B.

Ron Mueck is an internationally renowned, UK-based Australian sculptor who makes astonishingly life-like sculptures of people. Rarely life-sized, they are typically realised at either a vast or reduced scale, and caught in moments that are both everyday and puzzling. Here amidst a selection of mainly historical realist paintings, Mueck’s compelling chicken / man might seem an unlikely inclusion. But like these other works, it echoes common human experience, respecting human vulnerability and the weight of memory and loss.Along with thematic and emotional resonances, it also recalls the archetype of artist and muse – Mueck finding expressive potential in another person’s meticulously observed human frame. Meanwhile across the kitchen table, bird and man face each other intently.

(Persistent encounters, March 2020)