Review of Whitworth Art Gallery

The Whitworth art gallery in Manchester are currently exhibiting the work of Cornelia Parker whom explores the concepts and structure of ordinary objects, transforming them to the extraordinary. Parker has been had an influencal figure within my development of my contextual interest, aiding my liking of the use of found objects and exploring concepts alone rather than just the physical art (conceptionalism) Being able to visit the work, that inspire me was breath taking and brought a greater visual knowledge and realization to both her studies and my own. I admire Parker's adroit idea of using already formed objects and deconstructing them in simple ways as to remove aspects or purpose that formed the object - testing the physical and spiritual properties of objects. Her work bring understanding with depth to how we question what we see and how we perceptive it, contemporary thoughts.

 

Perhaps Parker's most well known work, 'Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View' (commonly known as the exploding shed) dominated her solo show, consuming an entire room with its projection of shapes and light. As I approach the piece, I feel an over-welling power of uncertainty and increase use of awareness, believe to be encouraged from the impression it give that time had frozen, like it had an immeasurable state of being. The use of contrast between light and dark aided this response dramatically. 

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One particular series of works that not only provoked my thoughts but engaged my most strong artistic interests was Cornelia’s self-portrait as a square, line, circle and triangle. Geometric and spirituality reflect my own practice and Parker has combined the two to suggest the comparison of man-made abstract shapes and that in nature to express what is truly embodied and what can only excite within the mind. She has achieve this with the use of their own blood to place an aspect of her biology within her work – herself becoming the work with a contradiction of it being in the form of an geometric shape, far from nature which her body is. 

 Seeing the works wasn't my only objective, as for my professional practice it was useful to observe and reflective on the layout of the exhibition as well as the methods used and who was involved. To gain this knowledge we question a tour guild, asking in more depth such as questioning the length of time it took to present the work (two pieces taking almost a week), has the work been presented differently else where and was there any alteration made to the room. I found that it wasn't all about creating a sense of flow between the pieces but using the works to play with space especially would it comes to sculpture. By playing with the space, you are able to persuaded the viewer to what piece holds the impression of significance and form a metaphysical path within the viewers slight to journey around the works; not be draw away from any piece of art. All these questions were essential for me to develop on wards onto  constructing my own successful exhibition.  

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