Ron Mueck

(Australia, England 1958– )

Title

Untitled (old woman in bed)

Year

2000-2002

Media category

Mixed media

Materials used

mixed media

Dimensions

25.4 x 94.0 x 53.9cm

Signature & date

Not signed. Not dated.

Credit

Purchased 2003

Accession number

9.2003

Copyright

Location

Contemporary galleries

Further information

Encountering Ron Mueck’s sculptures is like suddenly being in a contemporary version of ‘Gulliver’s travels’: everything looks real and familiar but the scale is wrong. Giant boys and pregnant women tower over us, small men row boats and lie dead, a swaddled baby is shrunk to miniature size. In ‘Untitled (old woman in bed)’ a frail elderly woman lies under a blanket on a gallery plinth, her small scale increasing her vulnerability as we loom over her. This is one of Mueck’s most poignant works: the woman seems only to have a tenuous hold on life as she shrinks from this world into whatever comes next. It is imbued with the pathos of our own experiences of the death of elderly friends and relatives just as it foretells our own inevitable demise.

As with all of Mueck’s sculpture, this figure is more than life-like. The moist eyes, veins just below the skin and flushed cheeks all add up to an near palpable sense of life, or in this work of life ebbing. We almost expect to hear a rattling breath as we look at the work for signs of the life that is about to end. The realism of his sculptures is like a series of three-dimensional freeze frames taken from the world, life momentarily paused but still fully evident. This filmic metaphor is not inappropriate as Mueck has worked as a modelmaker for television and film. While we know these people are sculptures, it is almost impossible not to touch them to make sure that they are indeed not real. Mueck’s deployment of scale distances this realism just as it entices us by the sense of wonder it evokes. The expressions of his sculptural subjects are subtly exaggerated to increase their emotional impact; indeed their heightened emotional and psychological states and the response this triggers in the viewer is the subject of Mueck’s art rather than their extraordinary verisimilitude. His figures are almost always alone and there is a strong sense of isolation and vulnerability to many of his works.

Mueck’s realism is perhaps sculpture’s riposte to the virtual reality that digital technologies have made possible. Filmic and digital photographic recreations of past worlds, mythical places and future possibilities have stretched the real in so many directions as to make it no longer a viable visual category. There is no digital sleight of hand to Mueck’s work, however, as he makes his sculptures traditionally, applying clay to a framework, modelling the figure until he has the form to create a mould and then casting the final work. It is a labour-intensive and highly skilled process. The resulting works seem to have the weight of the history of sculptural realism behind them, just as they seem to mark its end by leaving it with nowhere further to go.

Bibliography (8)

David Hurlston (Author), Ron Mueck, 2010, 42 (colour illus.), 44 (colour illus.), 46-47. illustration on page 42 is a detail

'On our selection: a moonlit mix' by John McDonald, pg. 16-7., The Sydney Morning Herald 21 Feb 2009-22 Feb 2009, 21 Feb 2009-22 Feb 2009, 16 (colour illus.), 17. Review of 'Great Collections' exhibition.

John McPhee (Author), Great collections, New South Wales, 2008, 120 (colour illus.).

The Hague Sculpture (Netherlands) (Author), DeOverkant/ Down Under, 2007, 150-51 (colour illus.). illustration is a detail

Anthony Bond (England; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection, 2006, 408-9 (colour illus.). illustration on page 409 is a detail

Foundation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (France), Ron Mueck, 2005, 64, 74-75 (colour illus.), 111 (colour illus.). this work is not in the exhibition but is referred to and illustrated in the catalogue. illustration is of the National Gallery of Canada's edition

'Moving sculpture, taking the sculpture off the plinth and putting it back in the real world' Tony Bond and Jill Sykes, pg. 29-31, Look Aug 2003, Aug 2003, 30 (colour illus.). illustration is a detail

Sidney Lawrence (Curator), Directions: Ron Mueck, Washington D.C., 2002, (illus.). illustration is of the National Gallery of Canada's edition

Exhibition history (13)

Ron Mueck Sculpture, Museum of Contemporary Art, 19 Dec 2002–02 Mar 2003.

Ron Mueck Sculpture, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 10 Sep 2003–02 Nov 2003.

Ron Mueck Sculpture, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, 15 Nov 2003–18 Jan 2004.

DE OVERKANT/ DOWN UNDER, The Hague Sculpture, 01 Jun 2007–09 Sep 2007.

Great collections (2009), Campbelltown Arts Centre, 12 Dec 2008–18 Jan 2009.

Great collections (2009), Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, 06 Feb 2009–15 Mar 2009.

Great collections (2009), Western Plains Cultural Centre, 03 Apr 2009–10 May 2009.

Great collections (2009), Albury Regional Gallery, 29 May 2009–05 Jul 2009.

Great collections (2009), Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 24 Jul 2009–30 Aug 2009.

Ron Mueck, NGV: International, 22 Jan 2010–18 Apr 2010.

Ron Mueck, Gallery of Modern Art, 08 May 2010–01 Aug 2010.

Ron Mueck, Christchurch Art Gallery, 30 Sep 2010–23 Jan 2011.

Ron Mueck, Museo de arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), 17 Mar 2011–31 Jul 2011.