Cornelia Parker, a British artist born in the 1960s, spent most of her childhood by the railroad. Tossing coins onto the tracks for the trains to run over, she transformed the small objects into something even more significant than money: art. Later in life, Parker would be flattening, pulverizing, and crushing things more massive than coins. She would turn commonplace objects into animated stories to be displayed in galleries.
Some of Parker’s creations include hanging sheets of silverware crushed by a steam roller, fragments of an exploded garden shed suspended in midair, and a display of brass instruments driven over by a truck. Some people would look at her pieces and see randomness, while others would see a story. Parker wasn’t just demolishing items; she was encapsulating moments and inducing thought.
Another one of Parker’s most prominent pieces, Island, consists of a greenhouse. There are numerous smudges of chalk, from the White Cliffs of Dover, delicately smeared on each window pane. This work may be a reference to greenhouse gases and climate change. Some people might see it as a serene image, soft light shimmering through the glass walls.
Way back in the Stone Age, art was a form of destruction itself. Natural ingredients were crushed to make pigment and smeared upon cave walls. Although Parker didn’t hand-craft paints herself, her usage of destruction allows viewers to be captured in a tale like no other[UE6] . Clusters of fragments in a shifting light or musical instruments flattened to create shadows on the wall provide an image of unexpected beauty. “You can’t tell the objects are squished in the shadows. It’s like a ghost band, as it were… like these wind instruments have inhaled and never exhaled. Like they’ve just taken a breath and are in an arrested space,” Parker describes.
With her sculptures, Parker breathes a new life into traditional objects. Musical instruments that were once used for audial purposes are now displayed in a dazzling light for all to see. “I like the imaginativeness of shadows,” says Parker. “It’s almost like you’re getting visual amplification rather than audial. It’s like magnifying everything.”
The processes behind Cornelia Parker’s pieces spark imagination and make viewers ask, why? Best of all, this question has no right answer, for every person has a different perspective on Parker’s artworks.
Some of Parker’s creations include hanging sheets of silverware crushed by a steam roller, fragments of an exploded garden shed suspended in midair, and a display of brass instruments driven over by a truck. Some people would look at her pieces and see randomness, while others would see a story. Parker wasn’t just demolishing items; she was encapsulating moments and inducing thought.
Another one of Parker’s most prominent pieces, Island, consists of a greenhouse. There are numerous smudges of chalk, from the White Cliffs of Dover, delicately smeared on each window pane. This work may be a reference to greenhouse gases and climate change. Some people might see it as a serene image, soft light shimmering through the glass walls.
Way back in the Stone Age, art was a form of destruction itself. Natural ingredients were crushed to make pigment and smeared upon cave walls. Although Parker didn’t hand-craft paints herself, her usage of destruction allows viewers to be captured in a tale like no other[UE6] . Clusters of fragments in a shifting light or musical instruments flattened to create shadows on the wall provide an image of unexpected beauty. “You can’t tell the objects are squished in the shadows. It’s like a ghost band, as it were… like these wind instruments have inhaled and never exhaled. Like they’ve just taken a breath and are in an arrested space,” Parker describes.
With her sculptures, Parker breathes a new life into traditional objects. Musical instruments that were once used for audial purposes are now displayed in a dazzling light for all to see. “I like the imaginativeness of shadows,” says Parker. “It’s almost like you’re getting visual amplification rather than audial. It’s like magnifying everything.”
The processes behind Cornelia Parker’s pieces spark imagination and make viewers ask, why? Best of all, this question has no right answer, for every person has a different perspective on Parker’s artworks.
