Blog Post #3 "Male vs Female"

"Big Man", by Ron Mueck, is a representational figurative sculpture, held in the Strange Bodies exhibition, at the Hirshborn Museum and Sculpture Garden. This exceptional resin and fiber glass sculpture, displays an enormous ogre-like naked man sitting in a corner. What first stuck me about this work of art was its lifelike appearance. I was mesmerized by the fact that the man was ironically sitting in a fetal position. Ron Mueck, in "Big Man", makes near exact reference to realistic human form, revealing the “Big Man’s” features and flaws.

John Berger, in “Ways of Seeing”, states, “Women are depicted in a quite different way from men – not because the feminine is different from the masculine – but because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him”. Ron Mueck exemplifies Ron Berger’s concept in, “Big Man”. The sculpture visually strikes the viewer by displaying an imperfect male sculpture opposed to an idealized female sculpture. Mueck went outside the box and stunned people with his remarkable design. The usual naked sculpture or painting would be of a female looking at the viewer. Mueck displays an angry naked man who looks the least bit flattering. Mueck proves Berger’s concept stating that if a naked feminine figure was replaced with a male figure, we will be taken by surprise.