Video Ergo Sum
Date
ca. 1950
Creator
Location
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
While tending his chronically ill brother, Joseph Cornell wandered Manhattan collecting objects for his art at souvenir, used-book, and junk shops. The handmade, glazed shadow boxes he assembled from these found objects are suggestive of Surrealism, particularly the collages of Max Ernst. However, Cornell transcended the Surrealist aesthetic of chance through his keen eye for design and his poetic juxtapositions of objects. This construction, Video Ergo Sum [I See Therefore I Am], utilizes classic Cornell vocabulary: a circle, a ball, driftwood, and a butterfly placed within a heavily painted white box, papered on the exterior with a mathematical chart. The rolling ball evokes a child's toy or pinball machine. Since Cornell's oeuvre features the sun, moon, and solar system, the box may depict an eclipse. The driftwood probably refers to the natural world, specifically the sea, and the mathematical diagram might be a tide chart. from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)
![While tending his chronically ill brother, Joseph Cornell wandered Manhattan collecting objects for his art at souvenir, used-book, and junk shops. The handmade, glazed shadow boxes he assembled from these found objects are suggestive of Surrealism, particularly the collages of Max Ernst. However, Cornell transcended the Surrealist aesthetic of chance through his keen eye for design and his poetic juxtapositions of objects.
This construction, Video Ergo Sum [I See Therefore I Am], utilizes classic Cornell vocabulary: a circle, a ball, driftwood, and a butterfly placed within a heavily painted white box, papered on the exterior with a mathematical chart. The rolling ball evokes a child's toy or pinball machine. Since Cornell's oeuvre features the sun, moon, and solar system, the box may depict an eclipse. The driftwood probably refers to the natural world, specifically the sea, and the mathematical diagram might be a tide chart.
from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fiiif-image.library.nd.edu%2Fiiif%2F2%2F1963.005.001%2F1963_005_001-v0006%2Ffull%2Ffull%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
![While tending his chronically ill brother, Joseph Cornell wandered Manhattan collecting objects for his art at souvenir, used-book, and junk shops. The handmade, glazed shadow boxes he assembled from these found objects are suggestive of Surrealism, particularly the collages of Max Ernst. However, Cornell transcended the Surrealist aesthetic of chance through his keen eye for design and his poetic juxtapositions of objects.
This construction, Video Ergo Sum [I See Therefore I Am], utilizes classic Cornell vocabulary: a circle, a ball, driftwood, and a butterfly placed within a heavily painted white box, papered on the exterior with a mathematical chart. The rolling ball evokes a child's toy or pinball machine. Since Cornell's oeuvre features the sun, moon, and solar system, the box may depict an eclipse. The driftwood probably refers to the natural world, specifically the sea, and the mathematical diagram might be a tide chart.
from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fiiif-image.library.nd.edu%2Fiiif%2F2%2F1963.005.001%2F1963_005_001-v0036%2Ffull%2Ffull%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
![While tending his chronically ill brother, Joseph Cornell wandered Manhattan collecting objects for his art at souvenir, used-book, and junk shops. The handmade, glazed shadow boxes he assembled from these found objects are suggestive of Surrealism, particularly the collages of Max Ernst. However, Cornell transcended the Surrealist aesthetic of chance through his keen eye for design and his poetic juxtapositions of objects.
This construction, Video Ergo Sum [I See Therefore I Am], utilizes classic Cornell vocabulary: a circle, a ball, driftwood, and a butterfly placed within a heavily painted white box, papered on the exterior with a mathematical chart. The rolling ball evokes a child's toy or pinball machine. Since Cornell's oeuvre features the sun, moon, and solar system, the box may depict an eclipse. The driftwood probably refers to the natural world, specifically the sea, and the mathematical diagram might be a tide chart.
from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fiiif-image.library.nd.edu%2Fiiif%2F2%2F1963.005.001%2F1963_005_001-v0001%2Ffull%2Ffull%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
![While tending his chronically ill brother, Joseph Cornell wandered Manhattan collecting objects for his art at souvenir, used-book, and junk shops. The handmade, glazed shadow boxes he assembled from these found objects are suggestive of Surrealism, particularly the collages of Max Ernst. However, Cornell transcended the Surrealist aesthetic of chance through his keen eye for design and his poetic juxtapositions of objects.
This construction, Video Ergo Sum [I See Therefore I Am], utilizes classic Cornell vocabulary: a circle, a ball, driftwood, and a butterfly placed within a heavily painted white box, papered on the exterior with a mathematical chart. The rolling ball evokes a child's toy or pinball machine. Since Cornell's oeuvre features the sun, moon, and solar system, the box may depict an eclipse. The driftwood probably refers to the natural world, specifically the sea, and the mathematical diagram might be a tide chart.
from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fiiif-image.library.nd.edu%2Fiiif%2F2%2F1963.005.001%2F1963_005_001-v0029%2Ffull%2Ffull%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
![While tending his chronically ill brother, Joseph Cornell wandered Manhattan collecting objects for his art at souvenir, used-book, and junk shops. The handmade, glazed shadow boxes he assembled from these found objects are suggestive of Surrealism, particularly the collages of Max Ernst. However, Cornell transcended the Surrealist aesthetic of chance through his keen eye for design and his poetic juxtapositions of objects.
This construction, Video Ergo Sum [I See Therefore I Am], utilizes classic Cornell vocabulary: a circle, a ball, driftwood, and a butterfly placed within a heavily painted white box, papered on the exterior with a mathematical chart. The rolling ball evokes a child's toy or pinball machine. Since Cornell's oeuvre features the sun, moon, and solar system, the box may depict an eclipse. The driftwood probably refers to the natural world, specifically the sea, and the mathematical diagram might be a tide chart.
from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fiiif-image.library.nd.edu%2Fiiif%2F2%2F1963.005.001%2F1963_005_001-v0002%2Ffull%2Ffull%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at RMMACollections@nd.edu.