- Artwork Details: 69 x 53.6 x 3.2cm
- Edition: 2/20
- Material description: printed and burnt paper
- Credit line: © the artist
- Theme: Science & Technology
- Medium: Multiple
- Accession number: ACC31/1998
Meteorite Lands on the Houses of Parliament
1998
Parker, Cornelia
For some while Cornelia Parker has been working on a project to send a meteorite back into space. In anticipation of this event, but having not yet managed to defy the earth's gravity, she has made a series of meteorite 'landings' on London. By heating up an iron meteorite and placing it on famous cultural locations on an enlarged map of London, the meteorite bursts its way through the city's famous and infamous sites, leaving only its imprint, the burn on the page of a map, marking the spot where the everyday meets the extra-terrestrial. Parker describes how "an alien object from space, the meteorite, embodies fear of the unknown, fear of the future. In this sense this is an apocalyptic work for the end of the millennium".