McClelland Gallery

Ron Mueck created his ‘Wild Man’ sculpture in 2005 and sold it in 2008. I don’t really go to sculpture exhibitions so it was good to see something different. The sculpture ‘Wild Man’ was pretty amazing considering the size and detail of it. I was surprised as how realistic it looked. Everything from the skin tones, hair, expressions to the veins looked perfect. You could even see and imagine the pressure being put on the feet and hands. When you looked at the face of the sculpture, you could see the scared, uneasy look as if we had just walked in on him and he was embarrassed. The size of this piece is obviously what grabs your attention first. I wasn’t expecting the sculpture to be so large and obviously this portrays a strong presence in the room creating the awkward feeling even more. I think that is why Mueck created it so big. Not only to show off the amazing detail but to engage us as viewers in the scene and experience. One thing I appreciate the most about this piece is the amazing amount of work that Mueck has put in. It would’ve taken forever to create something like this with this amount of detail. I personally know I would be able to work this long on something as I would get so frustrated and over it.

I really enjoyed looking at all of the sculptures around the gardens. They were all so unusual and abstract. I didn’t really understand the meaning behind them but thought they looked great and interesting too. I liked the ones made of fake grass as they reminded me of Edward Scissorhands, and the one with all of the rocks hanging from wire to create a pattern. The one with the rocks would have been difficult to construct because all of the wires would have to line up correct. Some of the sculptures like the red sticks layed out on the ground and the cage type one I didn’t like and thought they were a bit pointless. Personally I don’t see how laying red painted sticks on the ground in a pattern is very remarkable.

I really enjoyed this exhibition especially looking at all of the sculptures in the gardens. Some of them were really interesting and it gave me a new appreciation of sculpture.