Sculptures Solution

How It Works

The puzzle takes the form of four transparencies, each with two rectangular areas (top and bottom) with an apparently random distribution of black rectangles (with approximately a 1" clear border on the edges of the page), and a pointer to the sculpture garden.

Every sculpture in the garden has a (approx. 9 x 12 1/2) plaque associated with it. Each transparency has some data in each of its corners, written legibly if the corner in question is oriented to the upper-left. Each transparency has a theme: sculptor's name, sculpture title, sculpture material, sculpture description. If the transparencies are all oriented and stacked with all the data from one sculpture in the upper-left corner, the resultant interference pattern forms a mask that can be laid over the plaque for that sculpture to pick out letters (aligning the upper-left corner of the transparency stack with the upper-left corner of the plaque itself). This can be done in four ways, flipping and turning the transparencies appropriately to realign as necessary.

Solution

There are four different sets of transparencies, each set pointing to four different sculptures. Each team only received one set. The data from each sculpture can be concatenated:

• SAL TSP ART NER (salt's partner)
• CAY ENN ESP ICE (cayenne spice)
• TAB ASC OOR RED (tabasco or red)
• SCU LPT ORBE VERLY (sculptor Beverly)

All four sets resolve to the same answer: PEPPER.