This urban landscape, which we pass regularly, conceals hidden gems in its murk and dreary. Acting as a female flâneur, Tuck lays bare the straightforward. She delights in a refocused clarity and simplification, where the unadorned plays' hero’ and petite beauties are found in back lots, overhangs, and industrial clefts.
Her minimalist viewpoint aims to reduce the visual ‘noise’ to a focused hum, singularly playing up those elements that invite closer inspection. Most people don’t pay attention to surface defects, odd placements, or the discarded, but these pick up a new status when prone and exposed, beautiful for their vulnerability.
Unravelling the normalcy of the urban landscape is a challenge. Tuck refers to this as 'left-of-field' viewing, the shift beyond the obvious. This works at finding a subtle shift or a new perspective in vantage point.
A preference for primary or basic forms, repetitive surface patterns, lines, corners, or edges are the elements of intrigue in Tuck’s work. Amongst this blandness is where the extra or ‘other’ is sought.
While humour helps to humanize and make memorable, finding beauty where none is inherent reminds us to stop and appreciate the 'super-small' ordinaries around us daily and helps harbour a storyline about that place. And there may be many and varied stories over time.
An energy about the subject can be heightened through its visual contrast, encroachment, or intervention in its placement in these surroundings. In addition, the malleable results of seasonal deterioration and daily use and misuse add to the character and calibre of the story.
Taking slices between the apparent elements in the scene isolates a tighter, defined, or refined view, a calm or clarity stripped of the excesses, revealing a transparent beauty.
Tuck sees the forgotten or unimpressive highlighted as the new 'heroes' away from the confusion.
The once unseen is now exposed and promoted through slight nuances rather than grand gestures. Shadows may confuse. Reflections make promises. Distressed surface contrasts or nature's breakthrough at a crack or crevice reminds us of daily life and its erosion through time, season, and wear.