twenty years later: assemblage art by joseph bennett

twenty years later — assemblage art by joseph bennett is a photographic collection of some of my assemblage art from found objects. These works were created using objects that I find on the streets of Mexico, in the trash, reclaimed from recycling centers, and in thrift stores north of the border. It’s been more than 20 years since I first saw images of Joseph Cornell’s work and thought that’s for me. Since then, saving objects from the landfill and breathing new life into them still keeps me awake — late into the night. My mom Trish, (known to others as Pat, may she RIP), taught me the value of pulling the car off the side of the road and peering into other people’s trash. If I protested that we were going to get caught, she’d offhandedly remark, with a giggle in her voice, oh, don’t worry. You’ll never see any of these people again! Mom was on the hunt for discarded furniture. Well-crafted, wooden pieces that she’d spend hours in the basement ‘loving’ back together. Stripping, staining, varnishing, and caning. Drinking hoards of Pepsi (dad drove a Pepsi truck for more than a few decades) and eating ice. Always there was ice. My first workbench was in that basement in Wilmington, Delaware circa 1975 (I was 10 years old). I’d find old boxes and put objects inside of them — nuts, pine cones and dried weeds, carpeting from the upstairs hallway, nails covered in rust. An early artist’s statement spoke of the basement, too “…standing in front of my father’s workbench, admiring all that lay before me… tangled wire and rust. Dusty cabinets hiding treasures beneath faded cobwebs.” And so began my own love affair with scavenging — digging through objects long discarded, considering, noticing their inherent beauty, bringing life back to them. Just like my Mom taught me, all those years ago, on the side of the road.