100403_113857_0101 Man In A Boat (2002) (Sat 03 Apr 10)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Or perhaps in this case the correct title would be An Improbable Conversation.
Visitor: "Don't you get cold in there?"
Man In Boat: "Well, yeah. But I left my clothes on the shore and they were washed out to sea. Haven't seen them have you? I thought that might have been my shirt up ahead there but now I think it's just a wave..."
(And yes, he is completely naked in there.)
I've mentioned previously that I bought a book about Mueck at the NGV during this exhibition. The problem is that each chapter in it was written by a different person. In my opinion, the chapter on this work is pretentious drivel. It talks about Baudelaire and TS Elliot. It talks about the conceptual nature of metaphors. It points out that "Man In A Boat" is a metaphor for a clitoris. Yes, I got the analogy even though I've never heard it used that way. No, I don't see the relevance. It does not really talk about what Mueck might be saying here.
Mind you, that may be difficult to fathom. Mueck's own assistant Charles Clarke offered an assessment of the work in conjunction with its display at the Triennale Milano in 2022. The problem is that I found most of it to be... how can I put this charitably... "not on point". (The delivery was also awkward, but I think that's just down to the fact that some people aren't comfortable talking in public, and that's fair enough. It did make it hard to listen to, though.) The talk had a few relevant points, like the way that all of the work points forward; the bow, the man's nose, the direction of his gaze. He did also draw attention to the man's neatly combed hair and manicured fingernails, suggesting that this is not a castaway as such.
One other point that he made – and which I've seen some critics make – is about the folded arms. This has been interpreted as being "in a defensive position". Some critics have even mentioned a fearful face.
I don't buy any of that. If someone has their arms folded in front of them defensively, they are usually tense. Their shoulders will be held tightly. Now look at his shoulders. They are loose and comfortable. I don't know about any viewers of this picture, but I know that I often fold my arms in front of me for distinctly non-defensive reasons. Sometimes it is to keep myself warm. (And hey, newsflash... it gets chilly on the water.) Sometimes I do it just to give myself a place to keep my hands out of the way. To me, the relaxation of his shoulders does not at all suggest a man in a defensive pose.
He is, however, exposed and therefore somewhat vulnerable, but he seems to have accepted that.
And I don't agree that his face looks fearful either. To me, that expression is curiosity.
My own impression? This is an earlier version of what would become Drift (2009) in image 0097.
I think Charles Clarke was right to point out the way everything in this work points forward. The man and the boat are clearly headed in that direction. The middle aged man is not in control of this. Somehow life has brought him to his place in this boat. But he has no clothes, no oars. No sail. He is just being borne along by the movement of the boat and all he can do is strain to see what is ahead for him with curiosity (and maybe a little concern) rather than fear.
As I said in the commentary to Drift (2009), by the time a lot of people reach their 50s they are who they are. Rather than driving their lives (to the extent that they were ever able to), they just have to go with where it takes them. Changing careers requires the acquisition of new skills, which requires time and mental space to learn. Neither of which become more abundant as you get older, especially if you have family and mortgage responsibilities. Also, if you start over you will need to put in time as an apprentice / intern or equivalent, making do on low tier wages for many years while you learn your new trade. That assumes that your new job isn't outsourced in the process and that you get past age discrimination in the job marketplace where if you're over 40, you're "too old".
The dreams of youth have typically died by the time people reach the age of our subject. People become vulnerable (hence the metaphor of nakedness); vulnerable to restructuring and outsourcing, vulnerable to health scares, vulnerable to marriage breakdown or the early death of a partner. And so, they necessarily become spectators in their life, seeing where it will carry them just as our guy is doing here. They aren't so much navigating their life as being carried along by it.
There is of course a destination that the boat takes everyone to, and it's one that Mueck has used as a subject more than once. But despite his reduced size (Mueck-speak for departing the world), I don't think that this guy is headed there.
Not yet, anyway.
But hey, I could be wrong.
I mentioned in the album description that there is a new Mueck exhibition coming to the Art Gallery of NSW in December. Hopefully I'll be able to bring some better shots from that one.
