Artist Statement:
"BOX GAMES"

Everyone loves miniatures, enclosed spaces, hidden drawers, compartments, nests, the rigor of geometric forms imposed upon random dappled shapes of nature. The love of corners as the most comfortable place to dwell is perhaps why we love boxes, box-assemblages and box constructions as art forms as well as practical, useful storage.

I have always loved puzzles, word puns, rebuses, games of chance, letters, numbers as mysterious icons and shapes quite apart from their main symbolic notation.

This series of box-assemblages, made 1979-1981, combines these interests in a manner totally different from my work as an abstract painter in oil on canvas. Each piece includes one loose element, a ball, die, toy,or pointer which rolls and slides in the crevices and corners of the framed box with the glass front. They are called “fake games’ because most of the loose elements cannot, in fact, be juggled into the apparent spaces. As in real life, it is hard to win; a draw is the best most can achieve.

Each work has a different theme, developed from the amassed elements I found, created or arranged. Many are hand made, antique, irregular odd bits of the past rescued from the trash bin of visual and social history.

There were 21 in the original series, of which 10 were acquired by dealers and collectors. The 11 shown below are available for sale, for further information email Abby Goell
abbyjanegoell@gmail.com