[madameshawshank]

Ron Mueck!

google that name, click on "images" and be prepared for a surprise!

I came across his "Pregnant Woman" sculpture a few months back at the National Gallery of Australia. The feeling in the room in which it was displayed was TOTALLY palpable. This life-like construction is 8 feet! Can it really not be real? I asked myself. Each hair needled in individually. The marks from where she would have shaved her legs. A truly remarkable art piece.

So, what a stroke of luck to see a documentary on the making of the "Pregnant Woman".

To not have some full-on response to Mueck's work would surprise me.

So, dear pals, if you so wish...google away. I'll be looking forward to any response. Especially from any who have seen Mueck's work. I've only seen the one piece.

What an imagination he has! And I do have to share the information that Mueck is ...wait for it.....AN AUSTRALIAN.... I know I know I know...
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[Judy]

Wow - how life-like! The pregnant woman is fantastic, looks like she is carrying at least twins at about 39 weeks, poor thing. The mother and child sculpture is also incredible - that's EXACTLY how a brand new baby looks on its mother's saggy belly. All the real life ones I've seen are a bit (LOT!) messier than the sculpture, though.

What a genius, thanks for educating me, madame. Do you know of Patricia Piccinini's work?

Take a look at the 'We Are Family' link. Not quite as 'life like' as Mueck's sculptures, but very thought-provoking. And she's an Aussie too!

[Debbie]

WOW! They are amazing. It is hard to believe that you are looking at sculptures. He has really captured a moment in someones life, and retained the emotions and responses in that moment.

The teenage girl makes you feel awkward and shy. The mother straight after childbirth gives you that sense of exhausted satisfaction, and the pregnant woman makes you want to cry in sympathy... she looks drained and ready to burst... as you said "twins at 39 weeks" is a good description.

The naked and totally hairless man is so life like that it is almost creepy.

What an amazing man, what an interesting perspective on life.

Thank you for bringing this site to our attention!
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If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

[JustMe]

Hmmm! I am wondering if it says something about me, but my favourite is this one of a (clothed) woman seated.
http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/ronmueck/index.html?page=1&num_pages=1&image=1206
Amazing realism.
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Life is too short to drink cheap wine.

[madameshawshank]

the nakedness of the pregnant woman was confronting to many...it appeared that way anyway.

'she' was displayed in the centre of a large room, which had two entry points. ....here were these unsuspecting souls meandering through a gallery...and then...Wham!.....some seemed to turn away instinctively ~ 'twas toooooooo much.

perhaps it's a case of dear Mr Elliot's words .."Human kind cannot bear very much reality."

that woman forces us to face US...the way we began...the way we are fashioned into our particular cocoon. we face the mother...the one who carried us as we were being fashioned/formed.

we visit her load...her weight..

we visit our beginnings..

hugs
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

[elemenoh]

madameshawshank, thank you for posting this. I'd seen pictures of the pregnant woman, but didn't know the name of the artist.

What really blows me away about all his work is how incredibly realistic the faces and expressions on all his sculptures are. His attention to detail makes the bodies remarkable, but there's something more, I think, in the way he's able to give his creations a life and a spirit very much their own. I'm fascinated by photography and sculpture, and Mueck's work is almost a collision of the two fields. It doesn't feel like he's so much created something here, but more like he's truly captured a moment, a snapshot, almost, and brought it alive.

[Lady Amalthea]

I know what you mean, elemenoh. It really does seem so lifelike that it must be 3-D photography.

I really liked the one of the adolescent girl in the bathing suit; really touching as I think so many of us remember that time. I can only imagine being confronted with an 8-foot tall sculpture of her!
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Don't forget the cannolis!

[David]

So the curator of the National Art Gallery of Canada was asked to pick his 10 favourite pieces in the gallery and sure enough, there was a Ron Mueck, an untitled piece, a giant baby's head!
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[madameshawshank]

David I love that process...the selecting of those favourites. Each Sunday morning there's a half hour segment on radio...Sunday Brunch where the presenter visits the home of a well-known person..it's fabulous..

They are asked to pick 3 books, films, and music selection from their collections..

a challenge, yet stimulating and fun...

I might give it some thought..and then maybe a fun thread..
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson