The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 26.02.15

 The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 2015

(Photos by K. Shiuka)
Cornelia Parker is a London-based British sculptor and installation artist. Parker  was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England.  Cornelia Parker's work is regarded internationally for its complex, darkly humorous, ironic style. Cornelia Parker's work is highly allusive and patterned with cultural references to cartoons, a style which she adapts to her need to capture things in the moment before they slip away and are lost beyond human perception.
The Distance (A Kiss with String Attached) (2003) 
Inspired by Auguste Rodin’s ‘The Kiss’ (1901-04)
August Rodin’s The Kiss with a mile of string wrapped round it, by  Cornelia Parker.
Photo by K. Shiuka

About her artwork Cornelia Parker said; “I love Rodin – he’s so sensual and erotic. But sometimes I feel he’s too lyrical and beautiful. The Kiss, which used to sit in the rotunda of the Tate Gallery is probably the most popular sculpture in Britain. As a romantic idea, though, it feels simplistic: it’s about love, but not about the complications of love. So when I was invited to participate in the 2003 Tate Triennial, I decided to wrap it in string, to add some complexity to the sculpture. I was also referring to the artist Marcel Duchamp, who draped a mile of string over a Surrealist exhibition in New York in 1942, as an act of sabotage. The string in my work was a punk gesture – a deliberately provocative act. I started by wrapping it tightly around the heads of Rodin’s lovers, so that the kiss itself was obscured. It became a piece about the complexity of relationships – about how the things that bind people together can also suffocate them. When it was shown, someone chopped off the string with a pair of shears. He got arrested and the Tate wanted to prosecute. But the police said it would be hard to prosecute cutting a piece of string. I didn’t want it to go to court. It would have been silly, and I hadn’t set out to make a frivolous piece.”
 Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View(1991)

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View(1991)  is the restored three-dimensional volume of a garden shed exploded by the British Army at the request of the artist. The surviving fragments, suspended from the ceiling and lit by a single bulb, create a dramatic effect and cast shadows on the gallery's walls.
The Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991) by Cornelia Parker.
The highlights of my visit were many, but chief among them was the Cornelia Parker's exhibition, Getting up close to her   Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991) signature piece  alongside two new commissions and a variety of her other works was a thrill.  

Manchester, 26 feb, 2015