Artists in Conversation | Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Parker will talk to Alexander Marr, professor of Renaissance and early modern art, University of Cambridge, and fellow, Trinity Hall, about her artistic practice and her commission to create a tapestry for Trinity Hall inspired by her work Thirty Pieces of Silver. 

About Cornelia Parker

Born in Cheshire in 1956, Cornelia Parker is a British visual artist known for her large-scale installations and sculpture. She is concerned with formalizing forces beyond our control, containing the volatile and transforming it into something quiet and contemplative. She is fascinated with processes that mimic cartoon deaths, such as being steamrollered, shot full of holes, falling from cliffs, and exploding. Through a combination of visual and verbal allusions, her work triggers cultural metaphors and personal associations that allow viewers to witness the transformation of an ordinary object into something compelling and extraordinary. She positions her subjects at the moment of their transformation, suspended in time and completely still.

Parker also works with embroidery, drawing, photography, and film. During the last three decades she has presented numerous major commissions and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, including a career retrospective at Tate Britain (2022); the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2019); Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster (2017); and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2016). In 1997, she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. She was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, London, made an OBE in 2010 and a CBE in 2022. In 2017, she was appointed as the first female Election Artist for the United Kingdom General Election. She was made an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 2021. Her work is held in public and private collections around the world and she lives and works in London.