Ron muek

Recently we watched the portrait gallery’s documentary about Ron Muek the sculpture artist. At first I didn’t think it would be at all relevant to my work but i soon realised how he abstracts the human form I realised his relevance.

Mueck is a 3D artist who creates contemporary life-like sculpture of the human form out of fiberglass and silicone, he also uses resins and paints to colour the skin of the sculptures and hand punches hair into the scalps and arms adding to the realism of his pieces. He also adds the detail of fingernails, toenails and blemishes on the skin.

This is his sculpture Pregnant Woman 2002 This wholly life-like and personal sculpture made based on a pregnant life model actually stands eight feet tall. Even though you cannot tell from the photograph. I like his subtle abstraction of the human form.

This piece is based on Muecks own father, lying at half human size this is quite a humbling. It makes us as the viewer see the imperfections of reality. From the image above you can’t really gather the scale of the sculpture, hopefully it is clear from the bellow image.

Being 6’1 myself I would find this quite a strange experience seeing this in real life. His sculptures can have a profound effect on people, It brings back the reality of mortality, it also reminds me of the last time I saw my great-grandmother at 98 she seemed so small and frail, it really hits home the imperfections of reality how exhausted and care warn she really looked. I think Muecks aim  is to make you want to cradle ‘Dead Dad’ as if a feeble child.

Manipulation of scale is Muecks trade mark style, though not all of his sculptures are abstracted.

One of my favourite pieces is the Giant baby. I find it strangely fascinating, not being a mother myself I find the issue of childbirth wholly alien and totally terrifying. From what I have heard giving birth naturally must feel like giving birth to a giant baby. I feel Muecks aim is to echo the realism of childbirth whilst abstracting it to unbelievable scale. The baby looks as though it is content as if it knows something we don’t.