While controversy raged about Hirst and Hindley at
the Sensation exhibition (1997 at the RA and 1999 at
the Brooklyn Museum), Ron Mueck's 'Dead Dad' had
a quieter but profounder effect on all who saw it.
Since then, the former special effects technician has
continued to play with scale and human likeness in
his sculptures, now even more disconcertingly real
thanks to his new working material of silicone.
The five new figures – three oversized, and two
Lilliputian – commissioned by Paris' Fondation
Cartier travel to New York for the first time, and are
joined for this mid-career retrospective by other
works including 'Dead Dad' and a massive newborn
baby complete with bloody streaks and an umbilical
cord.
The pull of Mueck's work, of course, is not just the
freak show element. In the fear and vulnerability
implicit in the faces and body language of his subjects
he reveals plenty about the fragility of the
human condition.

Brooklyn Museum
Ron Mueck
Through to February 4, 2007
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238-6052
T. +1 718 638 5000