Thursday, 26 October 2017

Tony Cragg Research

Tony Cragg: A Rare Category Of Objects


-states ' I have no idea where a drawing might lead' 'It's a journey- an adventure'

-He creates profiles and manipulates them to a point where only a silhouette, from looking at a certain angle, remains.

-'stacking stuff up does create a role in my work today'

-He creates the sculpture process by initial sketches

Cragg's early work, consisting of organising rubbish from his studio gathered into stacks, gave him some of his early works

Cragg has an interest in scientific analysis and categorisation of materials and processes, stemmed from his early days as a lab technician.

'A Rare Category of Objects' showcases Cragg's intuition to sort and categorise, evidenced from his childhood fossil collection, and expressed through significant early stacked series in which the accumulated content of his studio, including stones, wood, and books, are formed into geological-like sculptures' - Lisson Gallery

'If you make something with your hands, every change in line, volume, surface, silhouette, gives you a different thought or emotion. After several moves, you’re in unknown territory. Although I change material with my hands, the material itself changes my mind. It is a dialogue in which the material always has the last word.' - Cragg

'But sculpture? Art takes on space, makes new forms, ideas, emotions, languages, freedom.'- Cragg

Tony Cragg's tutor who told him that he needed to tidy up in his studio, that sparked his interest in stacking materials in towers. As it was a quick solution to the problem, it became a fixation of which started his association with piling upwards.

'There’s lots of dynamic energy involved in keeping a form upright. Making a sculpture for me is about making a vital sign.' - Cragg

Constantly pushing to find new relations between people and the material world

That spread of possibilities gives a clue to Cragg’s originality. Driven by delight in his materials, for more than 25 years he has flitted between the abstract and the figurative, creating shapes that speak to our humanity yet lie just out of reach of language. Like his drawing, his sculpture is an adventure.- Financial times


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