Anyone into Fauxtography ?

[__3xL]

Ron Mueck is a London-based photo-realist artist. Born in Melbourne , Australia , to parents who were toy makers, he labored on children's television shows for 15 years before working in special effects for such films as Labyrinth, a 1986 fantasy epic starring David Bowie.

Mueck then started his own company in London, making models to be photographed for advertisements. He has lots of the dolls he made during his advertising years stored in his home. Although some still have a presence on their own. Many were made just to be photographed from a particular angle -one strip of a face, for example, with a lot of loose material lurking an inch outside the camera's frame.

Eventually Mueck concluded that photography pretty much destroys the physical presence of the original object, and so he turned to fine art and sculpture.

In the early 1990's, still in his advertising days, Mueck was commissioned to make something highly realistic, and was wondering what material would do the trick. Latex was the usual, but he wanted something harder, more precise. Luckily, he saw a little architectural decor on the wall of a boutique and inquired as to the nice, pink stuff's nature. Fiberglass resin was the answer, and Mueck has made it his bronze and marble ever since.

The attention to detail and sheer technical brilliance of his figures are incredible, but it is Mueck's use of scale that takes your breath away..

Ron Mueck's work became world-famous when a poignant sculpture of his dead fathers small, naked body caused shock waves in the Royal Academy'SSensation exhibition in 1997.

His work is lifelike but not life size, and being face to face with the tiny, gossiping Two Women (2005) or the monumental woman In Bed (2005) is an unforgettable experience

Mueck's huge 4.5m crouching Boy was the centerpiece of the Millennium Dome in London and of the Venice Biennale in 2001. The artist's work is becoming ever more intriguing, ranging from smaller-than-life size naked figures to much larger, but never actual, life size.

Consequently his hyper-realistic sculptures in fiberglass and silicone, while extraordinarily lifelike, challenge us by their odd scale. The psychological confrontation for the viewer is to recognize and assimilate two contradictory realities.

View the entire thread and all the art here please

[romeoso]

creepy.. and amazing. the newborn baby one freaks me out the most, though.

[Lucas0607]

Yeah, I remember seeing ads of his work up in (I think) brooklyn museum in the subway- didn't get to go though. I like his work and yes, it's quite successful, because it evokes emotion : when my sister saw the picture she told me exactly what you guys are saying "creepy".

[Charlie Delta]

Saw his show a couple of years back, was absolutely amazed while I walked through it, that lasted for about a day and a half but while I kept thinking about it, I figured it was too much of a "trick", I couldn't get to the thing behind it.

It visually is amazing, you have to look a couple of times before you see what's going on.

But in the end, he is a supergood specialeffects guy turned artist.

It's not about what you are, it's about what you present yourself to be.

my 2 cents...

[__3xL]

The newborn is quite creepy . I was trying to figure out if he had a hard on or that was his cord .

[GeriZZald]

simply amazing.

[jimmyc]

Saw this piece at the DMA earlier this summer.

Simply stunning.