Charles Ray

Above: 'Family romance' 1993

Charles Ray plays with scale and proportions. In Family Romance, he has the whole family of the same heights but due to this, has to change the proportions of the younger children. It has a slight humour to it. I think having a baby a lot taller than you will seem very strange indeed. I don't think that photographs or images of his work really justifies it. I think you need to be there, stood with the family to actually feel the full feeling as these are your height, or in my case taller than me.

Above: Plank piece I-II, 1973

I really like how the artist uses his body in the work, how he uses it as a sculptural element. He doesn't look real. He looks like a doll and it could be as he used so many doll - like objects ( ie like 'Family Romance'. I wonder how long he stays here and where. It looks like it is just in the studio. Is t a performance? and in other works, he has been tied to a tree for an afternoon and viewed by passers by only. Or is this made to be a photo. in that case, his body isn't a sculptural form, he is just being a model.

There are a few other pieces I like of his for example ' In Memory of Sadat, 1981 where there is a long rectangular box, in two sections. In each section there is a hole. One hole, a leg ascends and in the other an arm ascends. It is the artist's body directly incorporated into a steel sculpture. He see's the body as sculpture and this is what i think i like this. The performance aspect of the work. But it is not really used as performance. He makes his body an object.