MFT: White Hell Puzzle

There is something special in putting together puzzle mosaics. It is almost like making a piece of art it depicts. I guess it is fair to drew parallels to conceptual art and appropriation aesthetics. At least it requires a significant effort to make it and adds worth to it. The whole process of gradual reconstruction of the picture, piece by piece, is exciting and frustrating in the same time. Completed puzzle mosaic is a personal achievement.

But what if things take a step further into the conceptual and in the process spur out of control into concrete block tornado? White Hell Puzzle is one of the premier examples of such turn of events. 

White Hell Puzzle is a big puzzle mosaic (which is a challenge in of itself) with a gimmick. It is one element that elevates this puzzle mosaic on a completely different level, the one beyond reason and comprehension -  there is no picture to put together. Just endless whiteness sliced into puzzle pieces.

The puzzle is all white. Every single piece of it is nothing but white. No significant details to hang on, nothing to clue you in or give any sort of direction. Just white puzzle pieces that ultimately constitute a square or rectangle picture that is actually a monochrome slab of nothing. 

It is imposing on its own and rather intimidating in the process. And this makes things even more challenging than just putting together a large scale mosaic. But it is not off putting. Far from it - cracked whiteness dares to reconstruct it.

Basic procedure remains more or less the same: you choose one piece as a starting point, look for another piece that will fit it, try one, it doesn't fit, go for another - it seems like a right stuff and so you move on, but the pieces don't fit, and you go one after another and it doesn't seem to work and then you get lost in the sea of pieces and feel a little bit bedazzled because none of the available pieces really fit and nothing makes sense and why are you doing this?

This feeling wraps you into a cocoon, makes you fall asleep, hangs in the air and then hits against the tree. And then the void erupts inside you and engulfs that particular ennui. 

The thing is - white hell puzzle is a subversion of putting together a puzzle image. Tradutionally, you have a reference image and you can match pieces with its help. That's the players crutch. By omitting that element this puzzle makes the whole process of matching pieces extremely complicated. Instead of organised methodical gradual construction you are forced into a guessing game. And this game never really gains any sort of momentum - you just meander around aimlessly in hopes of putting together mosaic. And you can actually do it. But in order to make it you have to go against an instinct.

Puzzle mosaics never get boring. Never ever. Even the simplest compositions with the most generic pictures have this strange innocuous charm. It is not exactly an achievement by any means, you don't get anything worthwhile, you just accoplish a task because you wanted so. In a way, it is more of a feat of a gut, a glorified waste of time than anything else.

But in essense - the whole getting the right pieces in a right combination is a gripping test of endurance, dedication and tenacity. "White Hell Puzzle" is one of the most glorious examples of it.