The Museum of Contemporary Art's summer blockbuster slot has attracted some pretty big names in recent years, with shows from Pipilotti Rist, David Goldblatt, Yoko Ono and Grayson Perry. For 2019-20, it's Cornelia Parker's turn.
Parker is considered one of England's biggest and most influential art stars from the last few decades and was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in 2010. In 1995 she collaborated with Tilda Swinton on a performance work in which Swinton slept inside a glass case, in public view, in the middle of a gallery. As far as we know, Swinton won't be napping at the MCA.
Instead, at the centre of the MCA's exhibition is Parker's breakthrough work from 1991, 'Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View', which features a garden shed she had the actual British Army blow up with explosives. She then suspended all the fragments as they appeared in the moment immediately after explosion and placed a bright light in the centre of them, casting shadows of those fragments all around the gallery space.
It's those large-scale installations for which she's best known, transforming everyday objects and suspending them in that moment of transformation. But the exhibition goes a lot further than that, and will feature more than 40 artworks, including sculptures, video works and even embroidery.
MCA visitors will get to see her staggering 'Magna Carta (An Embroidery)' – a complete embroidered version of the Wikipedia article about the Magna Carta as it appeared on June 15 2014. It's a 13-metre long embroidery and features contributions from people who are affected by the Magna Carta, including prisoners, Julian Assange, Germaine Greer, Brian Eno and Edward Snowden. There's even a spot of blood from former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, who pricked his finger while sewing.