AOTM (August)
- Cornelia Parker -
Mass (Cold Dark Matter), 1997
Enrapturing, experimental and dynamic - this is how I would describe the work of visual artist Cornelia Parker. Within her work Parker uses recycled materials that are suspended by near-invisible wires to create the dynamic 3D pieces. However, Parker is my AOTM for August not solely for her eye-catching and unique work, but for how she uses her creative practice as a device to question the relationship between humanity and the planet. I think Parker and her communication of world issues through her work feels like such a relevant artist this month in light of the global wildfires and record breaking heat this summer.
In an interview with Ida Cole (Art Journalist and author of From the Sculptor’s Studio), Cornelia Parker states how her work is a commentary on the theme of vulnerability. She portrays this primarily through the suspension of objects which juxtapose traditional sculpture which is stable and grounded to the earth. However, in contrast with the vulnerability felt in her final pieces, Parker puts her work through process of transformation from crushing and burning to being exploded and extracted.
Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, 1991
This process is notable in the piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), in which a garden shed was blown up by personnel of the British Army. The shed was then suspended from the ceiling, hung as if in mid-explosion. The shards of wood are lit up from a central light source, adding drama and movement to the overall work.
This sculpture is often seen as an imitation of the Big Bang, and goes on to document the initial blast at the start f the universe an then the eventual development of human life and its subsequent creations, and even a return to the destruction and chaos caused not by nature but by human overconsumerism and pressure on the earth and its resources.
“I feel our relationship to life, to the rest of the world, is very tenuous. It feels fleeting.”
In Parker’s work she makes use of recycled materials, but in her conversation with Cole, she does not used recycled materials with an environmental conscious but because objects that have had a previous life are ‘more interesting’. Parker decontextualises the objects in her work, giving them a new life and purpose away from their original purpose. Although she does not have an environmental motivation behind using the resources that she does, it is easy to apply this lens into her work and see them as a commentary between people and how we treat our planet.
Neither from nor towards, 1992
As I finish writing I am realising that this in fact is not a particularly happy post and is certainly not a reflection of how I feel about ‘August’; the slow, calm state that life takes on. Reading and researching about Parker has made me feel an energy and vigour, and perhaps some anger, towards the enormity of the world and its social and climate issues. It has made me consider my role within the consumerism and destruction, especially in an art space, where it is all too easy to discard materials without a second thought.
I was initially drawn to Cornelia Parker’s work due to the dynamic nature of it. The explosiveness stood out to me as rocks and shards of wood defied gravity, revealing a state between a namable object, and an unrecognisable mess. Yet reading more about her and her work made me develop a deeper understanding. To me, the destruction can be seen as a reflection of the rising number of natural disasters sue to climate change, and issues such as failing infrastructures due to poor management and overpopulation. I think it is fair to propose that the explosive, aggressive composition of Parker’s work can act as a metaphor for the cycle of destruction and disrepair that the planet is being put under.
