Can puzzles be art?

I believe that re-creating the two-dimensional format of the ‘word-finder’ game into a three-dimensional form and illuminating it from within, helps changes the way in which we view this simple puzzle. It has now been released from its old meaning and transformed into a monument and elevated into the realm of art.

Each side of each cube represents a different ‘word-finder’ puzzle that lists different bands, artists, films, TV shows, foods, nightclubs, cars, famous people etc with in it. So the cube is a small monument to the things in life that usually get forgotten in the passing of time and/or the constant progression and evolution of popular culture and consumer culture.
Each square in the grid becomes like a synapse in the human brain and each letter represents a piece of raw data or information stored within that synapse. The illuminating of the letters from within the sculpture represents the electrical activity of the neurotransmitters in our brains. When all the individual pieces of code are viewed together as a complete illuminated structure, the key processes that give power and light to our memories are complete.

The wall-mounted pieces are a development on the traditional ‘word-finder’ layout used in the freestanding cube. Each letter still appears independent from its neighbour, as I want the viewer to see the whole plane as a puzzle first, before beginning to read it in the usual left to right and top to bottom fashion. I want the viewer to gradually discover that a letter can lead to a word and then that word can lead to a sentence, phrase or verse.

When the sculptures are in a darkened environment and illuminated from within, the once-white body of the original sculpture now appears to be black and the plastic letters appear to have been completely transformed from their normal solid state into radiating pools of luminous day-glow colour. The light from the all the different coloured letters combines to create a stunning aurora that completely surrounds each sculpture. By adding more sculptures to a darkened interior space, a fantastic visual effect is created whereby the all the light radiating from the sculptures compounds and the whole interior is lit up by a stunning orange and gold light.