Feather from a Wandering Albatross

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.

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

South Pacific, South Atlantic, Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean, Antarctica

Subjects

conceptual art, albatross

Materials & Techniques

photogram, photograph (as object name)

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