Being a virgin blogger, I wasn't too sure what to write in my first post - profundity isn't really my thing. However, I thought I'd explore some interesting points raised in the seminar following Thursdays lecture. We got chatting aboout Tod Brownings 'Freaks.' I think the thing people find so hard about this number is its brazen sense of reality. It's too real. Its not a work of prosthetic magnificence, it's cold, hard, unfeigned reality. Rumour even has it that the author F Scott Fitzgerald happened to be sharing a canteen with the cast, and upon seeing a pair of siamese twins eating lunch (together) fled the premises to liberate the contents of his stomach. 78 years down the line, people are a little more accustomed to seeing various genetic and physical anomalies, however with sensationalist programme titles like 'Real Wolf Kids' and 'Half Man, Half Tree,' these people are still obviously viewed as 'freaks.' Reality shocks people.


We accept you, one of us! Gobble! Gobble!

It's the same and yet the polar opposite with some of the hyper realist scuplture and wax works one sees knocking about. Real size. Real skin tones. Real hair. Real everything - apart from the fact it's not.......... It's so real, it transforms into something completely and utterly surreal. Ron Mueck has done some truly astounding work with hyperrealistic sculpture.

There's something derangedly creepy about this one in particular. Maybe it's the hairless beligerence.

 Warping the scale of something as familiar as a face takes it to a completely new level. A new town even. The portraits are both beautiful and insanely grizzly, blood, saliva - nothing can hope to escape Mr Mueks attention. You notice pores and hair folicles, compare features in a different way. It really has a remarkable effect jarring with everything you thought a body should be. It's so real, its SURREAL! Oh! The irony. Once upon a time on my quest as a medical student, I had the privallage of taking part in a disection lab. There is nothing more real, and unreal, than being in an enormous formaldehyde scented room filled to the brim with dismembered corpses. It  all seems to be a bit of a viscious circle!