1. Artwork Analysis
Questions:
1. Choose 1 contemporary work of art.
2. Complete the artwork description.
a) Author and nationality
b) Title
c) Technique/media
d) Year created
3. Answer the following questions from the observation of the chosen piece of art
a) What materials/objects is the artwork made of?
b) Describe the image depicted in the artwork. What does it represent?
c) How does this artwork make you feel?
d) What ideas of insight come to your mind when looking at this piece?
e) Do you think there is a meaning of the idea the artist is trying to convey?
Which one?
4. Research/collect the following information.
a) Artist’s biography.
b) Artist’s webpage.
c) News or poppers about the artist’s work in general.
d) Pictures from the artist’s most famous works.
5. Créate a brief presentation of the artist and his/her work, portraying the collected
information.
Answers:
1. We chose Cornelia Parker’s piece named Cold Dark Matter
2.
2. Author: Cornelia Parker
Nationality: British
Title: Cold Dark Matter
Year created: 1991
Media/ technique: installation. Suspended fragments of exploded shed. Light bulb in the
middle. Shadows.
3.
a) The artwork is made of an exploded shed, it’s remains are hung from the ceiling
and the installation has a light in the center that makes a chaotic reflection.
b) When looking at Cold Dark Matter we see an installation of hanged elements that
form a cube, representing the exploited shed that was used to generate such a
chaotic and scary setting and atmosphere. We believe she tried to portrayed the
chaotic times she lived in, war. How chaotic our world can be.
c) This piece of art called our attention, since she made such beautiful art with
meaningless stuff. We love the function of the light, as it contributes on making
shadows and it makes you believe the room is moving around, when it actually is
not. While contemplating this piece, we feel useless as it shows how chaotic and
painful our world is. We feel like that since it makes us understand the fact that
instead of taking actions to solve the problems, we just stare and watch our world
being lawless and lawless.
d) The ideas that came to our head when we saw the piece were disturbing; it is a
messy installation that came from a simple shed, a place where we store things
that we no longer use. Cornelia Parker transformed it into something beautiful,
and very familiar as regards the explosion, since the shed is a common place filled
with common stuff, but very unfamiliar at the same time, since the explosion is
extraordinary. She created a new and extravagant installation with used materials.
She as many other artists, created art with trash and we believe that is not only
helping the environment, but it also is amazing. We truly are her fans.
e) Cornelia Parker tries to show us that although a shed is a very familiar thing to us,
it can become something much more different. An unfamiliar type of technique in
the art world in that moment is used to convey this idea. Moreover, we also
believe she is trying to use this uncanny device, comparing what is familiar and
what is unfamiliar, by exposing how chaotic and messy our world is. So, in our
opinion, the piece has two meanings: one literal and the other one more
metaphorical.
3. 4)
Cornelia Ann Parker is an English sculptor and
installation artist. She was born in 1956 in
Cheshire, United Kingdom. Parker studied at
Gloucester College of Art. She is well known for
her large scale, often site specific, installations.
Her engagement with the fragility of existence
and the transformation of matter is exemplified in
two key works: Dark Matter, a cartoon-like
reconstruction of an exploded army shed, and
Heart of Darkness, the formal arrangement of charred remains from a forest fire. There is
an apocalyptic tone to much of her work but she also demonstrates a concern with the
more insidious effects of global warming and consumerism.
Parker works in a variety of mediums and has collaborated with institutions such as HM
Customs & Excise, Royal Armouries, Madame Tussauds and Victoria & Albert Museum,
London. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997. She was appointed an Officer of
the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2010.
B) she does not have a web page or at least we could not find it, but we found this
webpage that exposes all Cornelia’s works
https://www.artsy.net/artist/cornelia-parker
C) This is a new from the newspaper called “The guardian” that was public two months
ago, Feb 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/02/awful-lot-distress-cornelia-parker
s-general-election-art
D)
4. Members: Federika Marty, Milagros Mendez Peralta Ramos, Rosario Vago and Juana
Pérez Muñiz
Project idea
To stick to Cornelias style, we would like to do a similar project. we thought in using a
simple light bulb that would be representing the world; surrounded by some wire and
some pieces of trash, to represent the contamination, that doesn't allow us to see the true
essence of the world we live in. Our world is beautiful but we can’t see it, so we don't
really mind if we throw a little paper on the street, but these are the little things that we
should improve to realise what we are doing.
5. Maybe we could put some little pieces of trash in the wire and make everybody take
one of them, as the people start removing the trash, the light will be more visible and it
will become in a beautiful piece.
