Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Parker is best known for large-scale installations such as Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), where she had a garden shed blown up by the

British Army and suspended the fragments as if s

uspending the explosion process in time. In the centre was a light which cast the shadows of the wood dramatically on the walls of the room

Parker's compelling transformations of familiar, everyday objects investigate the nature of matter, test physical properties and play on private and public me

aning and value. Using materials that have a history loaded with association, a feather from Sigmund Freud's pillow for example, Parker has employed numerous methods of exploration- suspending, exploding, crushing, stretching objects and even language through her titles.

Mach's artistic style is based on flowing assemblages of mass-produced objects. Typically these include magazines, vicious teddy bears, newspapers, car tires, match sticks and coat hangers. Many of his installations are temporary and constructed in public spaces

In the early 1980s Mach began producing smaller-scale works assembled out of unstuck match sticks. These mostly took the form of human or animalistic heads and masks, with the coloured tips of the match heads arranged to construct the patterned surface of the

face. After accidentally setting fire to one of these heads, Mach now often ignites his match pieces as a form of Performance art.

Recently Mach has produced some permanent publi

c works such as Out of Order in Kingston, the Brick Train and the Big Heids visible from the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh

Mach began to experiment with producing collages. So far, this has culminated in National Portrait, a collage for the millennium dome that featured many images of British people working