nasty’. Quality costs, costs in time and money and patience.
Nobody’s picture is perfect, looking on I think that someone might have the ideal life, but they have things to deal with, illnesses, losses, triumphs, successes. No-one is immune, it depends on how you think, how you picture the world , how you have constructed your jigsaw puzzle of a life. Some people have gaping holes in the middle of their puzzle, they don’t know why, others have all the pieces locked into place and the image seems unbreakable. I keep trying to place the cardboard backed bits and pieces of my life into place, but they never fit so I jam them together and it’s all just a mess, though it appears to be a complete picture
