It was my first time visiting Tate Britain, so this exhibition was especially interesting. Cornelia Parker is a diverse artist who uses many different methods and mediums to create her work. The first installation as you walk in is the very powerful “Thirty Pieces of Silver”. Visually I was very drawn to this installation, the reflective light of the silver and the feeling of weightlessness of the silverware. Creating the lost volume of the crushed plates with simply empty space and shadow.
I was especially intrigued by her abstract methods, by taking something out of everyday life and history and giving it a new meaning. She takes mundane and dead things such as napkins and gives them a complete new life by using them to polish silver from famous people in history, such as Stolen Thunder Tarnish from Charles I’s Spurs 1998 that I stumbled upon on my walk around the museum after looking at the exhibition. To see the napkin next to a painting of Charles I gave the napkin a whole new meaning. But looking at it with out knowing you feel like you are looking at a beautiful abstract pencil drawing.
The fact the she uses collaboration so much in her Politics section was fascinating because politics can mean so many different things to people. The chalk drawings done by school children picking out headlines of what they were interested was a great representation of how the media feeds us with catchy headlines that can even look exciting in children’s eyes. The Magna Carta (An Embroidery) Is also an example of who people view politics and freedom in different ways, depending on their status in society.
The exhibition also helped me understand collecting and art in the same context and how you can use mundane things to create impactful moments.