I’m interested in the internal structures of material that result in their external appearance. —Tony Cragg
The exhibition includes a monumental wooden work from the In No Time series (2019), an overwhelming, emotionally charged structure that is reminiscent of geological phenomena. Cragg’s primary interest in making sculpture has never been to copy from nature or to represent something that already exists in the world, but rather to discover the ideas and emotions that different materials and forms can evoke. The micro and macro structures afforded by nature have been a major inspiration to the artist over the past ten years.
Of his Skulls series, Cragg explains, ‘Any impression of solidity is an illusion. This applies as much to aspects of our physical reality as to sculptural traditions. These skeletal volumes reveal their inner structures and leave the viewer with no illusions’.
The twinned structures of Cragg’s Pair (2019) recall natural geological forms, such as the weathering of rock by the forces of wind and water, but cast in gleaming stainless steel. The upright forms attain a totemic quality, yet any sense of permanence is undermined by the ephemerality of the work – its highly polished surfaces reflect fugitive changes in the surroundings, including light and movement. The delicacy of the undulating forms suggest rivulets of water, as if frozen in motion, but also hints at human profiles that seem to emerge and disappear in its curves.
Pair, 2019Wood, 820 kg
260 x 74 x 110 cm (102.36 x 29.13 x 43.31 in)
Cragg’s primary concern is an examination of how forms function in and interact with space, whether physical or psychological. The verticality of his pillar-like structures, as in Pair, have drawn comparisons with Constantin Brancusi’s attenuated figures, where natural forms are similarly reduced to create an abstract sculptural language.
Pair, 2019Wood, 380 kg
260 x 74 x 110 cm (102.36 x 29.13 x 43.31 in)
Artworks are the result of the experiences that artists have had while making the work and showing it to others is an offer to share that experience of adventure and discovery. It is comparable in some ways with visiting an undiscovered landscape, encountering a new species, or even with learning a new fact of physics. Art shows us who we are and where we stand. Ultimately all art, no matter how abstract, revolves around and relates to the human figure and human nature — Tony Cragg
