Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View Analysis

This British artist approached the British army asking them to blow up a garden shed – and surprisingly they agreed to do exactly so. In a quiet detached green field in England, Cornelia Parker watched, from a distance, this tranquil surrounding shattered by the loud bang, her shed and its contents, sent hurling through the air into a plethora of burnt and distorted pieces.
Her work was always invested in deconstruction, she often blew up small objects - She would then take the debris and leave them outside to weather or even bury them in the ground. After some time she would retrieve them and make her art piece. This exact process is what she did when making Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View. She took the leftover fragments and assembled
In the middle of this is one single light bulb, like a sun and the fragments its surrounding planets. Shadows cast softly on the wall whispered lightly from a distant past. A single source of light illuminating the corpse of the shed and giving birth to new life. . I want to cast a spotlight on and examine untimeliness of waste and reusing something when it is no longer of any benefit to us.
The viewer knows this act of violence all too well via their social media, TV or radios reminding them daily of this violent age. Insulated from the outside world, the gallery allows the viewer to witness the creation of a piece of art! This piece made me question. Is art our futile attempt at trying to make sense of our violent uncaring universe? What is it that makes violence somewhat the norm in our day and age? How have we become so desensitized and dismissive? Why did has it become so mundane like?
This piece, made from an almost savage process, it reminded me of what happens when humans bottle up their feelings – they eventually burst and their previously safe place is splattered across the walls. The place of secrets and fantasy, the place where a personal history of memories is no longer in
No more carved stone idols of nude men and fallen woman, this new sculpture would cast its light and leave us in doubt of the consequences of our actions. This leads the viewer into thinking that taking something apart will give them a better understanding. In terms of politics, this is almost always the opposite. Taking apart an amendment, law or form of government leads to even more complications on how they came about, and then to the surfaces problems rise. When I found out about systematic racism or how the 13th Amendment lead to mass incarceration of black people, I understood the purpose of politically charged artwork – to fuel a fire that you did not know was even there. Similar to what Cornelia Parker does, they provoke horror. Although this piece does not contain any racial connections – I naturally thought about what it could mean to me, a young Black Muslim woman. I thought about how in society I’m expected to showcase something, the shadows, and how my actual contents are entirely different to what is