Cornelia Parker’s major Tate Britain survey explores British fragility
At Tate Britain, Cornelia Parker’s first London survey show dissects politics and history and reframes everyday life

Tate Britain is hosting an expansive survey of more than 90 works by legendary British artist Cornelia Parker, spanning from the 1980s – 2022. On view until 16 October 2022, the show debuts new video and sculptural works Flag, 2022, and Island, 2022, which are staged alongside some of the artist’s most recognisable sculptures and installations.
The wall text accompanying each piece is sprinkled with Parker’s first-person reflections, providing insight into the story and context behind each work. In her narration, we see Parker draw alternative meanings from the ordinary. Prison Wall Abstract (A Man Escaped), 2012 – 13 brings us through a daily walk, where Parker extracts art from the everyday in prison-wall cracks, and her News at… 2017 series, which sees children scrawl newspaper headlines of ‘Theresa Maybe’ and ‘Trump Spreading Social Poison’ on chalkboards.
Cornelia Parker, Avoided Object Photographs taken on the sky above the Imperial War Museum with the camera that belonged to Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, 1999. Courtesy the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London © Cornelia Parker. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2022
Parker sees art in the underside of things. She highlights awkward objects and ugly mishaps, transforming them into abstract images of colourfully taped backs of signs and pools of spilt milk on the pavement. In Black Path (Bunhill Fields), 2013, she takes a bronze cast of the gaps between paving stones and elevates it inches above the ground, creating a striking structure. Familiar shadows are cast on the floor below the hovering hopscotch, creating an emblem devoid of function.
Cornelia Parker, War Room, 2015. © Anne - Katrin Purkiss. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage. 2022 Image © the Whitworth, the University of Manchester.
Stolen Thunder, 1997 – 98 introduces us to Parker’s more satirical side. Presenting cloth bearing the tarnish from Henry VIII’s armour, Charles Dickens’ teaspoon and Guy Fawkes’ lantern, she realises the phrase ‘tarnished reputations’, ‘stealing their thunder and their fame’.
Elsewhere, she animates stacks of newspapers and exposes brash headlines gathered during the campaign period for Britain’s 2017 General Election. In Left, Right and Centre, 2017, newspapers blow around the House of Commons chamber at the hands of an artificially generated wind, evoking the turbulence and clashes so often associated with the space. In Perpetual Canon, 2004, Parker’s ‘mute marching band’ arrives in the form of a ring of flattened brass instruments, morphing the musical into a visual performance of shadows on walls, with no chance of sound.
Cornelia Parker, Perpetual Canon, 2004. Collection of Contemporary Art Fundación “la Caixa”, Barcelona © Cornelia Parker. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2022
A disjointed theme runs through the gallery and into the video spaces, where dream-like images of American revellers on Halloween are displayed alongside footage of Trump supporters ‘chanting like extras in a horror movie’, a blatant comment on a polarised America. Sound also plays a role in this hazy atmosphere in a new work, Flag, 2022, where Parker reverses footage of a Union Jack’s production accompanied by a humdrum hymn. The film visualises a ritualistic undoing of the patriotic monument, separating colours and unstitching strips of red, white and blue.
Parker’s sometimes tongue-in-cheek approach to violence is demonstrated in her comic book-esque imagining of an explosion frozen in time. Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, 1991, allows the destruction of a shed to be inspected. The static light in the centre of the artwork sustains the brutality of the act, a reminder of the border between violence and reflection that this work sits on.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, 1991 installation view at Tate Britain.
The final room, Island, 2022 – created especially for this exhibition – offers a similarly quiet moment. The work reflects on politics – specifically Brexit – and borders, beckoning us to heed the warning that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. The greenhouse is marked patriotically with paint made from the chalk of the White Cliffs of Dover, and the floor comprises reclaimed tiles from the hallways of Westminster Palace. Parker leaves the symbolism of the glass, chalk-lined borders and foundation of historic, well-trodden tiles (previously destined for the tip) for us to interpret from any angle.
Her fundamental comment, seemingly, is on the fragility of our island.
Cornelia Parker, Thirty Pieces of Silver, 1988-9 installation view at Tate Britain.
Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, 1991 Tate © Cornelia Parker. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2022
Martha Elliott is the Junior Digital News Editor at Wallpaper*. After graduating from university she worked in arts-based behavioural therapy, then embarked on a career in journalism, joining Wallpaper* at the start of 2022. She reports on art, design and architecture, as well as covering regular news stories across all channels.
-
MoMA names Christophe Cherix its new director
The Swiss-born curator has worked in the Museum of Modern Art’s drawings and prints department since 2007
By Anna Fixsen Published
-
The Yale Center for British Art, Louis Kahn’s final project, glows anew after a two-year closure
After years of restoration, a modernist jewel and a treasure trove of British artwork can be seen in a whole new light
By Anna Fixsen Published
-
How Le Corbusier defined modernism
Le Corbusier was not only one of 20th-century architecture's leading figures but also a defining father of modernism, as well as a polarising figure; here, we explore the life and work of an architect who was influential far beyond his field and time
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next year
Tate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
By Anna Solomon Published
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlight
For more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
By Hannah Silver Published
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain
‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria Miro
Eerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
By Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou Published
-
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time
‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work
By Sofia Hallström Published
-
Sylvie Fleury's work in dialogue with Matisse makes for a provocative exploration of the female form
'Drawing on Matisse, An Exhibition by Sylvie Fleury’ is on show until 2 May at Luxembourg + Co
By Hannah Silver Published
-
What to see at BFI Flare film festival, 'a rich tapestry of queer experience'
As one of the only film festivals to explicitly profile LGBTQI+ cinema, BFI Flare Film Festival remains a unique and beloved event. Here's what to see as it makes its return to London from 19 - 30 March
By Billie Walker Published
-
The enduring appeal of Transport for London’s seat designs
From artist Rita Keegan’s new collage to fashion designer Adam Jones’ Overground suit, TfL moquettes continue to enjoy a cult status
By Kyle MacNeill Published