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Cornelia Parker
Simon Morrissey cuts to the chase with Cornelia Parker and finds out how she has fought commercial pressures to follow her own artistic agenda.
It is perhaps not surprising that Cornelia Parker approaches decision-making about her career with the same deliberation that characterises the precise combinations of objects and processes found in her work.One of Britain's most quietly compelling artists, Parker first came to prominence in the early 1990s after completing a BA at Wolverhampton – "which I loved" – and an MA at Reading University – "which I didn't" – with a series of large-scale suspended installations in the early 1990s. Thirty Pieces of Silver (1988-9), comprising approximately one thousand silver-plated candlesticks, plates, spoons and teapots flattened by a steamroller and hung on wire in thirty circular groups, was selected for the British Art Show 3 in 1990. This was closely followed by Cold Dark Matter at Chisenhale Gallery, London – an installation created by having a garden shed and its obsessively collected contents blown up by the British Army. The resulting fragments were then suspended around a single light bulb. Commissioned by Jonathan Watkins, current director of Ikon Gallery, Birmingham – who has over the years been one of Parker's main critical supporters – The...
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