Blanket

ARTIST"S STATEMENT:

"Blanket" continues a fascination with the everyday object released from its quotidian functionality. One plastic cup remains just a plastic cup, however you look at it; six hundred and twenty five plastic cups, however, en masse, become something else entirely. 

The not-entirely-predictable result of a mechanical project of drilling, threading, tying and knotting, "Blanket" embodies the perfect geometric grid and its real-life inevitable (and far more interesting) distortion. 

The second subsidiary image is of a work titled "Cascade" (2008, plastic cups, nylon thread; 100 x 400 x 10cm), made from clear plastic drinking cups tied together in a long rectangular array. ""Cascade" and "Blanket" were both exhibited in the exhibition  dot-net--dot-au in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in Singapore in 2008. 

" Taken individually, these disposable, transparent, almost weightless objects are so self-effacing and familiar that they almost disappear into their surroundings. Taken together, as units linked into wall or floor-sized configurations they become monumental, although not overpowering. They retain a sense of provisional-ness as they buckle or sag, sway in the breeze or gleam in reflected light in response to subtle changes in their environment. By keeping his touch light, Craker draws out of the banality, even abjectness, of his materials an unexpected quality grace. "

(Dr Caroline Jordan, Lecturer in Art History (History) DMBE, La Trobe University; excerpt from catalogue essay for dot-net-dot-au travelling exhibition 2008)