Sculptures...World Events
Tony Cragg, a British sculptor, calls his World Events, a 26 feet tall sculpture, a curious object. The
hollow figure of a boy holding a ball is constructed out of aluminum mannequins welded into a transparent
web. Despite its size, it is not very conspicuous and even disappears in between trees from certain view
points. From a distance, the identity of this sculpture is ambiguous and mysterious because the position of
the sphere obscures the silhouette of a boy with a ball.The human-like figures collectively appear to be a single human. There are several ways in which one can interpret this artistic form. According to Catherine Fox, "if you construe the ball as the globe, it might symbolize the vast sweep of the Olympics" (The Atlanta Constitution, 6/7/96). But its meaning can shift, just like the different attitudes it imposes from different viewpoints. Tony Cragg makes aluminum mannequins willingly holding the world together. In the spirit of the original Olympiad, he may have aspired to depict that despite the differences within the world community, we can all manage to hold the world together.
