Cornelia Parker: Rorschach (Accidental III)

Previously exhibited in the inaugural exhibition at the National Arts Center in Tokyo, Rorschach Accidental III (2006) consists of suspended silver plated objects such as candelabras, musical instruments, and pieces of cutlery that Parker has flattened using a 250-ton industrial press. The arbitr... Read more

Previously exhibited in the inaugural exhibition at the National Arts Center in Tokyo, Rorschach Accidental III (2006) consists of suspended silver plated objects such as candelabras, musical instruments, and pieces of cutlery that Parker has flattened using a 250-ton industrial press. The arbitrary symmetrical arrangement, determined by the artist allowing two-dimensional templates of the silver pieces to fall to the floor, recalls the inkblot patterns of the psychological Rorschach test.

Parker’s work explores the potential of irreversible, somewhat violent processes, giving shape to the change from full to empty, round to flat, functional to non-functional. Divorced from their previous lives, these objects are resurrected after their steamrolled “cartoon death,” reanimated as carriers of metaphorical and projected meaning.