Photo by Vik Muniz
Katy and I just watched the documentary Wasteland. It's about a contemporary artist named Vik Muniz who is famous for recreating famous paintings out of unusual materials. He might use green army men or chocolate syrup to get his values and then photograph the installation from above.
The documentary follows Muniz as he engages in a new series of work. He travels back to Brazil and goes to the largest landfill in the world. At this landfill people called "pickers" search through piles of refuse for recyclable materials which they collect in barrels that they drag behind them. These are the honorable poor- those with no better employment who are unwilling to enter into a life of prostitution or drug trafficking.
The artist gets to know a few of these pickers. It was eye opening to see their lives and the pride they take in work many would consider lowly. Eventually he orchestrates the creation of huge portraits of the pickers themselves (see above). The pickers place their recyclable materials in patterns on the floor of a warehouse to create the images. Muniz photographs them with a large format camera from above.
In the end he is able to sell the work around the world and give some $250,000 back to the pickers. Contemporary art is often about much more than pigments smeared on canvas. Art addresses social issues, confronts problems, educates viewers and changes individual's worlds.
I was very interested in the discussion he had in the film with his wife. She wondered if he was hurting the pickers because they would have a taste of a better life and then have to go back. Some of them seemed to be in denial about their work and his wife worried that this outside glimpse would shatter them emotionally.
ReplyDeleteVik argued that he wasn't promising them a different life, he was offering them a rare opportunity that would last for a short time and they could choose to accept or not. He also said that these were people who had already been hurt so deeply that his bit of kindness couldn't possibly do worse. (She said that people are fragile.)
In the end, the video showed a positive effect on the pickers involved with his project.