When Duane Hanson's Woman with a laundry basket is displayed at galleries around the world, visitors often mistake her for a real human being, such is her lifelike quality. Fortunately there's no mistaking Ron Mueck's Pregnant woman; while she too is eerily lifelike, right down to that weary look full-term pregnant woman carry so well, it's her sheer size, at 2.4 metres, that's the giveaway.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Both works will form part of the National Gallery of Australia's blockbuster Hyper Real, which opens in Canberra on October 20.
NGA director Gerard Vaughan said Pregnant woman caused "quite a sensation" when she was acquired by the NGA in 2003 for $817,000.
"She's a feature in so many textbooks about where contemporary art sits today," Dr Vaughan said.
"The female nude is one of the staples of art practice from the beginning of time yet the idea of a pregnant female nude is something that everyone has found fascinating and challenging."
And Hyper Real looks set to be an exhibition that does the same. Yes, there's a fair bit of nudity - keep an eye out for Paul McCarthy's That Girl (TG Awake), an installation of three life-size, nude female figures, similarly posed with legs outstretched. But Hyper Real is so much more than that.
The NGA's senior curator of global contemporary art practice Jaklyn Babington says Hyper Real will play with our perceptions of what is real and what is artificial, what is natural and what is virtual.
"Essentially it's an exhibition about bodies of all kinds," Ms Babington said.
"Of hyperrealistic bodies, from the nude rendered in the extreme detail, to avatars that are crafted from digital code.
"We even have a sculpture that is crafted from the artist's own blood, with Marc Quinn's Self."
Nearly 50 works from 32 artists will feature in Hyper Real, charting the evolution of hyperrealism since the early 1970s. Hanson's Woman with a laundry basket (1974) is the earliest piece in the exhibition but is still an iconic representation of the genre.
But Ms Babington said hyperrealism has recently expanded beyond the illusion of ultra-realistic skin.
"Today we can also think of digital simulations, our online existence, and the enhanced vision of virtual reality as additional types of hyperrealism," she said.
"Hyper Real presents the figurative scope of this illusive, shape-shifting genre, from sculpture to the digital."
She made note of Australian artist Shaun Gladwell's Orbital vanitas, which uses virtual reality technology to take the viewer through deep space inside an enormous floating human skull.
She also expected Patricia Piccinini's uncanny yet inviting fantasy blends of human and animal attributes to be popular with gallery goers. Piccinini is the artist responsible for Skywhale.
"We've worked closely with Patricia to create an absolutely stunning installation, set up in a mirrored room where the audience is placed right up close to one of Patricia's fantastic creatures," she said.
"The effect is going to be like standing in a field of infinite replication."
The exhibition is a collaboration between the NGA and curator Otto Letze of the Institute for Cultural Exchange, Germany.
Hyper Real opens 20 October 2017 until 18 February 2018. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketek.
