Cornelia Parker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cornelia Parker
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Parker in 2023
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| Born | 14 July 1956 Cheshire, England
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| Education | Gloucestershire College of Art and Design Wolverhampton Polytechnic University of Reading |
| Known for | Conceptual art, installation art, sculpture |
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Notable work
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Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991) The Maybe (1995) |
Cornelia Ann Parker (born 14 July 1956) is a famous English artist. She is well-known for her unique sculptures and art installations. An installation is a type of art where the artist creates a whole environment or experience for people to walk through or interact with.
Contents
About Cornelia Parker
Early Life and Education
Cornelia Parker was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England. She loved art from a young age. She went to several art schools to study and develop her skills. She attended the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and Wolverhampton Polytechnic. Later, she earned her master's degree from Reading University. She has also received special honorary degrees from several universities, including Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Gloucestershire, and Manchester.
Parker's mother was from Germany and worked as a nurse. Her British grandfather fought in a big war called the First World War. Today, Cornelia Parker lives and works in London and has one daughter.
Awards and Recognition
Cornelia Parker is a highly respected artist. In 1997, she was chosen as one of the finalists for the Turner Prize. This is a very important award for British artists.
She has also been an Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester. In 2010, she was given a special award called the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This award recognizes people who have made a big difference in their field. In 2022, she received an even higher honor, becoming a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Cornelia Parker's Artworks
Cornelia Parker is famous for her large and thought-provoking art pieces. She often takes everyday objects and transforms them in surprising ways.
Exploded and Charred Objects
One of her most famous works is Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991). For this piece, she had a garden shed blown up by the British Army! She then carefully collected all the pieces. She hung these fragments from the ceiling, making it look like the explosion was frozen in time. A light in the middle cast dramatic shadows on the walls.
She also created Mass (Colder Darker Matter) (1997). For this, she used the charred remains of a church in Texas that had been hit by lightning. She suspended these burnt pieces, creating a powerful and moving artwork. Years later, she made a similar piece called Anti-Mass (2005). This time, she used charcoal from a church in Kentucky that had been destroyed by fire.
The Maybe
In 1995, Parker collaborated with actress Tilda Swinton on a performance piece called The Maybe. Tilda Swinton lay inside a glass display case, appearing to be asleep. Cornelia Parker filled the gallery with other glass cases. These cases held interesting items that once belonged to famous historical figures. For example, there was a pillow from Sigmund Freud's couch and Queen Victoria's stocking. This artwork made people think about history and famous people.
Transformed Objects
Parker has a series of smaller works called Avoided Object. In these pieces, she takes objects and changes their identity. She might burn them, shoot them, squash them, or even drop them off cliffs! She finds it interesting how objects change after these "cartoon deaths."
For example, her work Embryo Firearms (1995) shows Colt 45 guns in their very early stages of being made.
Working with Famous Artworks
Cornelia Parker also likes to interact with existing famous artworks. In 1998, she showed the backs of paintings by the famous artist J. M. W. Turner. She called this Room for Margins. She wanted people to see these often-hidden parts as artworks themselves.
In 2003, she wrapped Auguste Rodin's famous sculpture The Kiss at Tate Britain with a mile of string. She called this The Distance (A Kiss With String Attached). This made people look at the well-known sculpture in a completely new way.
Soil from the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Her work Subconscious of a Monument (2005) is made from pieces of dry soil. These lumps of clay were removed from under the Leaning Tower of Pisa to stop it from falling over. Parker suspended these soil fragments from the gallery ceiling, creating a unique sculpture.
Art in Nature
For a sculpture park near Edinburgh called Jupiter Artland, Parker created a special firework display in 2009. It was called Nocturne: A Moon Landing. The fireworks contained a piece of a lunar meteorite, making it seem like the moon itself "landed" on Jupiter.
The next year, she made Landscape with Gun and Tree for the same park. This is a huge, nine-meter-tall sculpture of a shotgun leaning against a tree. It was inspired by an old painting where a man poses with a gun.
The Folkestone Mermaid
In 2011, for the Folkestone Triennial art festival, Parker created The Folkestone Mermaid. This was her own version of the famous Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. Instead of an idealized figure, Parker chose a local mother of two, Georgina Baker, to be the model. Her sculpture is life-size and celebrates real women.
Magna Carta (An Embroidery)
To celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, a very important historical document, Parker created Magna Carta (An Embroidery) in 2015. This was a hand-embroidered version of the Wikipedia article about the Magna Carta. Many different people helped embroider it, including prisoners, politicians, judges, and even famous figures like Edward Snowden and Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia).
PsychoBarn
In 2016, Cornelia Parker became the first female artist to create a new work for the Roof Garden of the Met in New York. She built Transitional Object (PsychoBarn). This was a smaller copy of the house from the famous 1960 Hitchcock movie Psycho. She built it using parts from an old red barn.
Election Artist
In 2017, Cornelia Parker was chosen as the official election artist for the 2017 United Kingdom general election. This meant she observed the election campaign and then created art about it. She made two films and a series of photographs to show her experience.
Blackboard Drawings
In 2017, Parker worked with children aged 5 to 10 from Torriano Primary School. She asked them to copy out news headlines from newspapers onto blackboards. This project showed how children, who don't yet vote, are still affected by the news and world events.
Recent Exhibitions
Cornelia Parker has had many major exhibitions of her work. In 2019, she had a big show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney. In May 2022, her largest solo exhibition opened at Tate Britain in London. This show included many of her famous films and sculptures.
Curating Exhibitions
Besides creating her own art, Cornelia Parker also helps organize exhibitions for other artists. This is called curating.
In 2011, she curated an exhibition called Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. She chose artworks from a government collection and arranged them like a color spectrum.
In 2016, she curated a group exhibition called Found at The Foundling Museum. She invited over sixty artists to create works based on the theme of "found" objects, connecting to the museum's history.
Images for kids
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Parker in 2023
See also
In Spanish: Cornelia Parker para niños
- Art of the United Kingdom
- Book Works
