Feather from a Wandering Albatross

Cornelia Parker (1956 - )

photogram

1998

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: USA
    City: Washington DC
    Place: British Embassy

    Cornelia Parker's "Feather from a Wandering Albatross" is a beautiful image in its own right and points to wider concepts of time and place. Its subject recalls the famous albatross in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". Soft and graceful, it contrasts with the ragged feather of a raven from the Tower of London, also photographed by Parker. While some of the other feathers in the series, such as those from Freud's couch or Sir Ranulph Fiennes' sleeping bag, are symbolic through their association with well-known figures, the albatross and raven feathers are not so far removed from the birds themselves.

  • About the artist
    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.
  • Explore
    Places
    South Pacific, South Atlantic, Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean, Antarctica
    Subjects
    conceptual art, albatross
    Materials & Techniques
    photogram, photograph (as object name)
  • Details
    Artist
    Cornelia Parker (1956 - )
    Title
    Feather from a Wandering Albatross
    Series Title
    Up Down Charm Strange
    Edition
    1/5
    Date
    1998
    Medium
    photogram
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Frith Street Gallery, June 1998
    GAC number
    17329/6