The tiny old woman is curled in a foetal position, engulfed in hospital blankets, wisps of grey hair splayed across a pillow. In the soft light, her lips slightly parted, she seems about to breathe her last. Walk around the tiny figure atop her plinth in the Grand Courts at the Art Gallery of NSW, and you would swear her eyes open ever so slightly.
Old woman in bed, a sculpture by Australian-born artist Ron Mueck, inevitably provokes a strong emotional response from viewers moved by her frailty and proximity to death.
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