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Cornelia Parker

For some years Cornelia Parker's work has been concerned with formalising things beyond our control. In containing the volatile and making it into something that is quiet and contemplative like the 'eye of the storm'.

Through a combination of visual and verbal allusions, her work triggers cultural metaphors and personal associations, allowing the viewer to witness the transformation of the most ordinary objects into something compelling and extraordinary.

In 1997 she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London. She has became known for a number of large scale installations including Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991 (in the Tate Collection) where she suspended the fragments of a garden shed, blown up for her by the British Army, and The Maybe, a collaboration with actress Tilda Swinton shown at The Serpentine Gallery in 1995. More recently she wrapped Rodin's Kiss with a mile of a string to make a new work The Distance (a kiss with string attached) for her contribution to the 2003 Tate Triennial.

In tandem with the large projects she has been realising an ongoing series of smaller works entitled Avoided Object, working in collaboration with numerous institutions including the British Army, HM Customs & Excise, The Royal Armouries, The Alamo and Madame Tussauds.

Parker's work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in many private and museum collections worldwide, including The Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

For further information on Cornelia Parker's work please visit, Frith Street Gallery

Below are 12 books that have influenced her thinking on arts and ecology.

Reading List

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An Inconvenient Truth

Author: Gore, Al

A user-friendly introduction to global warming lucid, harrowing and bluntly effective. Michiko Kakutani, New York Times: "This frightening, galvanizing book will convince plenty of readers that Earth genuinely does hang in the balance." Warren Bass, Washington Post: "Gore the activist is an earnest, passionate, funny and caring individual, determined to communicate with people about the most important issue facing our earth." More...

Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency

Author: Klare, Michael T

Traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Carter governments. This work shows how America's own wells are drying up as demand increases and warns that by 2010 the US will need to import 60 per cent of its oil More...

Carbon War

Author: Leggett, Jeremy

Excessive burning of oil, gas, and coal is raising our planet's thermostat to unacceptable levels -- a problem which has already resulted in increased natural catastrophes: storms, floods, droughts, and fires. Yet big oil companies have repeatedly hijacked efforts to slow global carbon emissions. THE CARBON WAR is a major call-to-arms for the safety of our planet. Throughout the last decade, Jeremy Leggett, a distinguished scientist at Oxford University and former director for Greenpeace, has worked doggedly to alert human kind to the threat of ecological catastrophe. With the grace of a novelist and the precision of a scientist, Leggett recounts his maddening interactions with scientific councils, international governmental meetings, and business leaders. Still, despite the government's backpedaling on eco-promises, the media's laziness, and fossil fuel company rhetoric, the transition to solar energy is coming, he argues. The Carbon War is a riveting read and a critical contribution to the fight for sustainable energy. More...

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Author: Perkins, John

As an "economic hit man" in the '60s and '70s, covertly recruited by the US National Security Agency, John Perkins helped further American imperial interests in countries such as Ecuador, Panama, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. He tried to write this book four times but was threatened or bribed each time to halt. The events of 9/11 was a turning point for him, pushing him to finally write this book. More...

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

Author: McDonough, William

Guided by the principle waste equals food, this book explains how products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they provide nourishment for something fresh - continually circulating as pure and viable materials within a 'cradle to cradle' model. It makes a viable case for putting eco-effectiveness into practice. More...