Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Parker had an exhibition filled with different mediums of art which caught my attention from the very beginning. With work spanned out in about (approximately) nine rooms, each room brought a different theme, story, and use of technique to portray her story. What I loved seeing was her use of pre-existing material in her sculpture-esque works, looking closely and seeing very familiar looking objects that she distorted in some way. She had some of her pieces ranging from being framed, or in a small box, to the entire piece filling up an entire room and all were intriguing and thought provoking. 

Reading about who Cornelia is, the process behind her art and all of the people she encountered during creating them is definitely eye opening to another “artist”. With her work spanning the last 35 years means that she met a lot of different people and lived through different stories to make her art as diverse and storytelling as possible. To read that she collaborated with such inspiring people that she did really makes you think about all of the research and specificity she underwent to create her work and how getting advice, help, and support from others can as well enhance your design or your works of art.

 I liked the rooms that had just one of her installations in, because it was easy to feel engulfed in the piece as well as focus on the talent and patience a work that large took. Seeing how she utilized the lighting within her pieces to reflect an image onto the wall was one of my favorite parts about her work. 

 Her “Thirty Pieces of Silver”, “Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View”, “Perpetual Canon”,  “War Room”, and “Island” are all examples, with “Perpetual Canon” being my favorite. Seeing how she took such a heavy, thick instrument and flattened it to deflation with reflections of the piece on the wall was so cool to walk in and just surround yourself in. It was a dark room, with light hitting the instruments that were in a circle perfectly to create a silhouette and capture the beauty of the shape, and the description behind her piece of work was so beautifully written. 

I really liked her pieces of art and loved learning about who she is as a person, artist, and seeing her talent in person. Seeing how other artists use her techniques and implement them into their own work will definitely expand and open the idea up of what art truly is.