Superobject 1 Painting

Nine wood panel 'polyptych' abstract oil painting in which multiple compositions are layered over each other in different configurations rendering them impossible to resolve all at once. Each of the 362,880 possible layouts result in a unique image. Shipped with hanging strips attached allowing for rehanging as often as desired once installed. In this series of works the composition of the slide puzzle or eight puzzle is used to obscure, reveal and reconfigure multiple images which are all present in a single space and either incompatible or inevitable in their repetition. The slide puzzle layout, reminiscent of the ubiquitous user interface design seen in many applications, encourages reconfiguration, ordering and sortation to achieve pleasing or satisfactory outcomes. Like the demand of computational logic that all vague, ambiguous, romantic or esoteric phenomena be quantifiable in either numbers or words is flawed, so these images are flawed by the rigid framework within which they are represented. The 3 x 3 grid of the slide puzzle contains 362,880 possible configurations half of which are achievable within the limited movements of a slide puzzle. These pieces can be configured in all possible positions and may conceal images and messages within any of them. Obscured images will appear as glitches or mistakes and accidents dependent upon which layer is dominant in each configuration.