Cornelia Parker
"I resurrect things that have been killed off... My work is all about
the potential of materials - even when it looks like they've lost all
possibilities"
-Parker
Bio/Background:
-Is an English sculptor and installation artist (also does
drawings, photographs, and video)
-Born 1956 in Cheshire, England (53 yrs old)
-studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design
(1974-75) and Wolverhapton Polytechnic (1975-78.)
-Received her MFA from Reading University in 1982
-Married to American Artist Jeff McMillan and has a 7
year old daughter, Lily.
-Received an honorary doctorate from the University of
Wolverhampton in 2000 and from the University of
Birmingham in 2005.
-Currently a professor of conceptual at at the European
Graduate school.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3KQ4IJWKXU&feature=related
"Cornelia Parker first came to public attention in 1988 by
arranging for a steamroller to level a scavenged collection of
silver objects to create the raw materials for a large-scale
sculpture. Since then, melting, slicing, crushing, shooting, and
exploding objects (with the assistance of the Royal Mint, Colt
Firearms, and the British Army) and recycling the results into
eloquently arranged installations has become the trademark of
Parker's creative process."
- Artforum International | April 1, 2000| Miller, Francine Koslow
"Cornelia Parker's photographs do not rely on fixed meaning.
She seeks to realize the metaphorical poetry contained in
science's rational analyses, rather than to illustrate a scientific
concept. Her 'Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View' revolves
around themes of gathering and dispersal, expansion and
contraction, transformation and stasis, making and breaking and
other contrasts. It exemplifies the very wide reach of her
associative creations."
-Kemp, Martin
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Cold Dark Matter: An
Exploded View, 1991
A garden shed and contents
blown up
Dimensions variable
Cold Dark Matter is an
installation by Cornelia Parker
Cold Dark Matter began life as a
garden shed filled with objects
from her own and friends' sheds
and things bought at a car boot
sale. She then asked the army to
blow up the shed. The objects,
along with the fragments of the
shed, were collected and
suspended in a closed room in
an attempt to recreate the
moment just after the explosion.
The installation is lit with a
single light-bulb at the very
center of the
arrangement,casting shadows
on the walls around the
work.
•
•
•
Hanging Fire
Suspected
Arson, 1999
Charcoal, wire,
pins, nails
Length: 140 cm
Width: 84 cm
Height: 220 cm
Parker retrieved
the charred
remains of a
black Baptist
church, destroyed
by arson and
arranged the
pieces, strung
them on wires
and hung them in
a rectilinear
arrangement.
•
•
•
Blue Shift, 2001
Nightgown worn by
Mia Farrow in the
Roman Polanski
film 'Rosemary's
Baby', lightbox
166.5 x 82 x 46cm
What the hell is a
lightbox ?!?!
A.) Another use of the term
"lightbox" is for the fabric reflectors
that attach to studio lighting via a
connector to create soft lighting by
diffusing the strobe flash. They
generally come in various rectangle
shapes, although recently they are
being manufactured in an octagon
shape. Interior reflectors can be
white, silver or gold to alter the
temperature of light.
B.) In photography a lightbox has2 main
applications. One is a container with
several light-bulbs and a pane of
frosted glass on the top. It is used by
photography professionals viewing
translucent films, such as slides.
•
•
Alter Ego, 2004
Silver plated objects, wire
Mass (Colder Darker
Matter), 1997, Charcoal
retrieved from a church
struck by lightning with
thanks to the Baptist
Church of Lytle, Texas,
approximately 156 x 126
x 126 inches
•
•
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Perpetual Canon, 2004
Flattened brass band instruments suspended
Dimensions variable
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The Maybe,
1995
Installation at
the Serpentine
Gallery,
London
The Maybe, an
exhibition
made in
collaboration
with the
actress Tilda
Swinton (b.
1960) in 1995
(London,
Serpentine
Gal.) focused
on the
impressions
that one has
when
confronted with
the belongings
of famous
people.
•
•
The Distance (A Kiss
with String Attached),
2003
Installation at Tate
Britian, London
Rodin's The Kiss
wrapped in a mile of
string.
•
•
•
Marks made by Freud,
Subconsciously, 2000
Macrophotograph of the
Seat of Freud's Chair
63 x 63 cm
Macro photography -the
image projected on the "film
plane" is close to the same
size as the subject. On a 35
mm film (for example), the
lens is typically optimized to
focus sharply on a small area
approaching the size of the
film frame.
•
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Pornographic
Drawing,
1997
Ink made
from
dissolving
video tape
(confiscated
by HM
Customs &
Excise) in
solvent
61 x 61 cm
Poison and Antidote Drawing, 2005
*Black ink with snake venom, white ink with antivenom on
paper
Parker has always had an apocalyptic vision. “I suppose I
have always been alert to the fragility of the world, and I have
always been interested in addressing our fears of destruction,”
she says. “I used to be pretty obsessed about the planet being
obliterated by a meteor until global warming came along.
"Chomskian Abstract" 2007
When Chomsky couldn't come, she
compromised and asked for an
interview. “I wanted to do
something very minimal: to include
just him. And I wanted it to be as
open to interpretation as possible,
so I took all my questions out and
just left his answers.” This is the
film that she now presents at the
Whitechapel.
Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher,[2][3][4]
cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer
http://www.screencast.com/t/YWQ4NDUwNGY
Parker on her art and being
an artist...
"Once I started reinventing for myself what being an artist was – not
going into a studio, but making things on my own terms in response to
being out in the world – I started to really enjoy it... I realized that
everything else for me was hell."
"If I'm not doing the work I want, I usually suffer a
psychological allergic reaction and get ill. It niggles
when things get out of my control."
"I don't want it all to be pretty – it's a combination
of loss and gain. Things are born, live and hang
in limbo. That's what life's about..."
"You make an open-ended proposition and the audience
completes it somehow. That's what you hope an artwork to be
– a constantly living thing."
"I like the life/death resurrection bit, which is very
Catholic, something dies, but it's resurrected in
another form."
Exhibits and Shows
Parker lives and works in London.
She has had major solo shows at
the Serpentine Gallery, London
(1998), and Deitch Projects, New
York (1998), ICA Boston (2000),
the Galeria Civica de Arte
Moderne in Turin (2001), the
Kunsteverein in Stuttgart (2004)
and the Modern Museum at Fort
Worth, Texas (2006). She is
represented by Frith Street
Gallery (London), D’Amelio Terras
(New York), Guy Bartschi
(Geneva), and Galeria Carles
Tache (Barcelona)...
Feather that went to the Top of
Everest 1997 (photogramme)
15.7"X12"
...Her work is in private collections worldwide, besides many
public collections, including MOMA (New York), the Tate
Gallery, the British Council, Henry Moore Foundation, De
Young Museum (San Francisco) and the Yale Center for
British Art.
Relatedness to other artists...
Damian Ortega
...Warhol
...Kumi Yamashita
Some final thoughts…
“For some years Cornelia Parker's work has been concerned
with formalizing things beyond our control. In containing the
volatile and making it into something that is quiet and
contemplative like the 'eye of the storm'.
Through a combination of visual and verbal allusions, her
work triggers cultural metaphors and personal associations,
allowing the viewer to witness the transformation of the most
ordinary objects into something compelling and
extraordinary.”
-Arts and Ecology