Ron Mueck sculpts mottled skin, wrinkles, hairy forearms, calluses, double chins, freckles, bumpy nipples, yellowing nails and lined foreheads. His work depends on detail. He wants his meticulously constructed figures to be more human than the living things. His babies, adolescents, pregnant women, parents, isolated adults, old people are all intensely, studiedly, obsessively realistic. The son of toy-makers, Mueck trained as a puppeteer - he worked on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show under Jim Henson - and he seems still to be fascinated by the idea of controlling from a distance. In his exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, which runs until 1 October, it is the reactions of the gallery visitors he is looking to direct.

LRB 7 September 2006 | PDF Download