After attending the event at the BAM, I realized that sometimes things don’t have to make complete sense to get your attention. I felt like the mysterious and unusual aspects of the performance left most of us puzzled, but at the same time aroused more interest in Joseph Cornell’s life and his work. For example, I know for a fact that I am not the only one who went home and actually found out more about the artist. From what I looked up so far, Joseph Cornell was a sculpture artist and an experimental filmmaker. He actually never received formal training for art; and his work usually consisted of distinctive “boxes”.
He also never got involved in any romantic relationships because of his vigilant and reclusive behavior. Also, as we saw in the play, he spends most of his lifetime taking care of his sick brother, Robert.
I think we had pretty good seats; nobody was in my way and everything was nicely visible. The acting was impressive; especially the character of Cornell was very well played by..(i dont know his name). The lighting and the backdrop did the magic for me though; they contributed to the originality of the show and that’s what made it different from other events.
In all, I feel like even though I did not always follow what was going on during the play, it left a greater impact on me because of the curiosity it sparked within me.
And the cheesecake wasn’t bad either. = D
1 response so far ↓
1 eleung // Oct 14, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Distinctive boxes. Yes, I read that too. I guess we detected that from the art pieces we examined in class as well.
I think his life reflected those boxes. The production helped me detect that Cornell lived in a box. Not once throughout the play did I feel as though the scene shifted beyond his mind. This is kind of hard to explain. On a literal level, he was living in a box, his basement. Beyond that, the stage seemed to be his little box. Each prop or setup acting as an item placed in that box (mind).
-Evan
You must log in to post a comment.