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Italo Calvino Invisible Cities Vladmaster Set

Italo Calvino Invisible Cities Vladmaster Set

Description

Vladmasters are handmade viewmaster disks designed, photographed, and hand-assembled by Vladimir. They make use of toys, neglected houehold objects, and other miscellany to tell 28-picture stories. The Italo Calvino Vladmaster set consists of four disks and a box to keep them in.

In Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities Marco Polo entertains an aging Kubla Khan by recounting tales of cities that he has visited in his travels. Marco Polo describes fifty-five such cities and the novel revels in the interplay between the different cities so that the reader is left to wonder whether the cities actually represent different aspects of a single city, different internal experiences of place, or something else entirely. Unfortunately, these Vladmasters which recount excerpted tales of only four such cities, cannot hope to recreate the resonances and complexities of the novel. Instead they offer pretty three-dimensional pictures assembled out of small household objects and the hope that those who have not yet read the novel might feel compelled to do so

The four cities included in the set are: Zirma, a city which mysteriously repeats itself; Valdrada, a city built on a reflective lake where every person and action is mirrored; Argia, a city with dirt in place of air; and Baucis, a city elevated high above the clouds on thin stilts. Each image is accompanied by text printed onto the reel describing the city.

Added on Sep 03, 2009