Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck//Manchester City Gallery//Artist Rooms//16/02/10.

I've been a fan of Muecks work for only a short time but his pieces made a instant and lasting impression on me. I don't know a great deal about his background which isn't a result of lazyness on my part but I swear! I always feel that when I know too much about an artists background or read other peoples views on an artist you feel an affinity with, it can hinder rather than support your ideas about their work. The artist rooms in the city gallery only house a few select pieces by the chosen artist in Ron Muecks case it these were Wild Man 2005, Spooning Couple 2005, and Mask III 2005. The piece that struck me was 'Spooning Couple', whereas the shear scale of 'Wild Man' was undoubtably impressive the miniaturisation of figures while retaining such a sense of realism to and almost hyper-real state captivated me. To see the the sculpture in the flesh brought a new level of appreciation and a different dimension of meaning to the piece. Before I had seen his work in reality I associated many of his pieces with the theories connected with the uncanny and the abject. In particular his piece 'Dead Dad', which is a sculpture of his fathers corpse. The piece causes an inner dilemma, it is in essence the replica of a human corpse and our initial reaction is to be repulsed because we are being forced to deal with something that is no longer of this world. The topic of his work had once been a subject and more empathy is created because from the title we realise it was the artists father. Now this human being has become an object we are confronting a replica of a corpse which is a representation of something that was once alive but now isn't. As we confront this we become aware of our own mortality.

With 'Spooning Couple' I was aware of the workmanship that went into such a piece, the realism of it it was amazing. This realism caused a great sense of cognitive dissonance in me. The piece was set low down so you had to stoop down to observe it properly, this along with the way the sculpture was depicting a private moment made me feel like a voyeur.