Pornographic Drawing 1996

Cornelia Parker's 'Pornographic Drawing' is made using the residue from books confiscated by customs and is presented as a symmetrical ink blot. It kinda gets you thinking about Rorschach tests, right? That idea that something abstract can reveal hidden aspects of your psyche? The form itself is interesting, how it echoes both the organic – like a leaf or a seed – and something more internal, visceral. There's a delicacy to the edges, a kind of fragile beauty in the grey wash that belies its kind of subversive origins. Those darker marks within the shape pull you in, making you wonder what images, what words, were once held within those pages. Parker often works with found objects, transforming them in ways that alter their meaning and challenge our perception. It reminds me a little of Vija Celmins' meticulous depictions of the mundane, but with a kind of mischievous twist. It’s a gesture to how art can both reveal and conceal, and maybe a quiet nod to the messy, complicated nature of interpretation itself.