Cold Dark Matter 1000-Piece Puzzle

Exclusive from PieceHouse, this 1000-piece puzzle features Cold Dark Matter: An exploded View by Cornelia Parker.

"We watch explosions daily, in action films, documentaries and on the news in never-ending reports of conflict. I wanted to create a real explosion, not a representation. I chose the garden shed because it's the place where you store things you can't quite throw away.

The shed was blown up at the Army School of Ammunition. We used Semtex, a plastic explosive popular with terrorists. I pressed the plunger that blew the shed skywards, picking up the blackened, mangled objects.

In the gallery, as I suspended the objects one by one, they began to lose their aura of death and appeared reanimated. The light inside created huge shadows on the wall. The shed looked as if it was re-exploding or perhaps coming back together again.

The first part of the title is a scientific term for all the matter in the universe that can't be seen or measured. The second part describes a diagram in which a machine's parts are laid out and labelled to show how it works."

-Cornelia Parker

• Puzzle size 75 x 52cm
• With City Gallery Wellington zippered canvas bag for storage.
• Not suitable for children under 3 years.

Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991

A garden shed and contents blown up for the artist by the British Army, the fragments suspended around a light bulb. Wood, metal, plastic, ceramic, paper, textile and wire.

Approx. 400 x 500 x 500cm.

Courtesy the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London.

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