255. STOLEN THUNDER (RED SPOT) by CORNELIA PARKER

Limited edition (100) print, 48.7 x 46cm (unframed)

FRITH STREET GALLERY
CORK ST

 Cornelia Parker visited the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2012 and took a clandestine photo of one of the most successful prints in the show. Every time a sale is made a red dot is added to the piece - and this one was doing so well the red dots began to inhabit the wall as well as the frame. To quote the Gallery notes, at this point 'a rush of covetousness came over (Cornelia Parker)'. The artist doesn't make representational work, especially much- beloved  landscapes and pets and flowers and cottages. She is an abstract artist who displays ideas with astonishing verve, originality, depth  and wit.

Digitally erasing the image that she had stolen, she showed a photograph of Stolen Thunder as her own work in the R.A. 2013 Summer Exhibition, The cool, shy greys and white invite us in to a place where our own fantasies can flourish. What was the original picture? Does the original artist know it's been wiped out, then resurrected? What could you (or me) put in that blank space to take the world by storm? After all, we think nothing of constantly redesigning and redecorating our own homes, obliterating precious occupants' vision with paint and paper and fabric.

The artist kept the red spots as part of the picture, she says, 'in the hope of accruing some of her own sales by a Pavlovian response from the audience'.

 SEE Also Blog 235 PRISON WALLS  by Cornelia Parker

www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/bio/cornelia_parker

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02tg2z2     (BBC4 What do artists do all day?)

www.thamesandhudson.com/Cornelia_Parker/9780500093733   (Comprehensive illustrated book on the artist's work)

www.frithstreetgallery.com