Cornelia Parker

Described as a “physicist with the virtuoso skills of a craftsperson,” British conceptual artist Parker (born in 1956) has received glowing praise since the 1990s for her scientific research–based work and violent transformations of found objects. Wonderfully photographed and featuring a foreword by Yoko Ono, this full-scale survey of Parker’s career—she is best known for “The Maybe,” a collaboration with Tilda Swinton, in which the actress rests in a glass vitrine—contains informal commentary by Parker that retrospectively sketches the genesis of individual works, such as the daredevil installation “Cold Dark Matter,” a suspended structure formed from the debris of a shed that was built, stocked, and (with the help of the British Army) bombed—what Blazwick, the director of London’s Whitechapel Gallery, calls “one of the most important installations of the late twentieth century.” Unfortunately, Blazwick’s five essays do not adequately explain Parker’s enthusiasm for objects associated with history and famous people: a light-box display of Mia Farrow’s blue gown from Rosemary’s Baby; photomicrographs of Einstein’s chalk board; a pillow cut by Henry VIII’s sword. Viewers are supposed to be intrigued by these historical abstractions, but they can feel superfluous. As Parker writes, “Very often, the process involved in my work is just a flimsy excuse to get my hands on these objects that changed the face of history.” 360 illus., 315 in color. (June)