Image by: Joyce Takenaka, Flickr Creative Commons
Meet Vik Muniz – a master illusionist with an unlikely toolbox. For those who are unfamiliar, Muniz is a Brazilian-born artist with the most untraditional of art scraps. He paints with wire, sugar, and trash among other overlooked objects. His work is saturated with meaning and room for interpretation. Perhaps the inspiration stems from his cultural heritage. In a TED Talk, Muniz explains that in growing up under a climate of political distress, one learns to communicate in a ‘semiotic black market.’ When directness is not an option, one must invent a way to speak. From looking at much of Muniz’s work, one can observe the identity conflict that rests within many pieces such as Clouds.
Clouds are synonymous with childhood imagination. Muniz explains “the watching of clouds, whether as a method of forecasting or a form of amusement has been going on for centuries: what one person sees as a chariot, another may see as a bear or as a gathering of angels. Visualization comes from within the observer.” Much of his work empowers the viewer, inviting one to play in the invention of meaning. What is interesting about this particular piece is that way in which Muniz scribbled a cloud in the sky with the medium of clouds. Through works like this, he explains that he wants his images “to show people a measure of their own belief.”
Muniz summons the viewer to play detective, to unveil the nuances of his images and divulge meaning. One of his most known works is that titled Sugar Children. In this series, Muniz created portraits of children whose parents were Caribbean plantation owners. The images were photographs of portraits constructed with sugar, meticulous strewn over black paper.
In the award-winning documentary Wasteland, Muniz expresses his goal to be able to change the lives of a group of people with the material that they work with everyday. Wasteland is a story of how Muniz set forth to change the lives of catadores picking garbage in Jardim Gramacho – the biggest landfill in Rio de Janiero. The film documents Muniz’s process in which he transforms materials into ideas both literally and figuratively. Through the mixing of art with social projects, Muniz sets forth to show how art can not only open perspectives but it can also change a person’s life. He explains that in Brazil, social class hierarchy poisons that Brazilian society and often times those at the bottom cease to exist. A garbage picker is a person that no one knows about. Therefore, Muniz decided to create art out of garbage while employing the subjects of his series. He created portraits of pickers by using the trash and waste that Brazilians easily neglect. The final work was photographed and displayed in the modern museum in Rio. Muniz created these portraits to be the ticket to a better future for the pickers. The money from the sales of the portraits was given back to the subjects of each image with the intention of opening the door to opportunity.
What is most beautiful about Vik Muniz’s work lies in the depth of each piece. Vik Muniz disrupts the conventions of art in more ways than one. With the unlikely toolbox of simple materials, the medium carries his message. Not only does his work capture truth in its subject, nor does it simply create a sea of ambiguity for the observer to swim in, to dive deep and extract treasure of meaning…but what is most beautiful about his work is the ability for a single piece to transcend the upper socio-economic tier of the art world, and influence and change the lives of those in the lowest echelons of society.
Written by: Gabriela Colletta @gabolletta
