EXPEN5E

How am I only now learning that

How do you decide that you want to blow something up? Quite literally creating chaos in order to recreate the original elements in their new form … a moment of time permanently recorded within a structure, the aftermath of this decision Parker had made. She had chosen

‘For Parker this suspended explosion referenced a significant visual trope of modernity, one that connects popular culture, science and politics of a period of frequent IRA bombings – a mix that informs much of her subsequent work. As she explained in an interview, images of explosions recur through, “the violence of the comic strip, through action films, in documentaries about Super Novas and the Big Bang, and least of all on the news in never ending reports of war.”’ https://hero-magazine.com/article/172328/cornelia-parker

Bombing … explosions … something you see in the media, so far removed from yourself is a reality in which we are desensitised. Though the reports are never ending, they do come and go, discussed for a spilt second in time and then forgotten about. What is the route of this injustice? Can it be compared to the violence Parker inflicts on these material forms? The exploration that underpins a psychological narrative, perhaps revealing

using found and transformed objects in order to reveal the history and possibility of objects that are often loaded with cultural meaning. ‘I resurrect things that have been killed off,’ she writes. ‘My work is all about the potential of materials – even when it looks like they’ve lost all possibilities.’ By documenting the volatile states of matter from solid through to dust, Parker is able to find the essence of an object that is retained through past, present and potential manifestations. https://tworooms.co.nz/artists/cornelia-parker-2/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkvJ6bRZK4 ‘Avoided Object’ Falling Towers and Sinking Ships 1984 – Decided to work at home for financial reasons, 4 white walls and a concrete floor in a studio didn’t seem like the work related to my everyday life. Parker wanted to encapsulate an experience that she had. On her travels Parker had collected architectural souvenirs, from famous monuments, which would end up as in her bedroom and become a sculpture in the home. These objects  could be found on top of a television or mantle piece in other homes. Cornelia Parker describes the Empire State building as “this little, crude cipher of a famous monument” and states that she decided to use this object as the beginning for a piece of work, making a mould of the souvenir, which was already like an abstraction, and then mass produced it in lead, then making the leads into plum lines, like the beginning of buildings. Parker taught herself how to cast, the way that you would cast tin soldiers, making these crude casts on her kitchen stove, in a frying pan with lead in it, making quite a mess, lead was falling on the floor, so Parker decided that she wanted to make the splashes of lead into images too, which became images of a tin ship, another item bought as a souvenir. This was a turning point in the work. She states “Before, I was making very ephemeral things, using all kinds of ephemeral materials, but I really enjoyed the idea of using lead, that’s almost as dense as metal to make something that’s quite ephemeral. As more people moved into the house, Parker was sharing the communal spaces and began to take her work onto the ceilings and into any little nooks and crannies to make a sculpture, also using the furniture because that’s the sort of thing you have in a house, the materials that were around seemed to become very important. Drawings always been a concern of Parkers, saying that she always thinks of her work as a kind of drawing.

Society – beliefs, prejudice, carbon copy of parents, external influences, community (small minded, uneducated/unintelligent, educated/intelligent, ignorance/arrogance Religion/tribe/gang/follower/leader – social media, popularity, government, votes, status, privilege

Tabloid – manual to your life, newspapers/sources become manuals to life

Language – the earth speaks for itself but not through words, not through human language. Why do we not listen to the ones who do speak up for our planet?

Oceans – dirty, polluted Species – human diet, pure, quality, health Food packaging ??? Plastic toxins Survival – food, water, oxygen, shelter - accessible to developing countries?

