Cornelia Parker Quotes

I always believed that my work should be unfinished in the sense that I encourage people to add their creativity to it, either conceptually or physically. Back in the 1960s, I was calling for 'Unfinished Music,' number one, and number two, with my artwork - I was taking unfinished work into the gallery. And that's how I was looking at it.

I like to use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.

In all the great periods of the drama perfect freedom of choice and subject, perfect freedom of individual treatment, and an audience eager to give itself to sympathetic listening, even if instruction be involved, have brought the great results.

If the audience knew what they wanted then they wouldn't be the audience, they would be the artist.

The best art is realized when you can share the experience of making of it and not just the presentation of it, so that the audience is part of the creation and not just part of the consumption. Then it becomes much more full-bodied and robust.

You can't write a thing that is hermetically sealed; there has to be a way for the audience to get in and participate. I think that's a massively valuable discipline for any artist.

There's an awful lot of resources that can be drawn upon in an improvised music concert.

For the general public, my work is sometimes easier than a painting because there is someone addressing you; it can actually be a relief. What's interesting is the idea of a tourist randomly coming in and the experience they'll have.

I like making movies for myself and my friends and people with my sensibility.

Direct address has been a consistent tactic in my work, regardless of the medium that I'm working in.

How does my music connect to an audience? That is just a complete mystery to me.

I am always looking for what piece, what artists, what playwrights, what directors, what subject matter is going to catalyze an audience.

You make a movie, and if somebody reads something into it, then great, more power to him.

I knew that I could be more creative onstage, to state my own case and deliver my own interpretation of the role much more aggressively than in the recording studio.

We don't care about our audiences that much. We just go out and play.

You always try to work for your audience, to entertain them, but that being said, obviously, within the studio system you feel the sense of responsibility to the bank.

As an artist, I understand that, and I value the creative input of the artist.

That's the miracle of music. No one can reinterpret a Picasso, but a song can be remixed and covered and interpreted in an infinite number of ways. It's a living thing.

As an artist, you want to entertain people.

The first time you listen to someone else's interpretation of what you've created, it's a little unnerving. They'll change lyrics or something almost every time. That's them being an artist, and you appreciate it more over time.

So much about getting onstage is creating a connection with an audience that allows you to go different places and try different things.

That's the great part about arts - someone taking your work and making it something else; it's becomes a true collaboration.

The cool thing about doing a play is that the final interpretation of a piece is turned over to the actors.

What higher art does is to invite us in and allow us to make decisions.

I consider each performance to be an intimate conversation between me and the audience members.