As I mentioned before (here), I am sharing some summer exhibitions with you, on the blog. This will have to be the last, as it has well and truly turned to Autumn here in Kent! This is a large exhibition of Cornelia Parker’s work at Tate Britain. I had my first opportunity to see – and experience – ‘Dark Cold Matter’, the famous exploded shed, which the artist blew up with the assistance of the Army. It is a powerful piece.
The artist has more recently used a steamroller to flatten objects. One entire hall is hung with flattened silverware, arranged in circles, ash shown below.
Seeing the flattened arrangements en masse was eerie and unsettling.
In another room, flattened silver instruments hung vertically from the ceiling.
As with the shed, the shadows on the walls of the gallery were as striking as the instruments themselves.
A small room in the gallery shows a film about the industrial process used to make red poppies for Remembrance Day. The next room was entirely draped in ‘fabric’ made from the left-over material when the poppy petals have been removed.
The room took on the appearance of a tent, with every hole a reminder of a life lost due to war.
Another textile piece (important to me, as this is a textiles blog after all) was the extraordinary ‘Magna Carta’ an embroidered version of the Wikipedia entry about the Magna Carta. Over 200 different individuals were involved in the stitching of this piece!
The ‘illustrations’ were embroidered too, like this stunning or nué depiction of Pope Innocent III
The piece is enormous as you can see in the photo below.
‘Island’, seen below, was reminiscent in some ways of ‘Cold Dark Matter’, although this time the focus was inwards. The greenhouse walls (a reference to Cornelia’s family’s market garden when she was a child) are painted with chalk taken from the white cliffs of Dover. (In the past whitewash was used to reduce glare in the market garden greenhouses.)
The tiles on the floor are from the Houses of Parliament.
With the light in the greenhouse going off and on, the white chalk strokes look alternately light and then dark. Once again, the shadow on the gallery wall is an important part of the piece.
These are just some of the pieces in an arresting, thought-provoking and interesting exhibition.
To hear Cornelia Parker talking about work, see this short film in which she answers questions from the public.
This exhibition continues until 16 October 2022 at Tate Britain, London.
Amanda Jane Textiles offers unique fabrics for sale here, quilt patterns here, classes here and quilts for sale here
Reminder: I am teaching at The Knitting and Stitching Show 2022 at Alexandra Palace in October. For details of my classes and of a discount on your entry ticket, see the blog post here
