Tony Cragg

28 Nov 2012-12 Jan 2013

Overview

The manipulation of materials into forms and images that offer new experiences and insights lies at the heart of Tony Cragg's sculptural practice. His outlook is marked by an interest in analyzing the relations between materials, science and the body. This scientific method of analysis is however not mathematical but organic, based on the interaction between the material and the human body. Cragg's oeuvre centres around two bodies of research: Early Forms and Rational Beings. Cragg described the Early Forms as 'forms changing along an axis bilaterally curved with a simple profile'. These works explore the possibilities of distortion based on everyday objects such as vases or bottles. As the artist moves, the material is moved too, resulting in a sort of three-dimensional morphing. The sculptures belonging to the body of Rational Beings start from the outlines of a human gesture or profile. Their principal development is vertical, emphasizing their origin as non-objectual but anthropomorphic.