Embedded Files
Outside the exhibition, you can write anything you like on the wall that the show makes you think...
Video of Cornelia Parker discussing the exhibition
On this page:
1 THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER
1 THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER
"Drawn to broken things, I decided it was time to give in to my destructive urges on an epic scale. I collected as much silver plate as I could from car-boot sales, markets and auctions. Friends even donated their wedding presents. All these objects, with their various histories, shared the same fate: they were all robbed of their third dimension on the same day, on the same dusty road by a steamroller.
I took the fragments and assembled them into thirty separate pools. Every piece was suspended to hover a few inches above the ground, resurrecting the objects and replacing their lost volume.
Inspired by my childhood love of the cartoon 'deaths' of Roadrunner or Tom and Jerry, I thought I was abandoning the traditional seriousness of sculptural technique. But perhaps there was another unconscious reason for my need to squash things. My home in east London was due to be demolished to make way for the M1l link road. The sense of anxiety lingers even now.
The title was borrowed from the Bible. Thirty pieces of silver was the amount of money Judas received for betraying Jesus
Thirty Pieces of Silver (Exposed)
Thirty Pieces of Silver (Exposed)
2015
21 polymer photogravure etchings on paper 30 years ago, in Brick Lane Market, east London, I found a set of photographic plates. They had been created for a Spinks auction catalogue of antique silverware in the early 1960s. They were still in their bags of transparent glassine paper, bearing the scribbled instructions from the photographer about how to print them.
I used the glass negatives inside their paper bags to make a series of photogravures - the plates became objects, their shadows etched onto plates and then printed.
2 AVOIDED OBJECTS AND TEXTILE WORKS 1995-2015
2 AVOIDED OBJECTS AND TEXTILE WORKS 1995-2015
"For the small objects I wanted something that was more like a haiku or poem. These works, which might be just as labour intensive as the installations, describe something that was 'not quite' an object'
This room offers a glimpse into the rich materiality processes and inventiveness of Parker's small sculptures. It brings to light important themes in her work, especially around notions of violence.
As well as the subject matter, her processes are also violent: she pulverises, cuts and shoots the objects to make her work.
In contrast, the textile pieces appear more ethereal. Constant themes in Parker's work include references to figures from history, such as in Stolen Thunder, or to the White Cliffs of Dover, as in Inhaled Cliffs.
Embryo Firearms
Embryo Firearms
1995
Colt 45 guns in the earliest stage of production While in Hartford, Connecticut, in the US, I visited the firearms factory where the Colt 45 handgun is made. I was amazed by the first stage in their manufacture, in which blank pieces of cast metal already take on the iconic shape of the gun. I asked the factory foreman if I could have a pair of guns at this early stage in production. He gave them the polish of the finished article. They became Embryo Firearms, combining the idea of birth and death in the same object.
Embryo Money
Embryo Money
1996
Ten pence pieces in the earliest stage of production Money seems such a powerful material, but in the end it's only metal. I was keen to see how it was made and managed to get behind the scenes at the Royal Mint, in Pontyclun, Wales. I asked if I could have some coins without a face. Removing these metal discs from the process just before they were struck made them a currency interrupted before it had value, before it accrued power.
Missing text
Shared Fate (Oliver)
Shared Fate (Oliver)
1998
Doll cut in half by the guillotine that chopped off Marie Antoinette's head This doll is Oliver Twist from the Charles Dickens novel. I used the guillotine that chopped off the head of French queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) to cut the doll in half, giving him another reason for his anguished expression. My little tweak of history caused a fictional character to share the same fate as a real queen. The guillotine is in the Chamber of Horrors at the waxwork museum set up by French sculptor Madame Tussaud.
Negatives of Sound
Negatives of Sound
1996
Black lacquer residue from cutting the original grooves in records In search of the negative of sound, I visited Abbey Road Studios in London, well known for recording the Beatles album of the same name. The sound engineers there talked me through the process of making a record. This involves engraving the "music' directly onto the surface of a black lacquer disc. Cutting the grooves left little black coils of lacquer residue that had made way for sound.
The Negative of Words
The Negative of Words
1996
Silver residue accumulated from a silversmith engraving words by hand This is the residue excavated when carving words by hand into silver. I asked an engraver if he would save this leftover metal from his process. It took many months for him to make enough for this little heap. It represents the inverse both of his expertise and of the monument that is language.
Luck Runs Out
Luck Runs Out
1995
Dictionary shot by a dice
This dictionary was shot in the back with a shotgun cartridge full of dice. Completely by chance, the book could only be opened at this page, where a dice appears to sink like a life raft.
Luck Runs Out is part of an ongoing series called Avoided Objects. These are object poems exploring the fractured, unmade, unclassified and pre-empted object. The series encompasses territories that you might want to avoid psychologically: the denied, the repressed and neglected, such as the backs, underbellies or tarnished surface of things.
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