Ron Mueck

Ronald "Ron" Mueck (born 1958) is an Australian hyperrealist sculptor working in the United Kingdom.

Early work

Ron Mueck began his career working on the Australian children's television program Shirl's Neighbourhood. He was the creative director and made, voiced and operated the puppets Greenfinger the Garden Gnome, Ol' Possum, Stanley the snake and Claude the Crow amongst many others. The show was made for Channel 7 Melbourne between 1979 and 1984, broadcast nationally and starred the ex-lead singer ofSkyhooks, Graeme "Shirley" Strachan.

Mueck's early career was as a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films, notably the film Labyrinth for which he also contributed the voice of Ludo, and the Jim Henson series The Storyteller.

Mueck moved on to establish his own company in London, making photo-realistic props and animatronics for the advertising industry. Although highly detailed, these props were usually designed to be photographed from one specific angle hiding the mess of construction seen from the other side. Mueck increasingly wanted to produce realistic sculptures which looked perfect from all angles.

Sculptor

In 1996 Mueck transitioned to fine art, collaborating with his mother-in-law, Paula Rego, to produce small figures as part of a tableau she was showing at the Hayward Gallery. Rego introduced him to Charles Saatchi who was immediately impressed and started to collect and commission work. This led to the piece which made Mueck's name, Dead Dad, being included in the Sensation show at the Royal Academythe following year. Dead Dad is a silicone and mixed media sculpture of the corpse of Mueck's father reduced to about two thirds of its natural scale. It is the only work of Mueck's that uses his own hair for the finished product.

Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images. His five metre high sculpture Boy 1999 was a feature in the Millennium Dome and later exhibited in the Venice Biennale.

In 1999 Mueck was appointed as Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London. During this two-year post he created the works Mother and Child, Pregnant Woman, Man in a Boat, and Swaddled Baby.[1]

In 2002 his sculpturePregnant Womanwas purchased by the National Gallery of Australia for A$800,000.

Marostica Scacchi

The story of the Chess Game dates back to 1454 when Marostica belonged to the Venetian Republic.

It happened that two noblemen, Rinaldo D'Angarano and Vieri da Vallonara, fell in love with the beautiful Lionora, daughter of Taddeo Parisio, who was the Lord of the Marostica's castle. As was the custom in that time, they challenged each other to a cruel duel to win the hand of Lionora.

The Lord, not wanting to make an enemy of either suitors or loose them in a duel, forbade the encounter in conformity with Cangrande della Scala's Edict. He decided the two rivals should play a chess game: Lionora would take the winner as her husband and the loser would in any case join his family, marrying Oldrada, the younger sister.

The game should take place on the square in front of the Lower Castle on a feast-day with armed living persons carrying the noble ensigns of Whites and Blacks, in the presence of the Lord, his noble daughter, the Lords of Angarano and Vallonara, the noble court and the entire population.
He also decided the challenge should be honoured by an performance of armed men, fool-soldiers and knights, with fireworks and dances and sounds.

So the armed men entered the field: archers and halberdiers, fool-soldiers and knights, then the Lord and his noble court with an anxious Lionora, who is secretly in love with one of the two rivals, her faithful nurse, noblemen and their ladies, the herold, the master of arms, falconers, pageboys, maidens, standard holders, musicians, farmers and their wives; the Whites and the Blacks with their kings and queens, rooks and knights, bishops and pawns and the two suitors who decide the moves. Then tribulation for the victory, fireworks and music according to the Lord's orders.

This event is repeated today just like the first time, in a framework of sumptuous costumes, multi-colour banners, martial parades, exquisite elegance.

A note of unique courtesy pervades everything; it inspires the whole re-evocation of this ancient story which, from the darkness of remote times, still live today as a miracle of fantasy.

The orders are still given to characters and cast today in the "Serenissima Republic of Venezia" dialect.

The show, with over 550 characters, last about 2 hours.

http://www.marosticascacchi.it