Musings from the God of Cities

i recently went to see a joseph cornell exhibit in katonah, new york, at the katonah museum of art. katonah is a lot like many other towns in westchester county. the "business district" where i got off the train consisted of a handful of useless crap stores. there were no supermarkets, or stores where you would buy stuff you'd ever need, but there was an antique cameo store, a native american tchotchkes store, and a hardware store that only sold lawn decorations. also, there's no sidewalks in suburbia, so you can't actually walk anywhere. like a sucker, i had to take a $5 cab ride to the museum which was only half a mile away. lame.

i get to the museum


and ask for a map. the dude behind the counter chuckles, and informs me that the museum is nowhere near big enough to require a map. he points to the three rooms of the museum, and tells me what exhibits are in which. that said, all of the exhibits at the museum were really well done, and very interesting. it's kinda great that such a small town had any museum at all, and i shouldn't fault it for not being MET-sized. and most importantly, they had a bunch of pieces by joseph cornell. what more could i ask for? besides the fact that i find cornell's art asthetically appealing, i like it because it seems very hopeful. cornell takes pieces of detritus, works his magic, and what was essentially garbage becomes beautiful art. he also infuses his art with the things he likes, because he likes them. i love when artists create art that they love, with mediums they love. it just seems more honest.

anywho, my pictures don't really do the cornell dioramas, boxes and collages justice, and i couldn't really get great details because of the light in the museum, but hopefully you can see joseph cornell is totally my secret dead artist boyfriend.
















there was a cornell piece in the adjacent exhibit about briefcases-as-art. (don't ask.)



the piece, "the crystal cage, (portrait of berenice)" was described thusly:
"joseph cornell produced a number of dossier or archive boxes devoted to individuals... One of Cornell's rare valise boxes, the crystal cage (portrait of berenice), was dedicated to a fictional character whose imaginary life he fleshed out with an array of photos and documents. the collection of materials is marked by an element of reverie and longing for travel and escape, themes that infused Cornell's other works."

that's some pretty cool shit, if you ask me.