The Principles of Uncertainty

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  A beautiful reflection on life and loss, love and death, things and dispersal, not-things or not-yet-things and collections. And, unlike the previous sentence, it is not trite or maudlin, but spunky and funny and heart-wrenching. The paintings and the drawings and the photos, the handwriting and the embroidery and the typewriting reflect and re-emphasize the theme of the work demonstrating again that the profound is to be found in the mundane and the mundane in the profound: "We could ... (show more)

  A beautiful reflection on life and loss, love and death, things and dispersal, not-things or not-yet-things and collections. And, unlike the previous sentence, it is not trite or maudlin, but spunky and funny and heart-wrenching. The paintings and the drawings and the photos, the handwriting and the embroidery and the typewriting reflect and re-emphasize the theme of the work demonstrating again that the profound is to be found in the mundane and the mundane in the profound: "We could speak about the meaning of life vis-a-vis non-consequential/deontological theories, apodictic transformation schemata, the incoherence of exemplification, metaphysical realism, cartesian interactive dualism, revised non reductive dualism, postmodernist grammatology nd dicey dichotomies. But we would still be left with Nietzsche's preposterous mustche which instills great anguish and skepticism in the brain, which leads (as it did in his case) to utter madness. I suggest we go to paris instead." A pleasure to read from the cover and insert to the index and appendix. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook-användare on Oct 13, 2009 at 12:02AM

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  Maria Kalman isn't just a genius. She's the best kind of genius there is.

  The painter-illustrator-storyteller widow of Colors magazine founder Tibor Kalman is precisely the kind of person you'd imagine as your fantasy next door neighbour.

  Someone who thinks nothing of wearing feathery pink hats on warm summer days. Who invites you over for gingerbread biscuits and music. And tells you why she's had a lifelong crush on Abraham Lincoln. Her simple illustrations and seemingly random observ... (show more)

  Maria Kalman isn't just a genius. She's the best kind of genius there is.

  The painter-illustrator-storyteller widow of Colors magazine founder Tibor Kalman is precisely the kind of person you'd imagine as your fantasy next door neighbour.

  Someone who thinks nothing of wearing feathery pink hats on warm summer days. Who invites you over for gingerbread biscuits and music. And tells you why she's had a lifelong crush on Abraham Lincoln. Her simple illustrations and seemingly random observations about grass, fresh pickles, the weather or ruffled collars are so dense with energy and joy they force you to take quiet pauses in between pages.

  Whether you flip through her books, or follow her "visual column" in the New York Times (http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com), you can't help but look at the world a little differently. You may even spot a few more butterflies and ladybugs than you're used to.

  My favorite page in "Principles of Uncertainty" is this:

  'On the wall was a dress i embroidered. It said "Ich habe genug", which is a Bach cantata. Which i once thought meant "I've had it, I can't take it anymore". But I was wrong.
  It means, "I HAVE enough".
  Which is utterly true. I happen to be alive. End of discussion.
  (But i will go out a buy a hat).' (show less)

   

   

  by Sulin Lau on Sep 21, 2009 at 05:59AM

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