Embodying a literary magical realism, Goss’s paintings allude to a placeless-ness and timelessness, a parallel world of mystical wonder. Calenture Fostic draws from America’s pioneer beginnings. The urban Europeans who settled the vast prairie wilderness were often overcome by a sickness or syndrome from the oppression of too much space; the word ‘calenture’ refers to a tropical illness or heat exhaustion. The carnival-esque figures looming like ghosts were inspired by a vintage photograph of a wandering circus troupe Goss found in a junk shop in California. Goss emulates a sensation of delirium in this otherworldly scene. As if overlaying one history with another, veneers of delicate washes are punctuated by dense impasto detailing, an effect that replicates the faded quality of old photographs and suggests a haunting presence.