Finally…The Weekend

You’d think that would be a chance to relax, but it’s not.  I have a project to hand in on Monday, another on Tuesday, and another on Friday.  Each project has to be at least 10 pages from my sketchbook.  My Coast project is due on Monday.  Thankfully I have 16 pages.  I haven’t finished them.  There is still a bit of painting to be done, but the groundwork has been done at least.  I’ll work on it tomorrow and finish it off, so I can work on the My Space project, which is due on Tuesday.  That gives me a day and half to complete that one.  Tonight, I’m taking it easy.

I had a half day at college today, so I took the opportunity to go to the art gallery.  We are very lucky to have the Ron Mueck exhibition here in Aberdeen until the end of October.  I first saw his work several months ago on Flickr, and I was blown away by it.  He used to work for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, but transferred over to human sculpture.  This isn’t sculpture in the traditional sense.  It’s extremely realistic sculpture – cradle to the grave sculpture.  What amazes me is the detail, right down to the follicles and tiny lines on human flesh that are only perceptible by very close examination.  The first piece was a huge mask.

The detail was stunning right down to the stubble on the face. The next piece was probably what most people would say is the most freaky: Baby.

I loved this piece.  It’s supposed to be a newborn baby with the umbilical cord still attached, and covered in afterbirth.  The eye was so real, and my favourite part was the hands.  They were perfect, with beautiful little fingernails.  I use little relatively here.  If you looked up the nose, you could actually see nose hair.  This was accompanied by a time-lapse video showing the making of this sculpture.  It was simply amazing seeing the whole process.

I walked into the next room, and the most beautiful image was presented to me.  It was that of a couple cuddled up close together in bed, semi-naked.  Absolutely everything was perfect.  There was such a peacefulness to this.  What was truly stunning about this was that they were about the size of a quite small newborn baby.  This was without a doubt my favourite piece in the show.

There were several other pieces including a huge naked man sitting on a chair, and I mean huge.  He almost touched the ceiling of the gallery room, but again, the level of detail was breathtaking.

What I truly loved about this exhibition, was that the scale of each sculpture was completely blown up or down, outwith our expectations.  I think it’s designed to provoke the reaction of eeriness, as it goes completely against what we expect to see.  I think this has a very disconcerting effect on many people.  You could see that just from the reactions of the viewing public.  Most people were completely creeped out by the baby.  My friend Catherine and I were just amazed by what we saw and spent ages pouring over the tiniest details.

Ron Mueck will be giving a talk on the last day of the exhibition, and our tutor is arranging for us to go hear him.  I think this will prove fascinating, just to hear his thought processes.  I urge anyone to go see this exhibition the next time it is in your area, or if you are visiting an area where it will be on display.  You will not be disappointed.