The focus of Tony Cragg’s work of the early ’80s—particularly the schematic human figures composed of found fragments of colored plastic—was the interplay between the image-generating power of the found object and the specific challenge to traditional esthetics inherent in the high-voltage colors of synthetic materials. Plastic is a thoroughly disreputable material for art, yet in its infinite malleability, in the ease with which it can be replaced, it presented the artist with a true creative challenge. Through the processes of art, Cragg assigned a new identity to the artificial refuse of a