Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Parker

Author: BBC Radio 4 February 16, 2003 Duration: 33:58

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist Cornelia Parker. Cornelia grew up in the country where she lived on a small holding looked after by her father. She spent much of her time mucking out pigs, milking cows, laying hedges and tying up tomato plants. Her means of escape was to run into the fields to daydream. English and art were her favourite subjects, and a trip to the Tate Gallery in London with her school when she was aged 15 confirmed that she wanted to be an artist. After studying art at college, Cornelia turned her hand to sculpture, inspired by the Arte Povera movement in Italy which rejected traditional marble and bronze and used any materials they chose. She developed her style by mixing with other students and collaborating with theatre groups.

Cornelia liked the idea of her work being ephemeral and didn't worry about it's existence beyond an exhibition. For her first solo exhibition in 1980 she showed a number of pieces and because she had nowhere to store them, told the organisers that afterwards they could give them to local schools. "I don't know what they did with them!" she says. After a car accident in 1994 Cornelia began to realise the importance of keeping some of her work and she began to be represented by a gallery. She broadened her collaborations - for her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View she got the British Army to blow up a shed so that she could hang it back together again, suspended around a lightbulb. For her piece Wedding Ring Drawing she employed a silversmith who could draw a gold wedding ring into a very fine thread. In 1995 she worked with the actress Tilda Swinton on a project The Maybe, which included Tilda herself exhibited in a glass case. In 1997 Cornelia was nominated for the Turner Prize for her work.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Cry Baby by Janis Joplin Book: World of Wonder: 10,000 things every child should know by Charles Ray Luxury: A solar-powered vibrator


The Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005 podcast opens a unique window into a pivotal era, drawing from the BBC Radio 4 archives. This isn't just a collection of interviews about music; it's a deeply personal exploration of life, ambition, and memory through the voices of the early 21st century. Each episode presents a guest from this period-be they an artist, a politician, a scientist, or an activist-facing the program's enduring and revealing premise: selecting the eight pieces of music they would take if stranded alone. The conversation that unfolds around these choices is where the magic happens. The host gently guides them from their selections into stories of childhood influences, career-defining moments, personal triumphs, and profound losses. You'll hear the crackle of a vinyl record lead into a confession, or a symphony cue a tale of resilience. Listening to this podcast feels like uncovering a time capsule of cultural and emotional history, where a pop song can explain a political stance and a classical adagio can frame a love story. It’s an intimate study of character and a testament to how the soundtrack of our lives shapes our identity. These archived conversations, preserved in this podcast, remain compelling because they bypass the superficial, using music as the key to unlock genuine human experience.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005
Podcast Episodes
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