In the City of Westminster in Central London sits an elegant museum that houses nearly 70,000 artworks. Among these prestigious pieces is an exhibit dedicated to the fragments of Cornelia Parker’s beautiful and highly-creative art.
Since the late 1980s, Parker has created some of the most striking works of art by using the most extraordinary objects. From steam rollers to the remnants of a shattered shed, Tate Britain has gathered nearly 100 of her compositions for the first significant showcase of her art in London.
In one of her many collections, Parker drove a steam roller over more than 1,000 secondhand silver objects. The flattened teapots, trombones, baby spoons, cigarette cases, and other objects were split into 30 groups before being expertly dangled from wires, creating “Thirty Pieces of Silver.” According to BBC Culture, Parker explained, “In the gallery, the ruined objects are ghostly, levitating just above the floor, waiting to be reassessed in the light of their transformation. The title, because of its biblical references, alludes to money, to betrayal, to death, and resurrection: more simply it is a literal description of the piece.”
Parker’s best work, created in 1991, is “Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View.” Hanging from invisible filaments are the shattered remains of bikes, garden tools, paint pots, toys, and the garden shed she managed to get the British Army to help her dismantle. The piece is highlighted by a dazzling lightbulb in the middle of the explosion, casting an impressive show of silhouettes on the outer walls of the gallery. “I like shadow and things that are shiny, the opposite of shadow,” Parker said. “I’ve always liked nocturnes. The first time I really used light was my exploded shed. I wanted to make a work with a light source. It’s linked to explosion – the flash – so that’s where the light first appeared.”
Other than creating her own special art, Parker also re-enacts her work. Re-enacting plays an important part in her art and imagination. For one of her pieces, Parker created “The Distance (A Kiss with String Attached)” by wrapping a mile of string around Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Kiss. Since the Tate owned The Kiss, all Parker had to do was to wrap the priceless statue up in a mile’s worth of string.
At the end of Tate’s show, in its own gallery, sits a greenhouse with a radiant light. The light shows the intricate floor tiles, which were actually designed by Augustus Pugin for the Houses of Parliament in the 19th century. On the outside, smudged with strokes of chalk, are the greenhouse’s windows. “It looks a bit like a floating carpet,” says Parker. “All the most powerful people in the world have strode across [the tiles] – Gladstone, everyone. It’s been worn thin by politicians. It looks like the greenhouse is afloat on top of this thing.”
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220621-cornelia-parker-the-artist-who-likes-to-blow-things-up
Since the late 1980s, Parker has created some of the most striking works of art by using the most extraordinary objects. From steam rollers to the remnants of a shattered shed, Tate Britain has gathered nearly 100 of her compositions for the first significant showcase of her art in London.
In one of her many collections, Parker drove a steam roller over more than 1,000 secondhand silver objects. The flattened teapots, trombones, baby spoons, cigarette cases, and other objects were split into 30 groups before being expertly dangled from wires, creating “Thirty Pieces of Silver.” According to BBC Culture, Parker explained, “In the gallery, the ruined objects are ghostly, levitating just above the floor, waiting to be reassessed in the light of their transformation. The title, because of its biblical references, alludes to money, to betrayal, to death, and resurrection: more simply it is a literal description of the piece.”
Parker’s best work, created in 1991, is “Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View.” Hanging from invisible filaments are the shattered remains of bikes, garden tools, paint pots, toys, and the garden shed she managed to get the British Army to help her dismantle. The piece is highlighted by a dazzling lightbulb in the middle of the explosion, casting an impressive show of silhouettes on the outer walls of the gallery. “I like shadow and things that are shiny, the opposite of shadow,” Parker said. “I’ve always liked nocturnes. The first time I really used light was my exploded shed. I wanted to make a work with a light source. It’s linked to explosion – the flash – so that’s where the light first appeared.”
Other than creating her own special art, Parker also re-enacts her work. Re-enacting plays an important part in her art and imagination. For one of her pieces, Parker created “The Distance (A Kiss with String Attached)” by wrapping a mile of string around Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Kiss. Since the Tate owned The Kiss, all Parker had to do was to wrap the priceless statue up in a mile’s worth of string.
At the end of Tate’s show, in its own gallery, sits a greenhouse with a radiant light. The light shows the intricate floor tiles, which were actually designed by Augustus Pugin for the Houses of Parliament in the 19th century. On the outside, smudged with strokes of chalk, are the greenhouse’s windows. “It looks a bit like a floating carpet,” says Parker. “All the most powerful people in the world have strode across [the tiles] – Gladstone, everyone. It’s been worn thin by politicians. It looks like the greenhouse is afloat on top of this thing.”
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220621-cornelia-parker-the-artist-who-likes-to-blow-things-up