Products – cosmetics, microbeads, microplastics – changing genetics, biodiversity loss, species extinction – not just effecting natural world, humans exposed to toxic chemical start to finish, willingly putting into/onto bodies

- Exposure to chemicals, exposure to carbon dioxide, particularly in developing countries

Bottled water – cleanliness? Hygiene? – bodily waste, shower, toilet - ocean

Germs - build up, landfill bacteria - OCD, overthinking everyday tasks plastic seeping into product ingredients, any plastic container can integrate into contents not just BPA cosmetics, fruit and veg in packaging, cling film, clothes - containing plastic – chemicals in dyes and materials - wrapped in plastic … Countries that don't regulate laws

Plastic is a valuable commodity recycling systems need to be regenerated

I'm part of an active minority, questioning, finding evidence, open discussions Ideas, materials - supply can't meet demand, mass produced, production, business, money, fossil fuels, pollution, non renewable resources – excess, product life cycle single used plastic, disposable - second hand materials - process of making, combining, environmentally friendly – renewable, natural, no more synthetic, no more throw away, zero waste population overload, why doesn't the whole population have food/warmth/shelter/medicine government laws are dated   war? Guns? Spreading awareness, accountable Create visual journey, how do I visualise: skills, passion. Questioning , good at what? Real interest…… Materials, where do mine come from? How can I purely use pre existing items so I don't cause the damage most other people contribute to? Research man made disposable short life products explore pre existing activist groups - answers to save what's in reach (methods to change humankind's habits and harsh closing life span - the bigger picture artists combining objects -installation of multiples -art that focuses attention 360 degree scale -minimal approach, pointing at message – ordered/displayed/transformed cases of global overpopulation affecting every element of surviving for shorter due to poor decision's/selfishness/greed/pushing and forcing decisions/lack of education /not caring about the future or humanity or planet earth and environment natural versus synthetic recycling - manufacturers - laws jobs part of issues - trapped working on self-destruction  

Multiple conversations (tea bag detail) 

The Weather Inside, The Mattress Factory, 2011

Plaster, drywall, mixed plumbing supplies, marble, brick, hair, paper, beads

https://www.cornerhousepublications.org/publications/veronica-ryan/

The Weather Inside, Paula Cooper Gallery, 2019

“Inside and outside merge, which is inside and which is outside. Where are the boundaries? Liminal spaces, time place and locations. Reality and outside of reality. Definable and not defined. A shrine, alcoves, perhaps.” - Veronica Ryan

‘Her meticulously handcrafted works—while quiet and elusive—also contain a capacity for provoking an eruptive and disquieting internal dialogue. “Small objects can have an immense resonance and suggest monumentality in the world,” Ryan stated. Composed of materials that reference her Afro-Caribbean heritage, the works examine the psychology and semantics of perception, as well as allude to notions of home, memory, and loss. Various found objects have been wrapped, sewn, stacked, cast or remade in plaster. Among those displayed on shelving units are fragments of coral bound with bandages and vegetable nets; crocheted doilies; tea-stained textiles; and mesh produce bags filled with the stones of tropical fruit: artefacts that recall Ryan’s memories and ancestral associations of the West Indies. Imprinted with the artist’s meticulous and almost ritualistic interventions, the works not only convey the personal and psychological residue held within objects, but also the collective processes such the exportation of agricultural commodities, migration of peoples, and paradigmatic notions of diaspora. Towering stacks of produce trays—perforated by crocheted tunnels that extend through their foliation—are placed directly on the ground. “I’m interested in cultural dynamics […] and the vegetable is a way of speaking metaphorically. I like the receptacles with their egg-like shapes,” Ryan explains, “and stacking as way of establishing a kind of order to make sense of one’s reality.” Their formal combinations produce fragile propositions, unpacking tensions between container and contained, absence and presence, invisible and visible, inside and outside. In part the grey plaster works reference the volcanic eruption on Montserrat in 1995, which destroyed the island’s capital city and covered the Southern part of the island in ash. Here, preserved moments, blockages, partial evidence, and traces of things petrified evoke a liminal space and time—and question concepts of identity, memory, loss, and territorial boundaries.’

Bundle II, 2019 - Paper, plastic net, elastic

Rescue, 2018 - Coral, bandage