Abstract:
This thesis is a study of the box constructions of New York artist Joseph Cornell from the
early 1930s to the late 1960s, and the influence of his work on that of contemporary
American jeweller Thomas Mann, as well as my own artistic production. The key areas
of focus are the process of assemblage and the implications of the box format, with the
following themes being explored: miniature space and time; preciousness; fetishism and
voyeurism. These are followed through into the section on my own work, where the
additional subjects of the history of collecting, automata and the stop-frame animation
of filmmaker Jan Švankmajer are discussed. The conclusion that I reach is about the
potential power residing in found objects, which form the basis of Cornell’s, Mann’s and
my own work.
