As I wandered into the Gallery of Modern Art, suddenly I felt like a Lilliputian. Lying in front of me was not Gulliver but one of Ron Mueck’s phenomenal human-like sculptures titled In Bed (2005).
This monstrously large bed contains a middle-aged woman, lying still and gazing into the distance. Her expression is pensive and withdrawn—slightly anxious. It is easy to identify with her—many of us worry. The striking aspect of this sculpture is the extraordinary realism with which it is rendered. Every pore, blemish and line is accurately rendered, down to the skin colour and the mottled pink on the palms of her hands. There is even a hint of sweat in the fold of her neck, and a few grey hairs strewn among the dark brown. Her hand presses her cheek, and you can see its indentation on the flesh. Even the weave of the t-shirt she is wearing and the doona which covers her are true to the scale of the work.1 It is the meticulous detail visible in the human body and the high degree of realism that make viewers gasp with astonishment, but also may leave them wondering, ‘Is this art?’
Ron Mueck, son of a German toymaker, was born in Melbourne in 1958. He is an Australian hyperrealist sculptor now currently living and working in Great Britain. In recent years, he has held solo exhibitions all over the world, and has attracted a great deal of attention in the contemporary art scene.
‘During Mueck’s early career he was as a model maker and puppeteer for children’s television and films, notably the film Labyrinth for which he also contributed the voice of Ludo, and... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
