Cornelia Parker is best known for installations involving the exploding of a garden shed, Tilda Swinton sleeping in a glass case and the wrapping of Rodin’s The Kiss in a mile of string. (pictured left)
Parker’s transformations of familiar, everyday objects investigate the nature of matter, test physical properties and play on private and public meaning and value. Using materials that have a history loaded with association, a feather from Sigmund Freud’s pillow for example, Parker has employed numerous methods of exploration- suspending, exploding, crushing, stretching objects and even language through her titles.
I love how when she talks about “Breathless”, (top photo) her 2001 piece that uses Brass musical instruments, flattened and suspended, she speaks of how they have inhaled, never to exhale again. I found when I was watching the video in class, I inhaled, until I was uncomfortable, really making me feel the physical force, as well as the emotional force of the piece. And in 30 pieces of silver, she said that the objects were betrayed when they were flattened, changing the way I looked at the piece.
Cartoon deaths have long held a fascination for Parker: ‘Tom being run over by a steamroller or Jerry riddled with bullet holes. Sometimes the objects demise has been orchestrated, or it may have occurred accidentally or by natural causes. They might be “preempted” objects that have not yet achieved a fully formed identity, having been plucked prematurely from the production line like Embryo Firearms 1995 (bottom left). They may not even be classified as objects: things like cracks, creases, shadows, dust or dirt The Negative of Whispers 1997: Earplugs made with fluff gathered in the Whispering Gallery, St Paul’s Cathedral (bottom middle). Or they might be those territories you want to avoid psychologically, such as the backs, underbellies or tarnished surfaces of things.’ I think that her piece “Alter Ego” (bottom right) is showing how even those things we find beautiful and safe, still have that side to them.
Parker’s transformations of familiar, everyday objects investigate the nature of matter, test physical properties and play on private and public meaning and value. Using materials that have a history loaded with association, a feather from Sigmund Freud’s pillow for example, Parker has employed numerous methods of exploration- suspending, exploding, crushing, stretching objects and even language through her titles.
I love how when she talks about “Breathless”, (top photo) her 2001 piece that uses Brass musical instruments, flattened and suspended, she speaks of how they have inhaled, never to exhale again. I found when I was watching the video in class, I inhaled, until I was uncomfortable, really making me feel the physical force, as well as the emotional force of the piece. And in 30 pieces of silver, she said that the objects were betrayed when they were flattened, changing the way I looked at the piece.
Cartoon deaths have long held a fascination for Parker: ‘Tom being run over by a steamroller or Jerry riddled with bullet holes. Sometimes the objects demise has been orchestrated, or it may have occurred accidentally or by natural causes. They might be “preempted” objects that have not yet achieved a fully formed identity, having been plucked prematurely from the production line like Embryo Firearms 1995 (bottom left). They may not even be classified as objects: things like cracks, creases, shadows, dust or dirt The Negative of Whispers 1997: Earplugs made with fluff gathered in the Whispering Gallery, St Paul’s Cathedral (bottom middle). Or they might be those territories you want to avoid psychologically, such as the backs, underbellies or tarnished surfaces of things.’ I think that her piece “Alter Ego” (bottom right) is showing how even those things we find beautiful and safe, still have that side to them.
I like listening to her interviews, I enjoy the way that she looks at things. She takes her work seriously, and much of it concerns serious subject matter – such as “Unsettled” (pictured right) which uses wood found on the streets of Jerusalem and wire – but she doesn’t seem to take herself to seriously, she still seems like a relatable person to me.
When she created Copenhagen’s ‘Little Mermaid’ (pictured left), she didn’t want to create the idealized version, she wanted someone real. so the women of Folkestone were offered the opportunity to model for the bronze sculpture. Parker chose Georgina Baker, mother of two and Folkestone born and bred, and this is a life-size, life-cast sculpture celebrates the local and the everyday. In the video about this piece she says that she is not a “studio artist,” that she gets her ideas when she is out and about, when she is talking to people, or visiting a museum; That she is gathering things for the bigger picture.
I would really like to see her work in person some day. I feel an emotional reaction to almost every piece, and I think that she is making a statement that doesn’t whisper, so as not to be heard, and doesn’t yell, so that people want to tune it out. I think that her statement is at a volume that is easy to understand and to relate to.
I would really like to see her work in person some day. I feel an emotional reaction to almost every piece, and I think that she is making a statement that doesn’t whisper, so as not to be heard, and doesn’t yell, so that people want to tune it out. I think that her statement is at a volume that is easy to understand and to relate to.