The Gigantic work of Ron Mueck

[Heidi Maiers]

I think Ron's work is fascinating from a technical standpoint - clearly showing exquisite modeling, molding, and complicated casting skills.
As sculpture, however, it does not move me in the least. There's no warmth, nothing left to the imagination, nothing there to draw me in other than the obvious shock of scale and realism.
For some reason seeing extremely realistic sculpture influences me to make my own work more loose and sculptural.

[Margaret Ferguson]

I saw an exhibition of Ron Mueck's work in Edinburgh 2 years ago. It was stunning, among the most striking art I've seen and even now I can bring its impact to mind.
My 11 year old daughter talked about it for weeks, too, the ultimate test for any sculpture!
Apart from the technical skill demonstrated, the huge pieces were so moving. The main piece was a new born baby, lying helplessly like a beached pilot whale, and I have to say that, having attended births, I was virtually moved to tears. The huge woman in the bed was powerful, too; we were like two year olds creeping round Mum's bedroom, everyone whispering!
The tiny pieces were fantastically well done too.
Funnily enough, the main impact of the sculptures was their sense of vulnerability, whatever the scale

I really enjoyed having my perceptions challenged and I would respectfully encourage anyone to attend a Mueck exhibition

[Carolyn Bannister]

I think his work is more about how one feels as the viewer, to comment on this with any knowledge I would presume one would have to experience the work first hand as the scale, small or large, plays an integral part.

Either way, love it or hate it I don't feel it's appropriate to personally insult the artist.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

You are both so right! The sheer scale must have a different impact then when viewed as a photograph. I also agree that insulting an artist's work is inappropriate. I would love to see his exhibit and after seeing his work in person make a judgment about how the work has affected me.

[Carolyn Bannister]

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

Carolyn,

I am insulting him personally.

Sharon,

I presume you intended to put the word not in here.

Either way I didn't say you had insulted the artist personally.

And yes you are of course allowed to respond truthfully, I presume that is why Enzie posted in the first place.

I don't recall reading anywhere that your negative response was not appreciated. The same for any positive feedback.

Generally maybe a more analytical rather than emotional response would enable others to see where one is coming from.

Nice to see such a passionate response anyway, there's nothing worse than indifference.

Carolyn

[Steven Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

When an artist goes out of his way to make something so huge as so not to be missed . . .

Do you yourself not often work in substantial,

[Richard Bingham]

[QUOTE=Steven Sweeney] . . . Scale is a legitimate element in expression of an idea . . .

[Steven Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Richard Bingham

And last, does anyone know anything about the posts that have been deleted from this thread? It'sdisturbing when that happens.

Posts were deleted in their authors' discretion, and not by the Forum administrators. It does sometimes create jarring leaps from one sentiment to the next, if the excised materials do not appear as "copied" text in other posts for reference. But it remains the authors' prerogative to reconsider and delete if so desired.

So it goes.

[Later note: Of course, deleting a post from the Forum doesn't delete it from the emailed versions received by members upon the initial posting, so a deletion never completely wipes the slate clean.]