Sam Jinks

Two overly-large snails in a shimmering, sensual and sticky embrace. A small old woman in night-dress gently holding a new born babe and a somewhat stooped and sinister figure draped in a long white gown. There are only three sculptures in the latest Sam Jinks exhibition at Karen Woodley Gallery, but they are all absolutely glorious, not only in their precision of execution, but in their ability to create pathos in the viewer. There is certainly some affinity here between Jinks Woman and Child (2010) and the hyper-realistic sculptures of Ron Mueck, particularly his Old Woman in Bed (2002) however, because Jinks has depicted the old woman holding a new born he speaks directly to the nature of intimacy & ageing and taps into our fears about the fragility and eventual disintegration of the body. Indeed, his the devil halfway (2010) shrouds the figure of a body so thin that the contours of the spine and ribs show through the back of the fabric. There a subtle beauty here in Jinks approach to the body that was, at least for me, not found in Mueck's larger figures in his exhibition at the NGV earlier this year. I guess there will always be some comparison between aspects of these artists work, but I have to say that ultimately I prefer Jinks's sculptures. My lovely son accompanied me to this exhibition and graciously drove me home so that I wouldn't get cold.