Using bric-a-brac, memorabilia, and ordinary construction materials, Cornell assembled highly evocative, self-contained fantasy worlds inside wooden boxes. Birds were a common theme in his imaginative and deeply personal assemblages, since they could take on a range of symbolic meanings, from the idea of song to the experience of being caged.
From the early 1940s through the mid-1950s Cornell made a series of boxes containing owls. Unlike his other birds, which frequently appear in shooting galleries or compartmentalized in dovecotes, the owls inhabit woodland scenes. Here a paper cutout of an owl is surrounded by tree bark. The box is glazed with rippled blue glass and illuminated by a hidden electric light, which creates the effect of a moonlit night. The nocturnal owl likely held special significance for Cornell, who worked in solitude in his basement workshop.
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