Boxing Clever: A Centennial Re-Evaluation of Joseph Cornell
Centre for the Study of Surrealism and Its Legacies
University of Essex
Colchester, UK
17-19 September 2003

To celebrate the centenary of American artist Joseph Cornell’s birth, we announce an interdisciplinary conference intended to open his art to an even broader scholarly and popular audience for a new millennium. The title, Boxing Clever, refers to both Cornell’s ability to make art out of whatever he had at hand and to our desire to think outside of the theoretical, biographical and aesthetic “boxes” that have, to this point, defined our understanding of this prolific artist’s life and work.

The past decade has witnessed an extraordinary efflorescence of interest in Joseph Cornell, as evidenced by the publication of a host of key new critical biographical and theoretical texts that have transformed our understanding of his artistic production. Boxing Clever will feature scholarly (re)appraisals of Cornell’s life and work, as well as public programming that includes the presentation of many of his rarely-screened films. The conference will take advantage of an extraordinary level of current interest in Joseph Cornell as we begin to (re)define his role in the broader contexts of American Modernism, international Surrealism, and a variety of other key artistic, cultural and historical debates.

We welcome the attendance of diverse and interdisciplinary audience of scholars, curators, and creative artists, and seek to encourage a highly interactive and dynamic level of participation in the event.

Boxing Clever is Sponsored by the AHRB Research Center for the Studies of Surrealism & Its Legacies, UK; The Henry Moore Foundation for the Study of Sculpture, UK; The Elephant Trust, UK; The College of Arts & Sciences, New Mexico State University, USA; The Department of Art History, University of York, UK; C & M Arts, NYC, USA; and Richard L. Feigen & Co., NYC, USA.

Boxing Clever is co-organized by Dr. Stephanie L. Taylor, Department of Art, New Mexico State University and Dr. Jason Edwards, University of York(emails below).

For further details please contact: Emma Jenkins, Executive Officer, Centre for the Study of Surrealism & Its Legacies, ejenkins@essex.ac.uk.

For more information about conference registration log on to our website.

Boxing Clever will include:

Public Performances

‘An Evening with Joseph Cornell’ public performance The ARCHIVE Collaborative, Anne Walsh & Chris Kubick Los Angeles

‘An Evening of Joseph Cornell’s Films’ public presentationRobert Haller, Director of the Collection, Anthology Film Archives, NYC

The Magical Worlds of Joseph Cornell cd-rom demonstration, Robert Lehrman, collector & Chairman of the Board of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC with Cognitive Applications, Brighton

“Knowing Joseph Cornell,” Harry Roseman, Associate Professor of Art, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY & Former Cornell Assistant

Gallery Exhibitions

A Selection of Cornells from the Private Collection of Robert Lehrman

Photographs of Joseph Cornell by Duane Michals & Harry Roseman

Joseph Cornell: Varia Printed Material & Other Ephemera from the Collection of Dickran Tashjian

The Magical Worlds of Joseph Cornell cd-rom display

Academic Presentations

‘Birds of Every Wing’: Introducing ‘Boxing Clever’ Jason Edwards, Tutor & Lecturer in Art History, University of York

‘Paging Mr. Cornell’: The Book & Its Double, Dickran Tashjian, former chair of Art History, University of California at Irvine Cornell & Christian Science, Erika Doss, Professor of Art & Art History, University of Colorado at Boulder Joseph Cornell & Literary Traditions of Looking, Hugh Stevens, Lecturer of English Language & Literature, University College London

‘A Stage of His Own Making’: Dislocations of Time & Space in Joseph Cornell’s Theatre of Hans Christian Anderson, Analisa Leppanen, Ph.D. Candidate in Art History, University of California at Irvine Through the Wrong End of the Telescope: Thresholds of Perception in Joseph Cornell & John Ashbery, Ariane Mildenberg, Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of York From Joseph Cornell to Marianne Moore: Negation, Nothingness and the Art of Not Saying , Philip Cowell, Independent Scholar, London Surrealism & Popular Culture in the Work of Joseph Cornell: The Two Torn Halves of an Integral Freedom?, Stamatina Dimakopoulou, Independent Scholar, London Vernacular Cornell, Lynda Hartigan, Chief Curator, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts Space, Place & Utopia Parkway: Joseph Cornell as Artist/Geographer, Diana Davis, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Texas at Austin & James Housefield, Assistant Professor of Art & Design, Southwest Texas University Sights Unseen: Roussel, Leiris, Cornell & the Art of Travel, Julia Kelly, AHRB Research Centre for Studies of Surrealism & its Legacies, School of Art History & Archaeology, University of Manchester Joseph Cornell: Ports of Knowledge video documentary Lindsay Blair, Independent Scholar, Lochbroom, Scotland

‘Flushing Meadow’: A Kinetic Box for Joyce Hunter? , Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media, Museum of Modern Art, NYC The Aura of Loss: Joseph Cornell, Janie Geiser & the Cinema of Humble Means, Melinda Barlow, Associate Professor of Film Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder Cornell’s Poetics of Memory: Garden Center 44, Joanna Roche, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art, California State University at Fullerton Unpacking Cornell’s Boxes: Play & Participation in 1950s American Art, Anna Dezeuze, Research Fellow, University of Manchester Closing the Conference, Opening the Box. Stephanie L. Taylor, Assistant Professor of Art, New Mexico State University