Tony Cragg

It is not necessarily his work, or even his material that draws me in to Tony Cragg. It is his words of honesty about his practice that I appreciate and have learned from. He believes that we should not leave the shape of the future to politicians and businessmen–there should be some other activity, even if it is only a very small activity, such as sculpture, to find new forms, alternative shapes that would help to produce better imaginations, better dreams, better fantasies, because we would have a better, stronger visual language.

This is a voice for the language that I am engaged in with my own work. I want to create work that evokes the imagination and fantasy. Living in this space is healthy for growth. Finding out how to use our hands and our minds together in such a way to get out of what Cragg calls “this dull reality.”

For Cragg, historically, Sculpture has just begun, just now, and he says, “I think that it has the possibility of becoming something completely new and very important.” “It is an investigative medium in a direct sense.” Following this statement it was exciting for me to learn that Cragg experiments often as he moves along and has changed both his objects and materials several times in his career. This helps me put perspective on the mere three years of graduate studies and though it seems entirely overwhelming at times with all the material and conceptual choices at hand, this investigation is on the beginning of my journey, something I need to allow myself to be constantly reminded of.

Collins, Judith. Sculpture Today. London: Phaidon, 2007. Print.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. Conversations on Sculpture. Hamilton, N. J.: Isc, 2007. Print.