Latest project from Stern & Wild client sees acclaimed visual artist Cornelia Parker reflect on her life in a deeply personal film

Congratulations to Stern & Wild filmmaker Kira Phillips, one of the Executive Producers of the latest film in the BBC’s cultural biography strand tonight, IN MY OWN WORDS: CORNELIA PARKER which airs on BBC One tomorrow night.

One of Britain's most acclaimed contemporary visual artists, Cornelia Parker is best known for her sculpture and installation art and her capacity to transform the most ordinary objects into something compelling and extraordinary. In this deeply touching film for IN MY OWN WORDS, she reflects on her performance piece The Maybe, conceived with Tilda Swinton in 1995, which she says was the first time she had been “thrown into the public eye”, and her Turner Prize nominated Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View and Mass (Colder Darker Matter), which she created by suspending the charred remains of a church that had been struck by lightning in Texas. She considers how many of her most famous works refer to an inner explosion, observing: “You can work things out metaphorically almost through the work”.

As she prepares for a new exhibition - 2025’s History Paintings - Cornelia Parker talks for the first time about her break-up with husband and artist Jeff McMillan. She talks candidly about the legacy of a childhood with a violent father and a mentally fragile mother, and describes her own “tussles” with mental illness.

Through personal archive, this intimate film is a look at the life a formidable artist at her most vulnerable.

The film is a Chalk Productions production for BBC Arts. The Commissioning Editors for BBC Arts are Mark Bell and Alistair Pegg. Exec Producers are Kira Phillips and Victoria Holden. The Director is Charlie Melville. It airs on BBC One at 10.40pm tomorrow night (11 Nov) and is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.

Cornelia Parker - Image: BBC