Influenced by Cornelia Parker

I have admired the work of Cornelia Parker since before I started my degree but have understood her practice from a different perspective as an artist myself and have revisited her work time and again.

It is difficult or me to choose a piece that I like in particular as it is the process of making that I am interested in, however the Perpetual Canon made up of 60 flattened instruments once belonging to a brass band is one of my favorites. The depth of investigation that the artists reaches to work with appropriate materials must open up areas of understanding and opportunities that enrich process.

Perpetual Canon was originally created for an exhibition in the North East of England, a region associated with industries such as coal mining and its tradition of brass bands, described by Parker as ‘an anthem that is slowly winding down’. A canon is a piece of music where a melody is played and imitated after a short delay. I am intrigued by the richness of the investigation and the choices the artist can make, this for me is art and life in harmony. I particularly like the involvement of a community and their historical documentation creating a living piece of art. Collaboration is a beautiful thing.

I am particularly interested in Parker’s comments written in one of my favorite books, ‘Sanctuary’ a book that interviews British artists about their practice and their use of studios. Parker explains her influences to be Tony Cragg, Whose work I admired and enjoyed Immensely at the YSP. As I begin to understand my attraction to the work of one artist the connection to another becomes clearer. Parker talks about how she is drawn to the fragmented and the fact that she is interested more in broken objects than those in tact. She talks about brokeness being part of society. Artists such as Tony Cragg and Marcel Duchamp deal with things that are the fragment or immaterial.

When ‘searching for the sculpture’ in my own process much of the images I use are from a world which is invisible to the naked eye and could also be described as a fragment or immaterial. Taking these images or pieces and making them visible is the job of the artist. I have used found objects collected from a demolition site but also made new objects as part of my own practice.

Some of Parker’s key comments that resonate with me are “The process of making work is often oral – social interaction.” Parker works with Government and Commercial organisations, this provides that complex interaction, dealing with any number of people and ranks. My work with a climbing center, The Autism and Criminal Justice System and Researchers at Salford Hospital has enabled me to engage in a dialog rich in metaphors for aspects of my contacts work that I have explored in my practice. Using metaphors to make sense of abstract concepts has been scientifically proven to play a key role in our understanding of the world around us. Different conversations reveal different ways to understand and result in the artist’s exploration of a new vision. For Parker the process itself interests her more than the final work. I have often felt an outsider among my peers, my lack of interest in producing something aesthetically beautiful and ready for an external exhibition is outweighed by an obsession to explore a subject in many different mediums from print to metal, from paint to perspex. Creating the same shape for example in clay and then resin. I am addicted to the ‘friction ‘ that a new medium or method will create and the further questioning of a subject until it is exhausted. This can take a year or more to complete.

Parker talks about the outsiders (artists) interaction with an organisation which creates a friction as the two worlds collide and her art is made as a result of this. While writing my statement recently I realised that this is an integral part in my own practice. I search in these conversations with the outside world finding opportunities to explore metaphors in visual forms and respond to that friction.

Parker goes on to describe art as ‘digesting or inhaling and exhaling’ I like this description it expresses a air of curiosity, an opportunity with which to explore and experiment. With reference to the Mermaid Sculpture Parker enjoys the fact that the model will age , her children will grow but the body of the mermaid will stay the same. This exploration of nature and time points to the porousness of life and is such a delicate expression of our mortality.

My own investigation into tears and their crystallisation is similar in that the expression of a human sensitive response is explored and made permanent in stone. Much of Parker’s work has been the opposite – to destroy things and remake them. This is a reinvention, a rewriting of history that demonstrates a new way of seeing.