Tony Cragg uses a range of objects and materials to create his sculptures, typically according to preestablished systems that are at once unpredictable and precise. Trade-Wind, 1995, for example, comprised a harmonious, slanted arrangement of plaster vases placed one on top of the other in decreasing order, their surfaces covered with densely hatched pencil lines. He used the same principle of construction to generate an untitled piece in 1994, in which vases also appeared, although those were sandblasted, painted, and perforated with numerous holes.

Cragg’s sculptural pieces—or perhaps one should