February 01 2007

Text By Meera Sethi

It is the fantasist's pleasure to imagine the world not as it is but as it could be—mixing and matching its component parts in ways that surprise, amuse, disturb, and provoke the mind('s eye).

The universe is old, and even the wildest of notions it contains are still as ancient as dust. But—like a collector of visions—an 18-year-old in Poland renews the world, recycles its detritus. Picks through piles of old ideas and smooths out their wrinkles, choosing a few to stitch together so that out of the familiar she can fashion something wholly strange.

There is no new thing under the sun, says the Preacher. Says the Prince, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy...

...ah, but we do dream of them. Some of us, anyway. When we do, the world begins again.

And somewhere in it, perhaps in the next town over, there are two people with gramophones for heads.