Cornelia Parker is a British artist known for her site-specific installations, sculptures, and prints. She was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England, and studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and Wolverhampton Polytechnic. Parker is known for transforming ordinary objects through processes of destruction and reconstruction, often using explosive or violent methods to create her artworks. She is also interested in the relationship between objects and their histories, and her work often references historical events or cultural phenomena.
“Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View” is an artwork created by Cornelia Parker in 1991. It is a site-specific installation that consists of the fragments of a garden shed suspended in mid-air by wires and illuminated by a single lightbulb. The British Army blew up the shed at the artist’s request, and the resulting debris was carefully collected and arranged according to Parker’s specifications. The suspended fragments appear frozen in time, as if the explosion had just occurred and the debris had been momentarily paused in mid-air.
The artwork is meant to capture the moment just after an explosion when fragments are still flying through the air and before they hit the ground. Parker has described this moment as a “freeze-frame of destruction,” Her installation attempts to capture that moment and hold it in place. The artwork is also intended to provoke reflection on the destructive power of weapons and the beauty of destruction. By taking an object as mundane as a garden shed and transforming it through destruction, Parker encourages viewers to consider the many ways in which destruction can be both devastating and fascinating.
drawing into space 