Tony Cragg, Castor & Pollux, 2015

Tony Cragg, Stroke, 2014 - Photo credit Mark Crick

Kistefos Museum, Norway

A site-specific commission for the Kistefos Museum, Castor & Pollux was unveiled in August 2017.

This monumental new sculpture by Tony Cragg represents a radical step in the development of his ongoing body of works, the Rational Beings, in which he explores the organic and geometric elements that make up human anatomy.

His interest in both physiology and neurology are clearly visible here, manifesting in a form that appears divided into two human-like figures at the bottom before merging into one at the top. The shape refers to the eponymous Roman myth of Castor & Pollux, twins with a common mother, Leda, but two different fathers: Castor was the human son of Tyndareus and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda disguised as a swan. When Castor died, Pollux asked his father for his brother to be immortalised. Zeus complied with his son’s desire by uniting the two brothers in the sky.

With its complex shape and striking yellow, Castor & Pollux however defies figurative interpretation, yet conveys the vibrant muscular power and animal energy.