ArtsNational covers conceptual artist Cornelia Parker

ROSALIND Whyte took her audience from knowing nothing about Cornelia Parker to understanding much about the generally misunderstood artist, during her September address to ArtsNational Coffs Coast.

Ms Whyte, a guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, revealed Parker’s work to be original and accessible, even for people who think they could never like conceptual art.

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Born in Cheshire, England, and trained as a sculptor in Wolverhampton, Parker’s dramatic production and installation methods are legendary.

“She thinks the unthinkable and creates the seemingly impossible, mainly by smashing and pulverising found objects,” Ms Whyte began.

The audience of around 90 people at St John Paul College theatre heard the story of Parker’s drive to shatter boundaries and avoid being pigeon-holed.

For 30 Pieces of Silver (Tate 1988/9), she collected 900 pieces of commemorative silver objects (dishes, flasks, cups, musical instruments), had them flattened by a steam roller and then suspended above the gallery floor by thin wire, to give new life and meaning to abandoned things.

Left Luggage (1989) involved suitcases on railway platform, attached to a soon-to-depart train by white string festooned with white hankies, which was severed once the train left the platform, evoking an anti-climactic feeling.

Cold Dark Matter (1991) saw Parker recruit help from the British Army to explode an abandoned shed into thousands of pieces, many of which were later suspended in a perfect cube, casting eerie shadows on gallery walls, which are integral to the work as a whole.

In 1995, she teamed up with well-known actor and friend Tilda Swinton for “The Maybe” at the Serpentine Gallery, London.

Tilda, a prone, semi-conscious figure in a glass case, slept for eight hours a day, seven days in a row.

Sleeping Tilda was there but not there; present and absent. People could interact with her, but she couldn’t respond.

The experience was so stressful for Tilda that she developed shingles.

“In the end, all art is conceptual,” Ms Whyte explained.

“Even if you don’t understand the ideas that inform an artwork, you can still be affected.

“Because Parker is hands-on and collaborative, she produces original, often funny artworks that make you think and feel something.

“With major exhibitions at Tate Modern in 2022 and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, in 2020, Cornelia Parker continues to combine beauty, wit and imagination in unique ways.

“She’s always thought-provoking and surprising. Just what contemporary art should do and be.”

Next up for ArtsNational Coffs Coast is British Pop Art, 28 October at 6.00pm, in St John Paul College Theatre.

By Andrea FERRARI