RECEIVED: Angie Cope's Poetic Journey into the Vision of Joseph Cornell (Port Washington, Wisconsin, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Chapter for collaborative visual poetry book by IUOMA member Angie Cope (Port Washington, Visconsin, USA)

 

March 8, 2012 - Angie Cope's visual poem about famed artist Joseph Cornell is, for me, not so much a tribute as a penetrating and sightful presentation of the vision that made Cornell's work so powerful - yet is so little understood or contemplated.

 

Last year there was a lengthy discussion about Cornell at the IUOMA that indicated he is an icon among mail-artists. Someone also found (yet I cannot find the citation now of course) an account of a meeting between Andy Warhol and Cornell that illustrated clearly the two were not on the same wavelength at all. (For one thing, surrealists and modernists used the modern world and popular culture for subjects. That did not mean they admired it, which created a lot of confusion. For instance, many of the old-line surrealists were among those most appalled by events in France in 1968. We might want to consider Joseph Cornell in these terms.)

 

I believe Angie did incredible work revealing Cornell's view of the world we share that is simultaneously dark, frightening, humorous, and dangerously random. Many artists would have incorporated his distinctive style, particularly found objects and geometric angularity - a kind of formalism - as a center of adulation. Angie works these stylistic elements in subtley, but they never stand in the way of her pursuit of Cornell's vision, which is metaphorically a dream in her poem. Here archival categorizations are great and reflect his mind. Her notes on the second and third pages of the chapter provide a map for the pages ahead:

 

 

In particular, I think her notes on the left-side serve as a list of themes: note in particular the film/dream/montage. Also, those stamps are spectacular! I think another point Angie makes here is that we consider Cornell a poet of things; yet he is really a poet of abstraction. Yet more shorthand: We think DaDa; perhaps we should think surrealism, or the vision of a world that is ultimately Kafkaesque. Now the stunning center section:

 

 

This is a spectacular center-fold that makes me think of both David Chirot and Matt Stolte. Angie is prepared to use any device or break any rule to capture the Cornellian vision, which I believe can be glimpsed here with a final genius touch of using black and white. Vispo overlays intensify Cornell's world, even if they blur the angularity we associate with his work. A great deal of repetition is used, and the more time spent with the image the more is uncovered. The next pages move us back toward the Jospeh Cornell we are more likely to recognize:

 

 

For one thing, compartmentalization begins to assert itself again. Images, for a time unloosed, find places in their archives. Overall, Angie uses a kind of controlled chaos in the piece that also functions like lapsing into and coming out of a dream; and again, dreams are essential to this work. Here is the concluding page:

 

 

We are left with a conventional Cornell image. But after Angie's poetry, do we see it the same or has her work chaged it, enhanced it? I know I see it differently thanks to Angie. This is a wonderful visual poem about an important and elusive artist. I treasure Angie's work and the talent it took to make it.

 

[Carina]

Thanks for good reflections of great artworks!

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi TIC TAC, Alicia posted a comment today on a scan of one of your pages, alluding to humor and also what I find to be the formidable challenge of minimalism. Trying to deal with Cornell with 3 or 4 letters a page - I'd like to see someone pull that off!

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks, Alicia. That's a nice link to some of the really fine Cornell assemblages. We have a lot of artists at the IUOMA doing assemblage. Maybe that's why last year there was a gigantic group discussion about JC. Of course, again, I can't find the thread. I thought people might remember.

His assemblages also remind me A LOT of Flux Kits too.

I share with you a love for reading about the artists and think you can learn a lot. Erni Baer has been talking a lot about Valerie Salsace (spg?) who shot Warhol and Grigori Antonin is circulating a piece about it. Ordinarily, you'd dismiss it as a deranged person but SCUM - Society for Cutting Up Men - put it at the center of gender politics during the rise of feminism. It's not unlike Manson who managed to turn an acid-twisted serial killing into some kind of foreshadowing of a bloody global revolution that seemed all too possible in 1969.

Did I ever mention, Manson used to circulate his writing in the network.

[Ptrzia (TICTAC)]

Cornell boxes are little jewels, what a beautiful hommage Angie! great blog!

[Alicia Starr]

De Villo,  i wasn't familiar with Cornell nor his work, until this morning (unless i forgot which is quite possible). Looked at his construction boxes and was even more impressed by Angie's VP book. Going to dig a bit deeper on this one.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/

Interesting life story if Wikipedia depicted him accurately.

Angie. "Midnight in Paris" was 88 minutes of pure delight. Didn't you love Gertrude Stein.

[cheryl penn]

Angie - for sure your work is wonderful.  Well done on a hugely successful interpretation :-) X

[De Villo Sloan]

Darn that Elmer's glue! I am so sorry Kat. The stuff won't seem to dry correctly.

 

Rebecca - Angie has nothing on you! It's a matter of stylistic choice - also, Angie has clearly become a part of the great visual poetry center known as Wisconsin or Visconsin - she is holding her own with Meikal And, David Chirot, Matt Stolte among others - and there is what amounts to a tradition originating there,

 

Alicia, you had known about Cornell? I admire Angie for even approaching this difficult character, You know, the art world hype was that this guy had been working in isolation and obscurity in his garage in Queens or some place which, of course, was far from the truth. But what he was actually doing was in many ways side=stepped when the collecting frenzy began with his "discovery." I think Angie digs wonderfully beneath the surface to a view of the world that necessarily has to take into account the mainstream NY artworld so beautifully characterized by Warhol's botched attempt to connect with Cornell.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

It is a beauty, Angie, details are fascinating to "read"...just fantastic!

Ideas...and dreams! Thanks xxx

and we "Vispo" people "stick" together, eh, Sloan?

Thank you for JacPo that arrived today ;-) 

...a bit stuck-together, but it is a beauty! xxx

(will not hijack...must blog elsewhere?)

[Alicia Starr]

bravo angie. and thanks for the introduction to Joseph Cornell. Fascinating visual poem. Beautiful and alluring.

And thank you De Villo for your insightful blog. 

[Rebecca Guyver]

Stunning! And now the beautiful mailart card Angie sent me is in context. I feel a bit of Vispo Book 2 envy.