Since the late 1980’s, Cornelia Parker, who resides in London has been using strange
methods, such as blowing things up, to create art.
Cornelia Parker is best known for her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View.
Parker created this piece of art by asking the British Army to blow up a garden shed in
order to recreate the shed as if it were being suspended in time. To create this piece of
art, Parker had to dangle each piece of rubble and debris and hang them with invisible
cords from the ceiling. The piece is illuminated by a light bulb in the middle of the chaos.
The little fragments create an amazing shadow that adds to the effect of the art.
Parker also created The Distance, which is a statue of two people tied together with
string kissing each other. To create this, Parker had to wrap a mile of string onto this
statue. She says, “Everything just sort of weaves together,” and later remarks, “The
Tate owns all my major works, so they just had to get them out of the old archive. I’ve
got a piece where I wrap Rodin’s The Kiss up in string. They own The Kiss, and they’ll
allow me to re-enact my work.”
Another one of Parker’s works is “Thirty Pieces of Silver with Perpetual Canon.” In this
piece of art, Parker crushed 30 brass instruments and hung them in a circle. Parker
says, “The squashed instruments were hung in a ring in a circle like a marching band. I
quite liked the instruments becoming shadows because it means the audience is
between the shadows and the objects. You can’t tell the objects are squished in the
shadows. It’s like a ghost band, as it were. The idea of a Perpetual Canon that just
keeps going on forever. It’s like these wind instruments have inhaled and never exhaled.
Like they’ve just taken a breath and are in an arrested space.”
Parker’s pieces of art convey a poetic meaning while expanding on the possibilities of
her mediums. The way she creates these pieces of art shows an approach to creativity
far beyond other artists.
Quotes:
“Everything just sort of weaves together,” – Cornelia Parker
“The squashed instruments were hung in a ring in a circle like a marching band. I quite liked the instruments becoming shadows because it means the audience is between the shadows and the objects.” – Cornelia Parker
Additional Facts:
Best known for Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View
Started experimenting with this type of art when she was a child.
Article Used:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656024503937x897509551200573700/Corne
lia%20Parker_%20The%20artist%20who%20likes%20to%20blow%20things%20up%20
-%20BBC%20Culture.pdf
methods, such as blowing things up, to create art.
Cornelia Parker is best known for her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View.
Parker created this piece of art by asking the British Army to blow up a garden shed in
order to recreate the shed as if it were being suspended in time. To create this piece of
art, Parker had to dangle each piece of rubble and debris and hang them with invisible
cords from the ceiling. The piece is illuminated by a light bulb in the middle of the chaos.
The little fragments create an amazing shadow that adds to the effect of the art.
Parker also created The Distance, which is a statue of two people tied together with
string kissing each other. To create this, Parker had to wrap a mile of string onto this
statue. She says, “Everything just sort of weaves together,” and later remarks, “The
Tate owns all my major works, so they just had to get them out of the old archive. I’ve
got a piece where I wrap Rodin’s The Kiss up in string. They own The Kiss, and they’ll
allow me to re-enact my work.”
Another one of Parker’s works is “Thirty Pieces of Silver with Perpetual Canon.” In this
piece of art, Parker crushed 30 brass instruments and hung them in a circle. Parker
says, “The squashed instruments were hung in a ring in a circle like a marching band. I
quite liked the instruments becoming shadows because it means the audience is
between the shadows and the objects. You can’t tell the objects are squished in the
shadows. It’s like a ghost band, as it were. The idea of a Perpetual Canon that just
keeps going on forever. It’s like these wind instruments have inhaled and never exhaled.
Like they’ve just taken a breath and are in an arrested space.”
Parker’s pieces of art convey a poetic meaning while expanding on the possibilities of
her mediums. The way she creates these pieces of art shows an approach to creativity
far beyond other artists.
Quotes:
“Everything just sort of weaves together,” – Cornelia Parker
“The squashed instruments were hung in a ring in a circle like a marching band. I quite liked the instruments becoming shadows because it means the audience is between the shadows and the objects.” – Cornelia Parker
Additional Facts:
Best known for Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View
Started experimenting with this type of art when she was a child.
Article Used:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656024503937x897509551200573700/Corne
lia%20Parker_%20The%20artist%20who%20likes%20to%20blow%20things%20up%20
-%20BBC%20Culture.pdf
