After leaving the Royal College of Art, London, Thom Puckey became intensely active as a performance artist in the middle and late 1970s as part the performance art duo Reindeer Werk as well as solo; this trained him in the expressive possibilities of the body, in its relational abilities and in how to render these as a sculptural image. This early work can still be felt in the artwork he produces today, in the marble and bronze figurative sculptures and in his black and white photography. The anatomical detail in his marble sculptures, the sometimes aggressive poses featuring firearms of potential deadly effect, refer obliquely to classical sculpture, but the diverse contrasting languages of high and low culture disorientate as much as they they fascinate. Indeed the choice of a ‘noble’ material like Carrara statuario marble is almost subversive with respect to the various connotations of Puckey’s content. He works very diligently on the many stages necessary for his sculptural production. Each new sculpture is based in most details explicitly on a particular person, the model herself. Many long posing sessions are required to determine and establish the position of a figure and during these a great many photographs are taken, snapped from every angle and of every detail, to establish the bodily expression and to assist in the course of the making process. So it follows that the artist treats each model as a true performer in two senses: in that, with her body, she incarnates a living, unexpected form constituting an expressive possibility, and in that she is an actress playing a role, lending her face and body to an otherwise abstract idea.
Recently, the place and role of the female nude in his work has been changing: the figure/person has become less of a central subject, and more someone who seems to be demonstrating the intangible qualities of light and time, In his new movement into analogue studio photography, these qualities of light and time are combined with art historical and religious imagery with which the figures interact or are spatially juxtaposed. His models act as a démonstratrices in complex long-exposure single-take studio shots. He engages himself with this analogue photography in his studio and darkroom at every stage and every level of the process. In its complexity and labour-intensivity, it mirrors his sculptural production, increasing the richness of his extensive oeuvre.
Recently, the place and role of the female nude in his work has been changing: the figure/person has become less of a central subject, and more someone who seems to be demonstrating the intangible qualities of light and time, In his new movement into analogue studio photography, these qualities of light and time are combined with art historical and religious imagery with which the figures interact or are spatially juxtaposed. His models act as a démonstratrices in complex long-exposure single-take studio shots. He engages himself with this analogue photography in his studio and darkroom at every stage and every level of the process. In its complexity and labour-intensivity, it mirrors his sculptural production, increasing the richness of his extensive oeuvre.
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