Sculptural vessels across the great divide: Tony Cragg's Laibe and the metaphors of clay

Abstract

This article discusses Tony Cragg's Laibe (1991) in the context of fine and applied arts practice of the time. Just as many British crafts practitioners were concerned with using the vessel as an iconic starting point to explore sculptural ideas, Cragg's Laibe, which conflates the vessel form with the suggestion of a loaf of cut bread, brings together the necessities for sustaining life in a metaphoric use of form and material. The obvious hand marks, while using industrial clay, at once suggests the long history of thrown pots as well as contemporary practices. Like many artists who have used clay as part of a broader range of materials, Cragg collaborated with a ceramicist, in his case during a residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre in the Netherlands. Laibe was shown in A Secret History of Clay: From Gauguin to Gormley (2004), and the article discusses the critical and exhibiting distancing of art from craft, in spite of the overlaps of concerns.