Vancouver artist Tim Klein combines different puzzle pieces to create surreal montages.
Starting from old puzzles of the same manufacturer, which are generally composed of tiles of the same size and geometric shape, Klein mixes them in a new composition to create playful-looking images, kaleidoscopic landscapes and hybrid creatures – a horse with the face of a train , a buzzard woman, a house with a carousel roof – with truly surprising results.
Jigsaw puzzle manufacturers often use the same die-cut pattern for many different puzzles. This makes the pieces interchangeable. As a result, I sometimes find that I can combine portions from two or more puzzles from the same publisher, to make a surreal picture that the publisher never imagined. I take great pleasure in “discovering” such bizarre images lying latent, sometimes for decades, within the cardboard boxes of ordinary mass-produced puzzles. As I shift the pieces back and forth, trying different combinations, I feel like an archaeologist reconstructing some curious, shattered artifact.
Tim Klein
Photo Copyright: Tim Klein – puzzlemontage.crevado.com