Cornelia Parker an English artist who is most well known for her sculptures. Parker’s art looks at the destruction of something, resurrecting it and reconfiguring it. Parker demonstrates the importance of process, frequently transforming objects using seemingly violent techniques such as exploding, squashing, shooting, cutting and burning. By carrying out these processes she physically alters the object as well as her herself becoming an active participant in the development of its story.
My personal favourite piece of Parkers is her most famous sculpture Cold Dark Matter (1991). This particular sculpture consists of a garden shed with familiar objects in an exploded view. The shed was blown up by the British Army at Parkers request. The surviving pieces were used by Parker to create an installation suspended from the ceiling as if held mid-explosion. A singular bulb in the epicentre cast shadows on the gallery walls. “In an interview with Tate curator Michaela Parkin, Parker suggested that an explosion was something she had wanted to do for a long time. To her, an explosion is an ‘archetypal’ image, familiar to us from childhood to adult life” As a student Parker had experimented with explosions in the past, displaying them outside and allowing them to disintegrate. Yet in Cold Dark Matter it is displayed in a studio space and instead of disintegrating it is left as though memorialised of what once was there.
The mundanity as well as the refuge-like quality of the shed is fundamental to the interpretation of the work. By blowing the shed up, Parker is taking away the safe place, as though destroying old memories, yet because of the exploded view it thrusts an notion of creating an entirely new space. Parker selected a garden shed from a company, not a used shed that was personal to someone, Parker states “I wanted it to be an archetypal shed because originally I was looking for a shed any old shed – I was going around all these allotments looking at sheds and they were all too romantic in a way …you know, if you blew up somebody’s specific shed it became too biographical, so I thought I’d get this kind of constructed shed.” although the shed was of no personal relation to anyone the shed was filled with pre-owned object, this juxtaposition of new and old creating an environment where people feel comfortable. The sculpture is relatable without mourning its existence, maybe down to the combination of new and old. Parker describes her work by stating “As the objects were suspended one by one, they began to lose their aura of death and appeared reanimated, in limbo. The light at the epicentre creates shadows on the wall, creating multiple layers of meaning. Thus as if the shed was re-exploding or perhaps coming back together again.” The objects quiet, still, leave room for contemplation. It allows you to gaze and wonder leaving it open for contemplation, this would have been completely different were the objects on the floor. “They are re-energised and rather than provoking horror, they can be contemplated.”
The sculpture goes against traditional ideas of sculpture by suspending each piece as a fragmentation of its former self. It seems obvious that Parker is fascinated by the fragmentation of materials she writes “I’ve never made a solid sculpture; I am more interested in the space with and around the mass, in atmosphere.” The ability to be able to walk around the sculpture allows one to discover the depths of the piece element by element. The space between objects blurs the boundaries between the work, the audience and the artist.
Much like my own practice Parker creates the work with a purpose however interpretation and meaning follows after creation. The meaning of the work can only come into play once the composition is complete, there is no way of knowing what interpretations are going to be taken from it and how the aesthetics are going to end up looking like. Parker states that “It takes away that kind of pathos, which is there when you see a lot of the debris on the ground after an explosion, well put it back in the air and it’s still got some life.” In relation to my research report, Parker understands that different audiences will perceive her work differently depending on their own personal background, culture and personal experiences. In an interview Parker said “every single person who sees this work will have a very different response. “
Research Used -
- http://www.artpace.org/works/iair/iair_summer_1997/mass-colder-darker-matter . http://www.phxart.org/cornelia-parker-mass
- http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/cornelia-parker-2/
- https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/parker-cold-dark-matter-an-exploded-view-t06949/story-cold-dark-matter
- http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/DEITCH/parker98/parker1.html
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