TATE BRITAIN has opened its first, large-scale exhibition of Cornelia Parker’s work, curated by Andrea Schlieker. The renowned, contemporary British artist is best known for taking everyday objects and transforming them into exceptional works of art.
Portrait by Anne-Katrin Purkiss. Cornelia Parker, studio, London 2013
© Anne-Katrin Purkiss. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2022
Playing with allusion and metaphor, Parker considers issues such as violence, human rights and environmental disasters. The exhibition contains a range of immersive installations, sculptures, film, photography and drawings.
Avoided Object Photographs taken on the sky above the Imperial War Museum with the camera that belonged to Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, 1999. Courtesy the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London @Cornelia Parker
A high point of the exhibition is Parker’s ingenious works on paper and her more intimate sculptural productions. Other highlights of the show are Pieces such as Avoided Object 1999 – a series of photos taken on a camera which once belonged to an Auschwitz commandment – and the Pornographic Drawings 1995-2006, made from dissolved video tapes seized by HM Customs and Excise.
Another new piece in the show is a six-minute video entitled FLAG 2022 – a thought-provoking piece showing the Union Jack in reverse creation against the backdrop of the hymn Jerusalem.
Cornelia Parker. Perpetual Canon 2004. Collection of Contemporary Art Fundación “la Caixa”,
Barcelona © Cornelia Parker
By paying homage to her key political themes featured in many of her works, Parker makes us, not only think but, learn.
by Alicia Tomkinson
The show is on at Tate Britain until October 16, 2022 10:00 – 18:00 Daily