Constantly pushing to find new relations between people and the material world, Tony Cragg works with stone, wood, glass, stainless steel, aluminum, cast bronze and cast iron, and found objects, from plastic consumer goods to rubbish from the streets. Cragg has always had a passionate interest in science and natural history and worked as a young man as a lab technician at the National Rubber Producers Research Association, an experience that is reflected in his vigorous approach to material. Blurs of irregular, knifelike forms that appears at once rocklike and insubstantial, this sculpture suggests the aftermath of a human presence rather than the presence itself. Yet for all it apparent amorphousness, this sculpture is nothing if not solid. Created for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of German reunification, it represents a tribute to the newfound freedom with its stylistically reference to the opening of the Brandenburg Gate.
“ Sculpture is not about making nice with the things that fit in the world. It’s become a fundamental study of the material world, not in the same way science does it, where it tries to discover the fundamentals of that. „