Tony Cragg Unveils an Organic Landscape of Morphing Sculptures at Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
Tony Cragg’s sculptures are voluptuous creatures. From the future and lost in our world, manifested in adamantine configuration, steel, bronze and wood compose the organic and futuristic landscape of the Thaddaeus Gallery in Pantin located in the outskirts of Paris. Entering the gallery is like stepping into the artist’s imagination. A moment held in time, where the vision of a tree in the midsts of nature becomes a rose-tinted, circular biomorphic splendour abandoned in an all-white shed.
The majestic sculptures are spread across all three rooms of the gallery, standing unpretentious and dignified; each individually defined by tone and shape. Different shades of rouge, white, black and other vivid colours are toned down by the intensity of the circular activity. The organised movement of lines creates the optical illusion of an alluring physical phenomenon. Upon laying our eyes onto the surface, we are attracted to the speed of the lines, drawn into the core of the creatures, and almost tempted to dive into a never ending swirl of raw material.
Tony Cragg, is a British sculptor who creates almost geologically layered arrangements in meaningful and significant materials. Working with stone, wood, and man-made materials such as glass, steel and found objects from the streets, he uses his drawings as a starting point for creating - leading to overlapping, layering and convolution.
In his newest body of work, Cragg uses a sculptural language previously employed in his “Early Forms”, where sculptural form referred to vessel-type twisted and mutated figures.
The sculptor seeks to convey the overlooked complexity of natural forms. He describes himself as a materialist looking to explore and broaden the endless possibilities of materials. He has been confronting the latter incessantly to time, range of motions, and its own creative thoughts. According to Cragg, sculptures are “the attempt to project intelligence into material.” In other words, his intentions are to invite the viewers to deploy their perceptions and ‘see’ beyond the heap of material.
This feeling is validated by the presence of rigid totemic-like sculptures animated by undulating waves next to which we become the moving element searching for a meaning. Whether or not we end up finding it is not the point.
We are, at first, struck by the sculptures’ monumental presence. As we travel between the pieces, we wonder what could possibly be the meaning behind each creature. After all, we are only looking at raw volumes enhanced by a strange beauty.
This oddity prevents us from rationalising, and from thereon, our emotions take over the search for pragmatic meaning. There is a genuine purpose behind the grace and immensity of each piece: to fill our soul with our own imagined thoughts.
With his new sculptures, Tony Cragg has succeeded in inviting us to let go of reasoning - thud seeing art in a world where imagination becomes a unique and impalpable feeling.
Tony Cragg’s “Sculptures” are exhibited at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Pantin, Paris until June 30th 2016
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Tamara Akcay
