2002

Mueck's work charts humanity's progress through life from birth to death, and one work stands out for its more symbolic treatment of this journey. In Man in a Boat, 2002 Mueck has placed a naked, middle-aged man in a small, black boat. The man has no means of steering a course and no oars or sails, but is cast adrift on the sea of life. The man tips his head to the right and strains his eyes as though he is trying to make out what is in store for him.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: Figure: 75cm (H) Boat: 421.6 x 139.7 x 122cm
• On loan to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
• © Ron Mueck

2002

The work was created as part of Mueck's time as artist in residence at the National Gallery, London, in 2000, where he was invited to seek inspiration from the old masters. (In Man in a Boat, for example, Mueck focussed on an overlooked detail of a tiny ship in Velazquez's Immaculate Conception).

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: Figure: 75cm (H) Boat: 421.6 x 139.7 x 122cm
• On loan to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
• © Ron Mueck

2005

In Bed is over 21 feet long. It was made last year and was one of the highlights of the recent show at the Cartier Foundation in Paris. The woman's chin rests on her hand as, sunk in thought, her eyes stare through you into the distance. It is a pose that bespeaks introspection, worry perhaps, but above all, it is a pose that shows the mind as detached (as much as it ever can be) from the body.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 162 x 650 x 395 cm
• Anthony d’Offay, London
• © Ron Mueck

2005

We are dwarfed in her presence (a literary equivalent would be Alice in Wonderland or Gulliver's Travels) but, like many of Mueck's larger sculptures, the pensive woman does not look dangerous. Feelings of childhood are reawakened - a regular theme in Mueck's work - as we see and feel things again from a child's perspective.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 162 x 650 x 395 cm
• Anthony d’Offay, London
• © Ron Mueck

2005

The two elderly women gossiping, standing on a small plinth, draw you into a new miniature world. Everything is lifelike, down to the wrinkles on the women's faces and the creases in their stockings, but on a much smaller scale.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 85 x 48 x 38cm
• Glenn Fuhrman Collection, New York
• © Ron Mueck

2005

Naturally, they have the opposite effect to the monumental woman lying in bed. You tower over them, all-powerful. This image shows Ron Mueck making final changes to the sculptures before the opening of the exhibition at the Cartier Foundation in Paris last year.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 85 x 48 x 38cm
• Glenn Fuhrman Collection, New York
• © Ron Mueck

2005

The work shown here is the third mask created by Ron Mueck. The first two (one of which is also on show in the exhibition), created in 1997 and 2001-2, were considered to be self-portraits.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 155 x 132 x 113cm
• Anthony d'Offay, London
• © Ron Mueck

2005

All of Mueck's sculptures are captivating in their physical realism, and this is the result of a lengthy creative process. A mould is made of the sculpture using silicone, capturing all the details such as expression and skin texture, supported by fibreglass to hold the shape.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 155 x 132 x 113cm
• Anthony d'Offay, London
• © Ron Mueck

2005

The figures in Spooning Couple are tiny, no more than 65 centimetres long. They are lying together on a fairly low plinth and you look down on them from a bird's eye (almost godlike) perspective. The man, naked from the waist down, the woman, naked from the waist up, are lying together, almost in a foetal position, her body fitting into the hollow of his body - like spoons.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 14 x 65 x 35cm
• On loan to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
• © Ron Mueck

2005

They may be 'spooning' in a fairly literal way, but they are in anything but a warm, loving embrace. The expressions on their faces and especially in their eyes show them to be deep in their own separate worlds. His left eye almost catches the visitor's own gaze in complicit acknowledgement that the bond between him and the woman has broken down. This double-take, this moment when you realise that someone is looking back at you, is a memorable part of the experience. For a split second, the sculptures are disturbingly real.

• Material: Mixed Media
• Size: 14 x 65 x 35cm
• On loan to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
• © Ron Mueck