Tony Cragg

Description

Relatives is a work whose facets and shadows immediately suggest fast movement. Like a photograph that has caught only a blurred glimpse of an action, this heavy bronze seems to evoke a quick flash of speed. Even as one looks at it, the constantly shifting light and shade cast by the trees tricks the eye and the sculpture itself seems to shift.

Constructed to resemble a series of profiles, its smooth curves imply multiple beings within the one sculptural object. As the eye flows across them, they bend and morph from the recognisable human face into an altogether more simian pout. This sculpture, then, seems to stand as a memorial to human evolution, from ape to the complex modern culture we have created. The sense of flux implies, however, that the process has not finished. Though the human profile is more distinct and Cragg does not speculate and create a further stage, this flow of faces seems, like the blurred photograph, to imply continued movement. An arc of moments caught in time, not a distinct chart of method and conclusion. Cragg leaves this as an open-ended statement, allowing the viewer's imagination to run riot.

The title reminds us through its familial associations that, as Darwin theorised, we are all ultimately animals, albeit unique in our ability, amongst other things, to create artwork. However, this gives the work a second, lowlier meaning as families themselves watch their relatives develop and breed with outsiders to morph the clan. Though some characteristics remain, as the ape's separate and hairless face has stayed with us, the diversity of human characteristics mean that generations can appear vastly different.

Ultimately, this sculpture is all about change and the necessary realisation of the constant flow of time. By layering this gold-tinged structure, Cragg at once evokes the momentary passage of time, and geological time. The ephemeral light flits through the day as visitors come and go yet the earthy colour and stratas remind one of fossils and the progression of the Earth as a whole aside from human influence.