Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Cragg at Gow Langsford

AA
View Discussion
Tony Cragg's exhibition as installed at Gow Langsford. Photo: Tobias Kraus Tony Cragg, Spring, 2016, wood, 2820 x 2270 x 650 mm. photo: Michael Richter Tony Cragg, Hedge, 2016, steel, 1000 x 600 x 720 mm. Photo: Michael Richter Tony Cragg, Ellipitical Column, 2016, corten steel, 2250 x 860 x 690 mm. Photo: Michael Ritcher Tony Cragg, Tempest, 2017, stone (statuario), 1150 x 720 x 520 mm. Photo: Michael Richter Tony Cragg, Mean average, 2014, bronze, 1200 x 510 x 540 mm. Photo: Michael Richter Tony Cragg, Woman's Head, 2007, bronze, 870 x 600 x 500 mm. Photo: Charles Duprat Tony Cragg, Listeners, 2015, bronze, 1000 x 450 x 450 mm. Tony Cragg, Wild Relatives, 2012, bronze, 1040 x 780 x 790 mm. Photo: Michael Richter Tony Cragg, Wild Relatives, 2012, bronze, 1040 x 780 x 790 mm. Photo: Michael Richter

Cragg's early work developed out of arte povera and conceptualist process. Since then as an artist he continued to evolve and constantly surprise, while becoming more traditional in his methods of manufacture. The later work often uses a form of anamorphic logic (involving different lines of sight), blending the craftsmanship and structures of Boccioni (or occasionally, Bellmer) with the wit of Arcimboldo.

Auckland

 

Solo show
Tony Cragg

 

8 May - 9 June 2018

With this exhibition Tony Cragg continues a trajectory directed far away from his work of the mid seventies and early eighties—where plastic or wooden detritus was carefully colour-sorted, stacked or pread out, and placed on floors or walls, creating witty ‘drawings’—or a middle period of sculptures where innovative shimmering surfaces featured on constructed or found objects; to the present, where the moving viewer is treated to complicated, fluid, twisting, vertical forms where facial profiles catch their eye, and a surrealist narrative suggested. Traditional materials such as marble, bronze or corten steel are now embraced, along with craftsmanship achieved through a busy studio workshop in Wuppertal.

I’m a big fan of Cragg‘s early work that developed out of arte povera and conceptualist process. Since then as an artist he continued to evolve and constantly surprise, while becoming more traditional in his methods of manufacture. The later work often uses a form of anamorphic logic (involving different lines of sight), blending the craftsmanship and structures of Boccioni (or occasionally, Bellmer) with the wit of Arcimboldo.

Although his choice of materials and processes is now hugely different, there are some commonalities between early and current work. Some of the later sculptures—even though they consist of one solid element—have a stacked appearance (possessing a stratalike texture) where you examine the work directly from above as well as from the side, deciphering different facial profiles. The main distinction is that where previously the placement of the separate elements within the composition was crucial, now it is the position of the viewer moving outside the work that counts.

This applies to five of the eight works. The others don’t have the same sort of visual/location-based hierarchy. Three of the four cast bronzes have a particular fluidity where the texture of the headlike form seems like liquid pouring over rocky or arboreal outcrops that are dramatically tilted at unusual angles. They look geological and eroded, and the facial profiles are not obvious. They take time to discover.

With the one wooden work, Spring, the arching form looks like a fountain squirting water high into the air so that the carved ‘liquid’ appears to be suspended, and bending in space as it falls. A deceptively complicated form, the carved arches are cleverly joined up to form a top-heavy mushroom shape resting on a spindly stem.

My favourite work here is Hedge, a sculpture where the various arabesque and flat, bulbous, paddlelike elements are spread apart within an imaginary cube-floating in air—unlike the other very solid and very dense, compacted works. Alluding to the spindly branches and leaves of a hedge where the artist used to play as a child, this airy work has a musicality and rhythm that holds your interest. In vivid formal contrast, Elliptical Column, a twisting, zigzagging vertical line of stratified corten steel, capitalises on negative space on both of its sides to suggest multiple visages.

Tempest, a work made of delicately pale, grey-veined marble, looks like a stack of soapy disks about to teeter over. They have a tumbling movement, hinting at sliding body parts making up a torso. The complicated form is highly allusive.

While I miss the rawness of his early and middle work, especially the surprise factor of using found objects—the current sculpture is still distinctively ‘Cragg’ and very much about close looking. It’s highly pleasurable; a treat to spend time with.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Still from Marcus Coates, The Directors: Lucy (2022) Single channel HD video on loop, projection, 21 min, 24 sec--⁠presented at Yellow Brick Road, courtesy of Artangel.

Attempting to Describe the Experience of Psychosis

Te Tuhi /Auckland Arts Festival

5 inner city sites


Marcus Coates
The Directors


24 February - 24 March 2024

JH
Ava Seymour, Manhole, 2023, Maribu solvent screen-printing ink on aluminium, 1120 x 910 mm, unique.

Maternal Appurtenances

COASTAL SIGNS

Auckland

 

Ava Seymour
Heels of Mothers


14 March - 13 April 2024

JH
Installation shot of Michael Morley's exhibition, After the War, at Sumer

In Spite of the World

SUMER

Auckland

 

Michael Morley
After the War


6 March 2024 - 6 April 2024

JH
P.R., Te Atakura, 2024; C.P., Vierkantrohre Serie DW, 1967; P.R., Easy Action Painting, 2023; P.R., Ki Uta Ki Tai, 2024; P.R., Driftwood 1, 2023.

Priorities’ Sculptures: Ineffective Due to Metaphor?

ARTSPACE AOTEAROA

Tamaki Makaurau

 

Charlotte Posenenske & Peter Robinson
Priorities


10 February - 6 April 2024