THE AVIARY / NYMPHLIGHT / A FABLE FOR FOUNTAINS
Joseph Cornell & Rudy Burckhardt, USA, 1955-57, 16mm, b/w & colour, sound, 19 minutes

A trilogy of films, united on a single reel, which offer a magical glimpse at New York long since passed. In each, a young woman drifts through the city’s streets and parks, embodying the artists’ distinctive qualities of melancholia and childlike wonder.

“Joseph Cornell describes the marginal area where the conscious and the unconscious meet.” P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film)

The artist Joseph Cornell (1903-72) is best known for his enigmatic box constructions. His films likewise used found materials, but on occasion he employed filmmakers Rudy Burckhardt, Stan Brakhage or Larry Jordan to photograph original footage under his direction.

PLENTY is a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber. PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it. It forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna, supported by Arts Council England.