Ron Mueck's hyperrealist sculptures evoke fear, compassion

Australian artist Ron Mueck’s handmade sculptures of humans are stunningly realistic. One features a mother carrying her baby in a sling almost completely hidden by her large overcoat as she carries bags of groceries -- a scene you might encounter on any street. The artist titled the sculpture “Woman with Shopping.”

Mueck’s first major exhibition in South Korea opened Friday at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, where 24 of the artist’s selected sculptures and documentary films are on display.

At the entrance to the exhibition lies the artist’s self-portrait sculpture “Mask II” -- an oversized face lying sideways with the eyes closed and the mouth slightly open as though the figure is asleep.

Not until the figure is seen from behind does it become clear that the face is a mask -- its head hollow and empty. The discovery leaves viewers baffled, forcing them to think about the presence that they had been so sure of when seen from the front.

“(His art) is not to explain something, to preach something, or to speak to the audiences from a position of greater knowledge or authority. I think the work is an attempt to just allow a space for the viewers to contemplate for themselves,” said Charlie Clarke, an associate curator of the exhibition and director of the artist’s studio, at the press tour on April 10.

“They don’t look happy or sad or in any particular state, and I think that is because Ron is not trying to depict something very specific,” he added.

Mueck's sculptures can be minute or monumental. He is known to have created only 48 works in his three-decade artistic career, sticking to the time-intensive, traditional sculptural process of clay molding and casting in silicone.

His works are known to explore themes of humanity, death, vulnerability and birth, and evoke a variety of emotions through the delicate facial expressions and gestures of his subjects, which amount to psychological portraits.

“Although I spend a lot of time on the surface, it is the life inside I want to capture,” the artist once said of his work.

The monumental installation “Mass” comprises one hundred giant human skulls. The title itself can refer either to a heap or pile of something, a crowd of people or a religious ceremony. The installation, created in 2018, is the artist’s pivotal work, showing his desire to embrace new ways of art in his style, according to the museum.

“Even if somehow it has a link with what we did before, it is a unique exhibition in the sense that you are going to see that ‘Mass’ installation ... has a very direct and very strong relationship with the venue it hosts,” said Chiara Agradi, associate curator of the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art. The foundation has maintained a long relationship with the artist, supporting his solo exhibitions since 2005.

The exhibition “Ron Mueck” runs through July 13 at MMCA Seoul.