New Sculpture by Artist Tony Cragg Now on Permanent Display in Bangkok Tony Cragg's sculpture is at One Bangkok

The examination of form and function is a key component of the artwork created by world-renowned British-born sculptor Tony Cragg. His highly abstract pieces heighten not only the viewer’s awareness of their own relationship to the material world, but also to their immediate surroundings. Recently, the artist made his Thailand debut with the unveiling of a massive stainless-steel sculpture that will be on permanent display at One Bangkok.

Tony Cragg is an artist who explores the complex relationships between the natural and man-made world, creating innovative, distinctive sculptural pieces along the way. A self-described “radical materialist”, he says that he is “interested in the internal structures of material that result in their external appearance”.

Although born in 1949 in Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, Tony currently lives and works in Wuppertal, in Germany. Since the 1980s, his work has been shown at important international exhibitions, including documenta in Kassel (1982 and 1987), the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1988) and the São Paulo Biennial (1983). He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1988, made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by France in 1992, and received Japan’s prestigious Praemium Imperiale in 2007.

In his early works he used a lot of found objects, later applying the same stacking principles to thin layers of wood to form undulating organic structures. These works recall natural geological forms, such as the sedimentation of mineral particles that create rock strata. His more recent works, by contrast, suggest the movement and transience of elements caught in the process of transformation, as in stainless steel forms that convey the fluidity of molten metal.

One of these “molten metal” sculptures is now on permanent display at One Bangkok, a cutting-edge mixed-use development in the city’s CBD which consists of residences, office space, multiple hotels, a shopping plaza, and no shortage of dining spots. Interestingly, a large portion of the One Bangkok property has been set aside for public use, in the form of green spaces, but there’s also what’s called the ‘Art Loop’, a vibrant route spanning over 2 kilometres throughout the project, featuring diverse artworks and creative programs. And it’s here that this new work by Tony Cragg finds a home.

The piece – which stands several metres high – is also doing double duty as an official exhibit in this year’s Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB). As such, the biennale organisers recently brought this celebrated artist to town, not only to oversee his work’s installation at One Bangkok, but also to do a public lecture at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre. As for the super shiny sculpture itself, Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda, the Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the BAB, described it to the audience as “hypnotic”.