Artists who work with found materials are frequently described as making something out of nothing. This characterization is based on the estimation that the salvaged materials are ordinary, their value transitory or forgotten, and their existance ephemeral until the artist has intervened and provided them with a new reality or reason for being. Cornell's interest in the ordinary and fleeting was so elevated that he named it the "métaphysique d'éphemera," suggesting that literal things can create an elaborate and subtle form of magic.
Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Joseph Cornell: Shadowplay... Eterniday, p. 23
