Cornelia Parker born 1956
Thirty Pieces of Silver 1988-9Hayward Gallery
Thirty Pieces of Silver is an installation of a thousand silver objects ( plates, spoons, candlesticks, trophies, cigarette cases, teapots and trombones) having been flattened by a steam roller. Cornelia Parker then arranged the transformed silver artefacts into thirty disc-shaped groups, which are suspended about a foot from the floor by fine wires. Each ‘disc’ is approximately ninety centimetres in diameter and they are always hung in orderly rows, although the overall set-up can be adjusted depending on the exhibition space. The title refers to the biblical story of how the apostle Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus in return for thirty pieces of silver.
In other pieces, Parker has destroyed objects, changing them fundamentally. Her interest in this comes from cartoons; [the] ‘flattening Tom, Jerry filled with bullet holes, Road Runner falling off a cliff. The deaths are only token ones as the characters always pop up again in the next frame.’ ( excerpt of interview with Tate curator Virginia Button, 1998.)
Additionally, Parker’s actual relationship with the media has a great bearing on the art. For example, when discussing the properties of silver she alludes to linguistic as well as physical points;‘because it is the most reflective metal that exists and [it] also has the ability to be the opposite very dull and black, it has the plus and minus in one material. Also linguistically in terms of the use of silver in language, ‘silver tongued’, silver lining’. It has a very poetic aura around it, it’s used in mirrors in which we see ourselves and in telescopes to look at the universe ... It’s part of our cultural make-up somehow, it has all kinds of ways of being in the world.’ ( excerpt of interview with Tate curator Virginia Button, 1998.)
In previous work such as Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991, Parker – with the assistance of the British Army- blew up a shed. She then took the remains and put them into an exhibition space, surrounding a solitary light bulb, in the arrangement of the moment of explosion; again hung on wires. Having seen this piece first hand, it was quite powerful and one gets a real feeling of how in destruction pieces are born anew, thereby transforming it and exhibiting it in a particular fashion to show the material (charred wood or crushed silver) in a new context.
The work could progress by evolving the notion of taking silver, associated with special occasions, as Parker said ‘objects are landmarks in people’s lives’ , and adjusting the properties further, considering the space that it will be displayed in; an integral part to installation art. In a later work- Measuring Niagara with a Teaspoon 1997- Parker takes a silver Georgian spoon, melts it down and stretches it to the height of Niagara Falls.
As a child Parker used to crush coins on railway tracks- to mark the ‘destructive powers of the world’. She speaks of her reasoning behind ‘Thirty Pieces of Silver’:‘ ‘Thirty Pieces of Silver’ is about materiality and then about anti-matter. In the gallery the ruined objects are ghostly levitating just above the floor, waiting to be reassessed in the light of their transformation. The title, because of its biblical references, alludes to money, to betrayal, to death and resurrection: more simply it is a literal description of the piece.’(Quoted in British Art Show, exhibition catalogue, Hayward Gallery, London 1990, p.88.)
In conclusion, the piece makes me question how one looks at ceremonial silver ware. The notion of special occasions, of a celebration- such as a wedding- where cutlery, etc, is crushed and then taken out of contest, i.e. an art gallery, ceasing to function for what the product was originally designed for. The betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot, and the subsequent guilt felt by him- later hanging himself- calls into question for what price might one be bought or tempted by? This could be the element of celebrity culture where, so desperate for fame- like Big Brother; contestants’ vie to stay in an enclosed studio set, voted out by each other and the general public, certain individuals will pursue riches and/or notoriety whatever the cost, morally or financially. I recall how Iscariot is at the very bottom of Hell in Dante’s Inferno- The Divine Comedy, a dark and bleak retribution that continues for eternity.
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