- Cornelia Parker
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Cornelia Ann Parker OBE, RA (born 1956; Cheshire, UK) is an English sculptor and installation artist.
Contents
Life and career
Parker studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design (1974–75) and Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1975–78). She received her MFA from Reading University in 1982 and honorary doctorates from the University of Wolverhampton in 2000, the University of Birmingham (2005) and the University of Gloucestershire (2008). In 1997, Cornelia Parker was shortlisted for the Turner Prize along with Christine Borland, Angela Bulloch, and Gillian Wearing (who won the prize). Parker is married, has one daughter, and lives and works in London.
Work
Parker is best known for large-scale installations such as Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), for which she had a garden shed blown up by the British Army and suspended the fragments as if suspending the explosion process in time. In the centre was a light which cast the shadows of the wood dramatically on the walls of the room.[1]
Parker's compelling 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.
The Maybe (1995) at the Serpentine Gallery, was a collaboration with actress Tilda Swinton, who lay, apparently asleep, inside a vitrine. She was surrounded by other glass cases containing relics that belonged to famous historical figures, such as Mrs. Simpson's ice skates, Charles Dickens' quill pen and Queen Victoria's stocking.
She has made other interventions involving historical artworks. For example, she wrapped Rodin's The Kiss sculpture in Tate Britain with a mile of string (2003).[2] as her contribution to the 2003 Tate Triennial Days Like These at Tate Britain . The intervention was titled The Distance (A Kiss With String Attached). Subconscious of a Monument (2005) is composed of fragments of dry soil, which are suspended on wires from the gallery ceiling. These lumps are the now-desiccated clay which was removed from beneath the Leaning Tower of Pisa in order to prevent its collapse.[3]
Avoided Object is the title of an ongoing series of smaller works which have been developed in liaison with various institutions, including the Royal Armouries and Madame Tussauds. These “avoided” objects have often had their identities transformed by being burned, shot, squashed, stretched, drawn, exploded, cut, or simply dropped off cliffs. 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. 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). Or they might be those territories you want to avoid psychologically, such as the backs, underbellies or tarnished surfaces of things.’
Another example of this work is Pornographic Drawings (1997), which consists of drawings made from ink which has been manufactured by using solvent to dissolve (pornographic) video tape confiscated by H.M. Customs and Excise.[4]
“ 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.[4] ” In 2008, a new exhibition by Parker opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, organised in partnership with Friends of the Earth. It featured a 40 minute film - Chomskian Abstract, 2007 - presenting her interview with the world-renowned writer and theorist Noam Chomsky. Exhibited alongside Chomskian Abstract, 2007, Parker’s Poison and Antidote Drawings, 2004 featured black ink containing snake venom and white ink containing anti venom.
For the Folkestone Triennial in 2011, Parker created a Folkestone version of one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world, Copenhagen’s ‘Little Mermaid’. All women of Folkestone were offered the opportunity to model for the bronze sculpture. Through a process of open submission, Parker chose Georgina Baker, mother of two and Folkestone born and bred. Unlike the idealised Copenhagen version, this is a life-size, life-cast sculpture, celebrating the local and the everyday. Parker’s mermaid, a more confident and knowing lady of the sea than Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale one, is a permanent work for Folkestone.[5]
Exploded Shed
Quoting artist Cornelia Parker as she discusses her work, including Cold, Dark Matter: An Exploded View from 1991:
“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.”[6]
This inspired an orchestral composition of the same name by Joo Yeon Sir.
Exhibitions
Parker's work was included in the 16th Sydney Biennale in 2008 and in the 8th Sharjah Biennial, 2007. She has had major solo shows at the Serpentine Gallery, London (1998),[7] and Deitch Projects, New York (1998), ICA Boston (2000), the Galeria Civica de Arte Moderne in Turin (2001), the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart (2004) the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2006), Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2007), Museo De Arte de Lima, Peru, (2008), and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, (2010). She is represented by Frith Street Gallery (London), D’Amelio Terras (New York), Guy Bartschi (Geneva), and Galeria Carles Tache (Barcelona). 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.[8]
Recognition
Parker was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.[9]
See also
- British Art
- Book Works
References
- ^ "Cold Dark Matter:an Exploded View" Tate Gallery interactive site Retrieved March 20, 2006
- ^ Fenton, James (2003-03-08). "No strings attached". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/mar/08/art.artsfeatures1. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
- ^ Cornelia Parker: Subconscious Of A Monument, 21 September 2005 – 25 October 2005 Frith Street Gallery, London.
- ^ a b artseensoho.com Retrieved March 20, 2006
- ^ Cornelia Parker Folkestone Triennial 2011, 25 June – 25 September 2011.
- ^ http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/DEITCH/parker98/parker2.html
- ^ Preece, R.J. (1998). "Cornelia Parker at Serpentine Gallery". World Sculpture News/artdesigncafe. http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Cornelia-Parker-Serpentine-Gallery-1998. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
- ^ "Cornelia Parker Faculty Page at European Graduate School (Biography, bibliography and video lectures)". European Graduate School. http://www.egs.edu/faculty/cornelia-parker/biography/. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59446. p. 12. 12 June 2010.
External links
- Cornelia Parker faculty website at European Graduate School (Biography, bibliography and lecture material)
- Frith Street Gallery: Cornelia Parker
- Cornelia Parker editions at Alan Cristea Gallery
- Tate: Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991)
- Apocalypse later. The Guardian. Interview. February 12, 2008
- Tate: Cornelia Parker: Talking Art Cornelia Parker interviewed by writer and curator Lisa LeFeuvre. May 31, 2008
- Tateshots: Cornelia Parker's 'Folkestone Mermaid' The artist talks about her work for Folkestone Triennial 2011. June 23, 2011
Categories:- 1956 births
- Living people
- English artists
- Conceptual artists
- Installation artists
- Contemporary artists
- British women artists
- Alumni of the University of Wolverhampton
- Alumni of the University of Reading
- European Graduate School faculty
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
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