Feather that went to the Top of Everest

Location

Country: USA
City: Washington DC
Place: British Embassy

Cornelia Parker's "Feather that went to the Top of Everest" is a beautiful image in itself and points to wider concepts of time and place. The feather photographed here was taken from the jacket of Rebecca Stevens, the first British woman to climb Mount Everest. It is almost a relic, providing an entry point for us into the experience. Parker was interested by the irony that the white feather is traditionally a symbol of cowardice, and that it was taken to a height that birds cannot fly, reminding her of the story of Icarus.

Cornelia Parker RA (b. 1956) lives and works in London. One of Britain’s most celebrated artists, she works across sculpture, installation, embroidery, drawing, photography and film to investigate processes of transformation and suspension and to explore the times in which we live. Parker has presented numerous major commissions and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, notably at Tate Britain (2022), the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2019), Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster (2017) and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2016). In 2010, Parker was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and made an OBE. She received a CBE in 2022. In 2017, she was appointed as the first female Election Artist for the United Kingdom General Election. Her works are held in public and private collections around the world, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Fundación “la Caixa” in Barcelona, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Places

Subjects

mountaineering, conceptual art

Materials & Techniques

photogram, photograph (as object name)

Artist

Cornelia Parker (1956 - )

Title

Feather that went to the Top of Everest

Series Title

Up Down Charm Strange

Edition

1/5

Date

1997

Medium

Photogram

Acquisition

Purchased from Frith Street Gallery, June 1998

GAC number

17329/1