CORNELIA PARKER: Rorschach
May 6 to May 28, 2005
Opening reception: Friday, May 6, 6 to 8pm
D’Amelio Terras is pleased to present Rorschach, an exhibition of new works by renowned British artist Cornelia Parker. The show will be held offsite at 545 west 22nd street, a landmark 5,000 square foot, sky-lit exhibition space located on the same block as the gallery. This will be the first opportunity in New York to view a group of Parker’s large works since her show at Deitch Projects in 1998.
Rorshach is Parker's most ambitious endeavor within a body of work consisting of flattened and suspended silver plated objects that she considers traditional signifiers of class and etiquette in Britain. For Parker, “Silver is commemorative, the objects are landmarks in people’s lives. I wanted to change their meaning, their visibility, their worth, that is why I flattened them, consigning them to all the same fate.” Rorschach will consist of nine new sculptures of flattened silver plated objects, such as trophies, candelabra, tea sets, cutlery and musical instruments, hovering a few inches from the floor of the large exhibition space.
Rorschach is a reference to the well-known psychological test created by folding an inked piece of paper in half to create abstract symmetrical blotches. It is used to access the patient’s subconscious by prompting him or her to assign meaning to nonrepresentational images. For this exhibition Parker, who has in the past referred to psychoanalytic techniques in her work, has created her own Rorschach pattern in the third dimension by suspending flattened objects to mirror themselves on a central axis. The irreversible compression of these objects removes their function and debases their cultural value, thus creating a profusion of abstract silver shapes that provoke the viewer’s own Rorschach-like subconscious projections.
Cornelia Parker was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England and lives in London. A 1997 Turner Prize nominee, she has held solo exhibitions at Galleria Civica D’Arte Moderna (GAM), Turin, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Chicago Arts Club and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Parker was included in “Days Like These: 2003 Tate Triennial” in London, and recently has a solo show entitled “Perpetual Canon” at the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart in Germany. Her work is held in many international collections including, the British Museum, Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin.