100403_113857_0101 Man In A Boat (2002) (Sat 03 Apr 10)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Or perhaps in this case the correct title would be An Improbable Conversation.
Visitor: "Don't you get cold in there?"
Man In Boat: "Well, yeah. But I left my clothes on the shore and they were washed out to sea. Haven't seen them have you? I thought that might have been my shirt up ahead there but now I think it's just a wave..."
(And yes, he is completely naked in there.)
I've mentioned previously that I bought a book about Mueck at the NGV during this exhibition. The problem is that each chapter in it was written by a different person. In my opinion, the chapter on this work is pretentious drivel. It talks about Baudelaire and TS Elliot. It talks about the conceptual nature of metaphors. It points out that "Man In A Boat" is a metaphor for a clitoris. Yes, I got the analogy even though I've never heard it used that way. No, I don't see the relevance. It does not really talk about what Mueck might be saying here.
Mind you, that may be difficult to fathom. Mueck's own assistant Charles Clarke offered an assessment of the work in conjunction with its display at the Triennale Milano in 2022. The problem is that I found most of it to be... how can I put this charitably... "not on point". (The delivery was also awkward, but I think that's just down to the fact that some people aren't comfortable talking in public, and that's fair enough. It did make it hard to listen to, though.) The talk had a few relevant points, like the way that all of the work points forward; the bow, the man's nose, the direction of his gaze. He did also draw attention to the man's neatly combed hair and manicured fingernails, suggesting that this is not a castaway as such.
One other point that he made – and which I've seen some critics make – is about the folded arms. This has been interpreted as being "in a defensive position". Some critics have even mentioned a fearful face.
I don't buy any of that. If someone has their arms folded in front of them defensively, they are usually tense. Their shoulders will be held tightly. Now look at his shoulders. They are loose and comfortable. I don't know about any viewers of this picture, but I know that I often fold my arms in front of me for distinctly non-defensive reasons. Sometimes it is to keep myself warm. (And hey, newsflash... it gets chilly on the water.) Sometimes I do it just to give myself a place to keep my hands out of the way. To me, the relaxation of his shoulders does not at all suggest a man in a defensive pose.
He is, however, exposed and therefore somewhat vulnerable, but he seems to have accepted that.
And I don't agree that his face looks fearful either. To me, that expression is curiosity.
My own impression? This is an earlier version of what would become Drift (2009) in image 0097.
I think Charles Clarke was right to point out the way everything in this work points forward. The man and the boat are clearly headed in that direction. The middle aged man is not in control of this. Somehow life has brought him to his place in this boat. But he has no clothes, no oars. No sail. He is just being borne along by the movement of the boat and all he can do is strain to see what is ahead for him with curiosity (and maybe a little concern) rather than fear.
As I said in the commentary to Drift (2009), by the time a lot of people reach their 50s they are who they are. Rather than driving their lives (to the extent that they were ever able to), they just have to go with where it takes them. Changing careers requires the acquisition of new skills, which requires time and mental space to learn. Neither of which become more abundant as you get older, especially if you have family and mortgage responsibilities. Also, if you start over you will need to put in time as an apprentice / intern or equivalent, making do on low tier wages for many years while you learn your new trade. That assumes that your new job isn't outsourced in the process and that you get past age discrimination in the job marketplace where if you're over 40, you're "too old".
The dreams of youth have typically died by the time people reach the age of our subject. People become vulnerable (hence the metaphor of nakedness); vulnerable to restructuring and outsourcing, vulnerable to health scares, vulnerable to marriage breakdown or the early death of a partner. And so, they necessarily become spectators in their life, seeing where it will carry them just as our guy is doing here. They aren't so much navigating their life as being carried along by it.
There is of course a destination that the boat takes everyone to, and it's one that Mueck has used as a subject more than once. But despite his reduced size (Mueck-speak for departing the world), I don't think that this guy is headed there.
Not yet, anyway.
But hey, I could be wrong.
I mentioned in the album description that there is a new Mueck exhibition coming to the Art Gallery of NSW in December. Hopefully I'll be able to bring some better shots from that one.