Artist's research: Cornelia Parker

"My art is about destruction, resurrection and reconfiguration: an exploration of the secret lives of objects and materials, both strange." Cornelia Parker


I first decided to research Cornelia Parker because of her work with the Magna Carta; I found it intriguing and I was interested with her bravery when she decided to take the document in a new, modern direction. The Magna Carta is a document that means something to a lot of people - it gave equal rights and allowed us to move forward as people - and I believe it was brave of her to recreate a modern version.

In my research I found out she  is a British artist best known for her installations. The work of Cornelia Parker is stunning just because of the scale of her installations, coupled with the exact nature of them. Parker uses objects that have strong social, cultural, or historical ties and presents them outside of their original context. This is why I believe she was the best choice  for the Magna Carta Project.

She linked old and new forms of creativity in this project by taking a photo on her phone and then chose embroidery as the final piece.

Her version is an embroidery of the Wikipedia entry of the Magna Carta, which anyone can contribute to. She used this aspect in her work, creating this project with a wide range of people including prisoners - this gave me this idea of bringing other people into my own project, asking them for quotes and their own ideas.

 

I researched further into her artwork and below are some examples and what I think of them.


Mass (Colder Darker Matter) (1997)
With this piece, in my opinion it looks like the wall behind is disintegrating and crumbling away; the mass of black in the middle is what would be the behind the wall. It is similar to negative shapes, and I find it very interesting.


 Cold Dark Matter; An Exploded View (1991)
For this piece Parker filled an ordinary garden shed with a jumble of items from car boot sales and then asked the British Army to blow it up! She then collected the debris and carefully assembled it into the installation shown. It gives the impression that the explosion is frozen in time. In my opinion, it is very powerful, and the shadows being cast across the whole room add to this; the piece demands to be looked at.












Neither From Nor Towards (1992)
This installation  consists of the bricks of a house that was situated on the cliffs of Dover. When the house collapsed due to cliff erosion the bricks fell down onto the beach below. They were then worn down by the sea. With the way Parker has arranged these bricks, in my opinion this is another powerful piece because it looks like the bricks are starting on the ground then working themselves back up; it is like they are trying to become what they once were. Parker has put the big rocks at the front and the small ones at the back to give an exaggerated perspective; it appears that there is more space than there actually is.