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Malleable Forms: Selected Essays
"Walsh's writings are stunning examples of how to look, how to feel, how to see."
For 30 years Meeka Walsh has been the Editor of the Canadian art magazine, Border Crossings . A selection of her much-admired essays published in each issue of that magazine have been selected for this substantial book.
Malleable Forms is a book of 47 essays, rich and broad in ideas and subjects as far-ranging as art, architecture, literature, family, place, dogs, spirituality, birds, rabbits, and whimsy. But it isn't just about the subjects presented in the essays but the way in which Walsh has made connections inside the essays.
"Kim Star Turns" examines the memoir of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon takes the reader on a trip that includes surprising links between Gordon and Ab Ex painter Robert Motherwell. " Speaking Longing" measures the poetic sensibilities of Rainer Maria Rilke, Cynthia Ozick, and Vladimir Nabokov. "Say A Consideration of Interspecies Romance" describes the romantic tale of a courtship between a woman and a blue jay.
Noted international critic and art writer, Barry Schwabsky, has written an introductory essay. The persistent engagement of memory winds through the book and resonant is EM Forster's dictum, "Only connect." Walsh makes her particular kind of connections throughout.
For 30 years Meeka Walsh has been the Editor of the Canadian art magazine, Border Crossings . A selection of her much-admired essays published in each issue of that magazine have been selected for this substantial book.
Malleable Forms is a book of 47 essays, rich and broad in ideas and subjects as far-ranging as art, architecture, literature, family, place, dogs, spirituality, birds, rabbits, and whimsy. But it isn't just about the subjects presented in the essays but the way in which Walsh has made connections inside the essays.
"Kim Star Turns" examines the memoir of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon takes the reader on a trip that includes surprising links between Gordon and Ab Ex painter Robert Motherwell. " Speaking Longing" measures the poetic sensibilities of Rainer Maria Rilke, Cynthia Ozick, and Vladimir Nabokov. "Say A Consideration of Interspecies Romance" describes the romantic tale of a courtship between a woman and a blue jay.
Noted international critic and art writer, Barry Schwabsky, has written an introductory essay. The persistent engagement of memory winds through the book and resonant is EM Forster's dictum, "Only connect." Walsh makes her particular kind of connections throughout.
- GenresEssays
478 pages, Paperback
Published April 19, 2022
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April 16, 2023
I can see myself returning to this collection many times in the future. For some reason, despite always being aware of it and growing up in the prairies in Canada, I had never picked up or read Border Crossings. Part of me wishes I had, but also it was sort of nice in a sense because it meant that every essay in this collection was new to me.
The writing is so poetic and lyrical and everything about this collection flows so smoothly. From page to page and essay to essay I felt like I was on some journey through different mediums and thoughts, traversing the landscape with her as my guide.
There is a quote at the end of one of the essays, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Writing Art" that perfectly encapsulates how I felt reading this, it goes: "What I want in the writing I read and in what I attempt to do in mine is some kind of commesurability, some effort or chance to engage in a parallel event. [...] An invitation of some sort should be tendered." I think she did accomplish this-this sense of commesurability. I felt like I was being invited into each essay as a friend, invited into not only her own thoughts but the thoughts she has curated from others throughout the collection. She was there but it was not just her-she was just the twine holding it all together and giving meaning and form to it all.
I just loved it.
The writing is so poetic and lyrical and everything about this collection flows so smoothly. From page to page and essay to essay I felt like I was on some journey through different mediums and thoughts, traversing the landscape with her as my guide.
There is a quote at the end of one of the essays, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Writing Art" that perfectly encapsulates how I felt reading this, it goes: "What I want in the writing I read and in what I attempt to do in mine is some kind of commesurability, some effort or chance to engage in a parallel event. [...] An invitation of some sort should be tendered." I think she did accomplish this-this sense of commesurability. I felt like I was being invited into each essay as a friend, invited into not only her own thoughts but the thoughts she has curated from others throughout the collection. She was there but it was not just her-she was just the twine holding it all together and giving meaning and form to it all.
I just loved it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review