In London, Cornelia Parker has curated FOUND at The Foundling Museum, inviting more than sixty artists from a range of disciplines to respond to a single theme. They presented, variously, old and new work, as well as objects they'd discovered and held on to for their significance.
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Cornelia Parker - Two Museums, Two Continents
Alison Wilding 'Cellar Frog', 2016 © Alison Wilding. Photograph by Ed Lyon.
Bob and Roberta Smith, 'I Found Love', 2016 © Bob and Roberta Smith
'In order for something to be "found", it must have at some point been "lost"', says Parker. She's aimed to create a 'riveting collective cacophony', and was partly inspired by the museum's collection of 'tokens', left by the mothers of the foundlings as keepsakes or to identify their children at later date.
Thomas Heatherwick, 'Seventy Years of Stirring', 2015 © Thomas Heatherwick. Photograph by Ed Lyon
Artists who contributed to the collection include Mona Hatoum, Phyllida Barlow RA, Antony Gormley RA, Jarvis Cocker and Richard Deacon RA. FOUND is showing until September 4th.
Rachel Whiteread, 'Untitled (Found)', 2016 © Rachel Whiteread
In New York, Parker has realised her prestigious commission in the the roof garden of the Metropolitan Museum, showing until October 31st.
'Transitional Object (Psychobarn)' is inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, the classic american red barn and the Bates family's motel in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
These three strands of american culture are wed in a sculpture both solid and illusive, a work of art which encourages us to think about the psychology attached to architectural spaces. Almost 30 feet high, the structure is in fact comprised of two facades, held up from behind with scaffolding.
Catch Parker speaking at the Folio Academy Sessions at the British Library Conference Centre, June 18-19.