Parker plays with dualities and this group of etchings is made up of four pairs. To create Stop and Stopped, the artist uses found objects to create spectral still lives with a political subtext.

“The glass objects featured in this print are found stoppers from wine decanters. Through the printing process they became reminiscent of falling bombs, the sight of which plays out on the nightly news. Stop refers to unheard pleas for a ceasefire in both Gaza and Ukraine. Stopped represents the pleas for a ceasefire that have not been heeded. All that remains is a heap of ‘stops’, standing in for the destruction and inevitable mounds of rubble that war accrues.”

For Light Years and Killing Time, Parker goes further and alters the state of each object herself. “For Light Years, I drew black marks on a spent theatre lightbulb, literally counting down the hours of its illumination. The marks point to the time in its history when it shone brightly, radiating light. The ‘light bulb moment’ of realisation is measured out in black strokes.”

In Killing Time, Parker smashes the same light bulb in a premeditated act of violence. “By fracturing my representation of time and a former source of light, the ‘light bulb moment’ of sudden inspiration is made tangible.” Parker also draws upon the symbolic meaning that a bulb might also represent, such as a signifier of thought, a revelation, or an idea. 

In Trick of the Light Parker marks out the symbol of a spade, used in playing cards, on to a light bulb “to pose a surrealist conundrum, a mystery, a riddle, a visual fallacy, a phantasm or even an apparition.” This is further emphasised by the choice of title, which can be read as a sleight of hand, an illusion, or not being able to see something staring you in the face.

Fallen Glass is also titled exactly to reflect the subject of the image. Parker records an action that has happened in the past, by chance. To make the print she rearranges broken glass on the etching plate, before capturing its shadow.

Parker presents small shot and liquor glasses for a final pair of tongue-in-cheek prints. “Singles measure hours of enjoyment, celebration, digestion and possibly inebriation. In Sway inebriation seems much more likely, as swaying and blurred vision occur.”

Photo: Cornelia Parker at Thumbprint Editions, London, 2022.
Courtesy of artist and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London. Photo: Maxwell Anderson.