Week 3 : Ron Mueck's Sculpture and Humanism

1. Mueck's sculpture is described as 'hyper-real'. Define the meaning of this term and apply it to his work.
In term's of an artistic context, the term 'hyper-real' refers to  'involving or characterized by particularly realistic graphic representation'. This is clearly evident in Mueck's works, as his work delivers great deal of accuracy and attention to detail on human figures: although he plays with the scale, the proportion are perfectly accurate.


2. Mueck is not interested in making life size sculpture. Find out why he is more interested in working with the scale of the figure which is not life size, and mention 2 works which use scale that is either larger or smaller than life.

Mueck's work never corporates life size scale : it's either bigger than, or smaller.

In one of his interview, he states ' life-size figures never seemed to be interesting. We meet life-size people every day.'

In Bed 2005

In Bed is one of fairly large scaled work of Mueck's (162 x 650x 395 cm); and because of it's overwhelming size, it enables the audience to feel the atmosphere in which the figure's emotion/expression creates. sank in her own thought, the women in this sculpture is a classic image of melancholia. Her emotion is well delivered to the audience as they might walk through this work; magnificent scale allows the space to be completely filled up with the figure's feeling.

Two Women 2005

The sculpture Two Women consists of two elderly women engaging in gossip. The Scale of this work are much smaller than life-size (83 x 48 x 38 cm :less than a metre tall); small enough to encourage the viewer to thoroughly examine them close-up and to pay attention to the figure's expressions: which are, both captivating and haunting at the same time

3. Define Renaissance Humanism , and analyze the term in order to apply it to an example of Mueck's work. Note that the contemporary definition of Humanism is much broader than the Renaissance definition.

Renaissance Humanism was an intellectual and social movement which flourished around the period of Renaissance. It is arguable to say that humanism lies at the base of funding Humanism.

Humanism was a rediscovery and re-evaluation of the aspects of classical civilization which was then interpreted accordingly to the intellectual and social culture of the time.

The concept of Humanism can be easily substituted into the works of Mueck's as his works are deeply associated with human nature/ human as a each individual.

4. Research and discuss one of Mueck's sculptures that you might find challenging or exciting to experience in an art gallery. Describe the work, upload an image of the work, and explain your personal response to the work

A Girl 2006

A girl, 4.5m long sculpture, overwhelms the audience first with devastating scale, then with thorough details of the baby's facial expressions and the physical features. The way its stretching her tightened hands are notable, as she is in a pose that a baby wouldn't normally take 

References

-Hartley,K. (2006). Ron Mueck. Edinburgh: The Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland
-http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hyperreal
-ACADEMIC LITERACIES IN VISUAL COMMUNICATION 1 – 114111 – RESOURCE BOOK