Suspended Work | Cornelia Parker’s Exhibition At The Tate Britain

October 25, 2022

Cornelia Parker’s exhibition at the Tate Britain has recently come to an end, but we wanted to revisit her large-scale hanging installations. Parker is an English contemporary visual artist… 

 Her hanging art is fragile but succinctly rigid at once, suspended by thin wires; each work is made up of multiple hanging elements positioned so as to make a whole. Perhaps her most famous work Cold Dark Matter: An exploded view, displays this better than any others. In it, Parker seeks to create, not just represent, an explosion as she chooses to blow up a garden shed, the location for so many things we can never seem to get rid of. In her suspension of the objects, it also feels as though Parker suspends time as the explosion appears frozen. Each fragment of the objects found inside the shed, or the shed exterior itself, floats above the ground with a bright light source, alike to the kind produced by an actual explosion, creating an intricate pattern of shadows which span onto the nearby walls. Despite this being an image of unanimous destruction, each piece finds itself reanimated by its suspended nature, the wires acting almost like a literal lifeline. 

   

Parker’s penchant for a hanging installation might remind you of our very own store displays (as customers even remarked). It has been a Tracey Neuls staple to have all our shoes hanging since the shops have been open. This serves as a uniquely dynamic way to display our stock, since your shoes are always in motion why shouldn't a display reflect that? Each shoe is brought to life through, softly swaying in the wind or being played around with by customers. No flaw is hidden and everything can be seen as you are able to observe every angle of your preferred pair.

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