Mass, A Hauntingly Evocative Installation Featuring 100 Giant Human Skulls Piled on Top of One Another
Australian artist Ron Mueck has created “Mass“, a truly haunting installation of 100 oversized skulls piled one atop another, in a manner very similar to horrific imagery that comes out of genocide and war. This seemingly somber study of mortality was intended to evoke such horror, but to also provide an opportunity to meditate upon the beauty of the human skull. “Mass” is being exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria
Inspired by the complex biological structure of the human skull – which the artist considers beautiful and extraordinary – Ron Mueck’s new work Mass celebrates a form that links us as a species. Mass is also a sombre study of mortality. Comprising 100 individual human skull forms, it calls to mind iconic images of massed remains in the Paris catacombs as well as the documentation of contemporary human atrocities in places such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Srebrenica and Iraq.