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Part of the initial shock of Australian Ron Mueck's sculptures of people is their scale: they vary from the tiny to the gigantic, but are never human size, even though they otherwise seem so real - almost too real - right down to skin blemishes and leg hairs that have been painstakingly implanted.
You almost feel that eye contact is possible, if only they'd look your way, rather than remain absorbed in their thoughts.
'Each of Mueck's hyper-sensitive creations presents a curious mirror of reality that conveys observers towards a hidden dimension of themselves,' says Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, which has given over the ground floor of its glass-enclosed space for Mueck's first solo exhibition in Paris.
Mueck's artistic career took off in the latter half of the 1990s, when his Dead Dad attracted attention at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
The five works on display in Paris, all created last year for the Fondation Cartier exhibition, demonstrate the power of Mueck's hyper-realism to evoke complex, human emotions.
To achieve the life-like texture, he shellacs clay sculptures, then layers them with gel-coat before painting on layers of fibreglass or silicone. Individual hairs are glued into drilled holes in the case of fibreglass, or punched into the surface when silicone is used. Finally, details such as veins and blemishes are painted on.