February 24 SHAN introduces Cornelia Parker "Cold, Dark Matter-an exploded view" 1991

Profile

Name: Cornelia Parker
Year of Birth: 1956
Place of Birth: England
Post: London-based sculptor & Installation artist
Style: Complex & Ironical
Themes in works: Consumerism, Globalization & The role of the mass media
in contemporary life.
Selected art works: Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991)----Before and After
Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson) (1999)

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991)----Before

Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991)----After

• Site-specific work
• British Army explode a garden shed
  Fragments were suspended in the air
• Single source of light casting shadows of the shattered pieces on the wall
• The suspended sculpture
• Challenges the limitations of time and space

Explosion

Look into the work

The element inside the art work

Shadow on the floor and wall

• As much part of the work
• The real and the immaterial merge together!
• Turn the whole gallery space into a sculptural environment

What’s special?

• Each time the work is installed, it is slightly different.
• Objects never appear in exactly the same place.
• The objects themselves are fragile and change and degrade over time.
• Always in a state of transition.

Movies

— http://www.tate.org.uk/colddarkmatter/installation.htm

Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson蹤火)

Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson), 1999

Wire mesh, charcoal, wire, pins, nails

144 x 60 x 72 in. (365.8 x 152.4 x 182.9 cm)

Charred fragments of a building

• destroyed by arson (using wires & pins)
• geometrical and chaotic
• It reconstructs the scene of a crime.

Listen to Parker
“I resurrect(使復活 ) 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.”

“It's a modern condition: the threat of bomb scares, and the fear it symbolizes. From seeing explosions on the news and all the time in films you sort of think you know what they are, but really your firsthand knowledge of it is very limited. I realized I'd never walked through the detritus(岩屑) of a bombed-out building.”

“I like the life and death resurrection bit, which is very Catholic, something dies, but it's resurrected in another form.”

Conclusion

• Cornelia Parker’s work has been concerned with formalising things beyond our control, containing the volatile(爆炸性的) and making it into something that is quiet and just like the ‘eye of the storm’.
• She is fascinated with processes in the world that mimic cartoon ‘deaths’ – falling from cliffs and explosions.
• Her work triggers cultural metaphors and personal associations, which allow the viewer to witness the transformation of the most ordinary objects into something extra ordinary.
• Parker’s attention has turned to issues of globalisation, consumerism and the mass-media.

Discussion
What is the most attractive point of this work (Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991)---- After) do you think?

References
http://www.tate.org.uk/colddarkmatter/default.htm
http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/bio/cornelia_parker/
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/cornelia-parker/biography/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A27594174