London, Hayward Gallery Review

There is something moral, puritan even, in Cragg's insistence on re-turning to what he terms the 'first order experiences' of material objects, and from thered educing order and significance. When Lynne Cooke, in her thorough introduction to the catalogue, emphasises the scientific alignment of Cragg's work, it is in terms of his ability to be at once empirical and speculative. It is the speculation it con-tains, together with his ingenuity and for-mal sense, that distinguish his best work. But this desire to speculate, together with Cragg's use of a bewildering variety of materials in his analysis of the world's order, also accounts for the uneven achieve-ment of these sculptures (that he has had, according to the catalogue, no less than fifty-two one man exhibitions, demon-strates his extreme productivity).

Many of the smaller pieces are relatively slight; two pieces where he uses lapis lazuli seem failures, the richness of the material over-running his discrete carving; one large piece, Brick built, consisting of three 'skyscrapers' of building blocks, seems especially banal in conception and facture. Sometimes, as with Minster, there is an apparent misjudg-ment as to readability: it is difficult to know how many viewers will pick up the very specific references Cragg intends. 

Cragg's work always benefits from col-lision with a 'real' environment; it is some measure of the strength of the best pieces that they remain compelling even in the Hayward's limbo-like interior spaces. In contrast some of the sculptures sited on the balconies are greatly enhanced by their confrontation with the architect of the South Bank and Westminster: Minster signalling to the distant towers of the city, and the majestic Raleigh, with its vast cast iron fog-horns and granite bollards, resonating across the Thames. These works have something of the nature of monu-ments, albeit commemorating no particular person or event. The same is true of the most interesting sculptures inside such as Instinctive reactions with its eight-foot high laboratory equipment, or Riot.

It is difficult to think of any other sculp-tor whose current work is so varied and so conceptually provocative as Cragg's, so much so that it seemed unduly cramped here. A small selection of earlier work, in particular the stacking and scatter pieces, would have helped point out the consist-ent methodology of the show, composed entirely of work from 1986-87. Such caveats aside this remained one of the most interest-ing of recent sculpture exhibitions, not least for the way in which viewers were persuaded into lengthy contemplation of the works. 

 Riot,by Tony Cragg.1987.Plastic.( Exh.Hayward Gallery)

Reference: 

Tony Godfrey

The Burlington Magazine
Vol. 129, No. 1010, A Special Issue on Ceramics and Glass (May, 1987), p. 337

Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/882978