45 Cornelia Parker Quotes for You to Enjoy

Cornelia Parker

English Artist

Born: 1956

Art Me People Think Work You

Related authors: Banksy Barbara Hepworth Benjamin Clementine David Hockney Edward Lear John Berger John Constable Tracey Emin

My mother became mentally unwell with schizophrenia when I was in my teens... We couldn't watch television because she thought the people on TV were sending her messages. She thought there were hidden cameras everywhere, so we had to have the curtains drawn. Cornelia Parker

I was involved in a serious accident driving in torrential rain at midnight in Cardiff. I was only doing five miles an hour, but because I couldn't see very well, I crossed a junction and collided with another car that was driving very fast. I ended up in hospital for six weeks with a shattered pelvis. Cornelia Parker

Rain Car Accident See Crossed Only Hospital Weeks Driving Hour Shattered Involved Well Another Because Doing Up Very Junction Five Ended Six Midnight Miles Serious Fast

Our cultural industries are our biggest export, our biggest manufacturing base. Every pound spent on art education brings disproportionately large returns. It's the biggest bang for our buck. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. In fact, the more you put in, the greater the successes for the U.K. economy. Cornelia Parker

Education Art You Every Our Spent Broke More Fact Pound Buck Put Economy Industries Returns Greater Cultural Fix Bang In Fact Biggest Successes Manufacturing Export Large Base Disproportionately Brings

I do think there is a link between the accidental art the sciences produce and the deliberate art the artist creates, but I can't help feeling that the innocence of the accidental art of science has a power and curious beauty that artists are hard-pressed to match. Cornelia Parker

Art Science Power Feeling Beauty Think Innocence Deliberate Between Match Sciences Accidental Link Curious Artist Artists Produce Creates Help

Being a sculptor who uses found objects, all the objects I use in my work have been designed by other people. So I'm tweaking them in some way by squashing them or throwing them off cliffs! Then I formalise my damage by suspending them or arranging them in some kind of way. So I'm using other people's design in a way, so I'm an 'un-maker.' Cornelia Parker

Work People Design Other Way Kind Some Objects Throwing Cliffs Arranging Been Off Being Them Then Sculptor Use Who Tweaking Uses Using Found Designed Damage

I take things that are worn out through overuse, that have become cliches - like the shed, a traditional place of rest and retreat - and I give them a more incandescent future. Cornelia Parker

Future Rest Become Worn Out Give More Through Take Like Retreat Shed Cliches Traditional Place Them Things

As a working-class girl, receiving free school dinners, I studied art history. Having never had the chance to visit art galleries, I devoured the knowledge, and it has served me well as a practising artist. Cornelia Parker

Art Me Knowledge History School Free Girl Visit Dinners Having Never Had Studied Well Devoured Practising Art History Artist Galleries Working-Class Served Receiving Chance

I didn't make any money out of my art until I was in my 40s, but it preserved my sanity and my freedom. Cornelia Parker

Art Freedom Money Preserved Out Until Make Any Sanity

I'm trying not to go through that midlife dip that artists tend to have. Cornelia Parker

Dip Tend Through Go Trying Artists

I didn't really know what I was looking at when I first came across Man Ray's 'Dust Breeding,' his photograph of a work by Marcel Duchamp called 'Large Glass.' It looked like an aerial photograph or a view through a microscope. Cornelia Parker

A lot of my work has been about stuff I've been frightened of: cliffs, explosions, meteorites, that kind of stuff. I would have been this trembling blob of fear if I hadn't got into making art, which is a good way of deferring it. Cornelia Parker

I think your subconscious knows far more than your conscious, so I trust it. Cornelia Parker

Trust Subconscious Think More Knows Than Far Your Conscious

I don't drive for pleasure. It's purely to get from A to B. Cornelia Parker

Drive Pleasure Purely Get

I always feel my work is a chemical reaction between me and the world, wherever I happen to be. Cornelia Parker

Work Me World Feel Between Reaction Chemical Always Happen Wherever

I feel our relationship to life, to the rest of the world, is very tenuous. It feels fleeting. Cornelia Parker

Life Relationship World Rest Our Feel Feels Very Fleeting

I think my work is like a spiral: you keep coming back on yourself, but you're at a different place. It's like reading 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' every five years. You realise that some things have caught up. Cornelia Parker

Work You Yourself Reading Every Think Back Nineteen Some Spiral Some Things Like Caught Coming Years Up Five Different Realise Place Different Place Keep Things

I don't read the art mags. I read the newspapers. Cornelia Parker

Art Read Newspapers

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