A friend sent me a series of images depicting the work of Australian sculptor Don Mueck. I have been a fan of his for awhile now--ever since I saw his sculpture of the Pope being crushed by a meteor. What I love about his work is both its hyper-realism, and how he plays with scale. It's more than just "making it large." It is taking something familiar and removing it from it's familiar space. The above sculpture is just a simple representation of a young boy. Nothing very remarkable about that in and of itself--but when seen with the small viewers in the foreground, the scale creates tension and drama. I am pretty determined to spend a fair portion of my summer sculpting. It is something that, in truth, feels more natural to me than drawing. I feel better able to let go of the world around me when I am sculpting--more apt to disengage (in a healthy way) from external stimuli. It's the closest I've ever come to true meditation. Sculpting is, to me, much purer. My illustration work seems, at times, to be weighted down by my insecurities and my self conciousness. I don't have any of that with my sculpting work. I am sure that would change if I were to ever sculpt for a living... Maybe that's a can of worms I am happy to leave closed--for now.
5 comments:
that is freeeeeeeky.
I love this. I must see more!
Great blog, by the way...
FYI, it's Ron Mueck.
Yeah, I need to go back and re-edit this post.
FYI the sculpture of the Pope crushed by a meteorite is by Maurizio Cattelan who's most well known piece is of Hitler having the body of a little boy praying.
His work is less intensely realistic but has far more "content".
Ron's work has popular appeal but lacks any message I think....
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