Ron Mueck

Ok .... so we were talking about installation art ... and I crapped on about how I don't really get it .. I know you're meant to extrapolate some kind of social/political and/or emotive response from looking at someone's council flat bed ... or a pile of seemingly random rubbish ... but aesthetically how does one appreciate the modern detritus of a consumerist society .... these things permeate our lives on so many levels ... and isn't art supposed to provide some kind of escape .. or am I being a little naive??


I mean I personally take abstract art over paintings of scenery or tableaus or still life ... and some people who prefer the latter can't seem to get a single line of colour slashed across a matt black canvas ... but I do ... so really shouldn't I be championing installation art as well??

Now what has all this got to do with Ron Mueck?? Maybe nothing ... or maybe everything ... but his work is to me more installation than sculpture, or perhaps a combination of both ... so how do I approach this as a spectator .... I have yet to see his work in the "flesh", and I have emailed the NGV requesting that they organise an exhibtion forthwith!! ... I imagine that the each sculpture, particularly the larger ones, will take my breath away ... and then maybe creep me out a little ... but I'm sure I would have more of a reaction and response to them in comparison to plastination ... which is a cheap thrill in itself ... but nothing more.
 
So fingers crossed peops ... otherwise you can see his pregnant lady in the NMA in Canberra ... Oh and he started off in the movies ... he did all the animatronics in the Labyrinth ... and he's aussie ... so 2 big ticks so far ...