Cold Dark Matter
Cornelia Parker
Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, 1991
Cold Dark Matter began life as a garden shed filled with objects from her own and friends’ sheds and things bought at a car boot sale. She then asked the army to blow up the shed under very controlled conditions. The objects, along with the fragments of the shed, were collected and suspended in a closed room in an attempt to recreate the moment just after the explosion. The installation is lit with a single light-bulb at the very centre of the arrangement, casting shadows on the walls. The title gives us a whole new way of understanding the artwork, making us think of other dramatic moments of destruction and creation in the much wider universe.
Neither From Nor Towards, 1992
In ‘Neither From Nor Towards’ the brick remnants of an eroded house hang suspended in stilled animation in the work of British artist Cornelia Parker, who was nominated for the Turner prize in 1997. Her work often depicts a moment in time, which has been halted. In ‘Neither From Nor Towards’, the bricks are resonant with their previous life, reminding us of the passage of time over which we have no control. Parker rescues and reinterprets the ordinary, which is transformed by the gallery setting into something poetic and extraordinary.
Heart of Darkness, 2004
Charcoal from a Florida Wildfire (planned forest burn that got out of control)
Cornelia Parker was born in Cheshire in I956 and lives and works in London. She is interested in how everyday objects can be changed by (often violent) processes. During her career she has used a steamroller to flatten silver plates and has transformed a wedding ring into metres of fine, gold thread. Although at first glance it might seem that she is interested in destroying objects, she is in fact fascinated by how change can create something completely new.
februari 25th, 2011 at 20:17
love the blown up garden shed and transformed wedding ring.find resounding pleasure in the thought process and the disciplined act that results in art that floats both wild and controlled- is the expansiveness of the pieces predetermined by the precondition of the space you exhibit in? Do you ever imagine a much larger landscape-field that is not contained by a room?
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juni 10th, 2011 at 15:43
Cold dark matter is such a thought provoking peice! I will definately be doing an artists response to this in my GCSE!
juli 5th, 2011 at 22:31
intriguing, I would like to see the real thing, an interesting image, violence and great, especially because it becomes a work with light and shadow, one of my favorites
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