The Art of the Oscars

Today the opposite of tomato is Cold Dark Matter

Good to see recognition awarded at the Oscars to a (one-time) work of art in the shape of the actress Tilda Swinton, who collaborated some years ago with the artist Cornelia Parker in the realization of the work 'The Maybe', in which Tilda was publicly exhibited, at the Serpentine Gallery, asleep in a glass vitrine.


Cornelia Parker/Tilda Swinton 'The Maybe'

Cornelia Parker has long been an artist I much admire, from the time I first encountered her iconic work 'Cold Dark Matter: an Exploded View', a typical garden shed & its contents blown apart at the artist's request by the British Army & then reconfigured in a gallery setting, the pieces of charred wood & objects hung on wires from the ceiling around a central, single light bulb: experiencing the work at Tate Modern was wonderful, as one is both simultaneously able to walk around the arrangement, the physical object, the not-quite-still-life, & yet be enveloped within it, with dramatic shadows of the suspended objects being cast on the surrounding walls & also the distinctive smell of the charred matter lingering in the atmosphere.


Cornelia Parker 'Cold Dark Matter: an Exploded View'

I recall in particular visiting an exhibition at London's Frith Street Gallery in 1999 featuring 2 more such striking pieces of a similar nature to both ‘Cold, Dark Matter’ & the following illustrations, what one may have, in effect, been able to regard as being charcoal & chalk ‘drawings’, in 3-dimensional form, utilising the materials themselves again suspended from lines of wire. Again, the smell of the charred wood was palpable, particularly confined within a smaller space, adding another aspect to the experience: how cool the chalk piece seemed in comparison.


Cornelia Parker 'Heart of Darkness'


Cornelia Parker 'Edge of England'


(detail)

Another example of drawing in Cornelia Parker’s practice may be found, literally, in works such as ‘Bullet Drawing’, where the original object is transformed, physically drawn out, into a thin thread of wire & then composed in some manner. It occurs to me that such pieces, line drawings in 3-D, are related to such as the ‘accidental’ linear sculpture/broken-down fence I encountered & photographed a couple of summers ago now: it remains a fascinating subject as, indeed, does that of the art of Cornelia Parker.


Cornelia Parker 'Bullet Drawing'

Interesting too to encounter Tilda Swinton in another context recently, on TV, presenting – or at least being periodically present during & contributing her thoughts & words to – Isaac Julien’s compelling documentary on the life of Derek Jarman: the archive film footage of Jarman, such an engaging & erudite character, was fascinating, in keeping with the interesting nature of his art & the range of generally, be it film, painting or his garden at Prospect Cottage. I recall the experience of his ‘Evil Queen’ paintings, in Manchester some years ago, being a particularly visceral – the sheer physicality of the mass of paint on the canvases & the apparent frenzy of its application & the working-back-into-of, words & slogans gouged into the luscious surfaces, that represented a raging against the dying of the light as Jarman succumbed to Aids & its attendant blindness & physical waning - & profound one, such was the power the work communicated. Some of these paintings may be found here.
I recall also a moving TV documentary of the making of that work…it’s important that such figures, their work & general socio-cultural contributions should be remembered, it’s good that their art remains to remind us.