Vik Munniz Analysis

Lucy Walker, director of the film Waste Land, opens up the narrow views of those who live in first world countries to the harsh realities of poverty by traveling to the most extensive landfill in Brazil called Jardim Gramacho. Released in 2010, the viewers follow renowned artist Vik Muniz to his hometown where the Catadores pick through trash to retrieve recyclables for a living. Walker`s purpose of exposing the picker's seemingly undignified work and showing the real power of art is fulfilled using an informative, inspiring, and heartbreaking tone, targeting those who take their economic standing for granted or believe they cannot make a difference using their talents and abilities. Through the use of interviews and camera shots, the film

The documentary “Waste Land” is about Vik Muniz, an artist known for his series of amazing and creative images made from sugar, chocolate syrup, pigment, dirt and peanut butter. He started using different materials from garbage for his art and through his art he tried to help the pickers of the largest landfills near Rio de Genaro. In this analysis I also implement French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s view about the society and culture. Jacques Lacan criticized the society and culture because of the lack of sensitivity and creativity in its culture and ideology that continue to be same since many years.

Vik Muniz is a Brooklyn-based artist who makes art from any items found in trash. The documentary film Wasteland delved into the souls and exposed the lives of several Brazilians who worked as “catadores” or pickers of recyclable items in Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. It was the biggest landfill in the world until was closed in 2012. Vik Muniz traveled to the landfill, met various individuals and involved them in the process of creating portraits which would then go on display.

Vik Muniz utilizes many materials and means to create art. In Waste Land, he focused on trash as a mean to create art.

Some of the garbage brought down was turned into art. 1.5 tons of it into 74 pieces of artwork. 15 artists worked hard ,it was a project to show awareness of the pollution on Everest. The art reflects on the experience of the climbers. They decided to sell it, cost ranging from 17 to 2400 dollars. They held their first art show in november 2012. Many interested buyers came and 19 pieces were sold. Most of the garbage being left on Everest is coming down to be part of art.

I am so glad to have had a chance to research such brilliant artists who have taken recycled artforms to a level so acceptable and easy to recreate for mainstream art

The way that Wasarz framed this panel was that she put a border on the whole left side, and the top is a half circle, because she needed that space for writing a description. For half of the right side she put a border, but for the other half and the bottom she left out the border, because the bottom is mainly people’s feet, legs, and luggage, and the lower right is a woman with a visible full body. The framing and panel shape has two meanings, first, the half circle on top can be viewed as a gateway into Auschwitz, but also it is an allusion to a gravestone, because they would most likely die in Auschwitz. This also appears in the actual book Maus by Art Spiegelman. On page 32, as the train is going to the sanitarium, the train is drawn crossing a multi arch bridge, but the arches also have the allusion of being many gravestone heards in a graveyard.

Patrick Doherty and Theo Jansen are a distinct group of artists in North Carolina. Patrick Doherty uses sticks and Theo Jansen uses PVC pipes. Patrick Doherty uses materials that we portray them to be, in my words, yard trash. He takes them and creates wonderful sculptures with the sticks he collects that give people with an awe-inspiring feeling. He enlists help from the community to help him create his works of art for all to see. He wanted to make art that is an “interplay between what you see and what it makes you feel, and how you react to it.” Doherty chooses sites for the art that are provocative and gives it the element of surprise. Theo Jansen uses PVC in ways that mix art with engineering. He designs ambulatory sculptures that are

The movie wasteland was good and interesting. I thought it was interesting how he used things that was found in the garbage to create so many great portraits of these garbage pickers. Wile watching the film that took placed in Brazil I think more in Rio it was interesting to see the aount of trash in a landfill. It made me think about how our environment is being affect and how some individuals health might be affect about this amount of garbage. The individuals that he showed in the film have to make a living off of picking up recycleable resources for the garbage landfill. The notion that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” was what this film seemed to be focus around. The material that came for the garbage help to turn something

Vik Muniz had traveled from his Brooklyn, New York art studio to take on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a whole, while revisiting his roots. Muniz will be visiting the Jardim, Gramacho, which is known to be the biggest landfill in the entire world. The Jardim, Gramacho is also known as the Gramacho Gardens, portraying trash as something a little bit more than it actually is. The landfill receives over two hundred tons of recyclable material each and every day, but if it wasn’t for the catadores they would not be up and running. The catadores are Brazilian garbage pickers who make all the magic happen behind the camera. Muniz wanted to open a

The reworking and regeneration of already existing cultural works through the processes of borrowing, stealing, recycling, appropriating and collaging has become a dominant creative strategy in contemporary art and design, particularly fortified by Postmodernity. Martino Gamper, sister duo Soda_Jerk and Glenn Brown are significant artists in this ‘remix culture’ that redefine the way the world is perceived through the reproduction and recyclability of their works and the works of others.

This semester I attended the Washed Ashore Sculpture Exhibit. It is located on the campus of Iowa State University in the Reiman Gardens. This event is related to Humanities because exhibit houses many art sculptures made of trash. The trash is plastics and other house hold items that have washed ashore in Oregon and Northern California. The purpose of the exhibit is to raise awareness to the damages of plastic to the environment, what plastic can do to animals and ecosystems, demonstrate how nonbiodegradable plastic is, and how much plastic there is in the ocean.

"We're victims of our own success. Money doesn't help creativity. We try to live modestly and don't have any assistants," expresses Tim Noble. Both British artists, Tim Noble and Sue Webster are popular, familiar artists. Noble and Webster are recognized for their distinctive art called silhouette or shadow art. Their punk and style moves are more than artistic. They not only create these efficient shadows, but use sustainable art. Meaning that they use a variety of recycled materials, that otherwise would be wasted. These artists use recycled trash like metal, broken tools, discarded wood, as well as gold jewelry and animals. Try donating one of your broken jewelry pieces to them and see it be molded in their next

Andrew Handley made an article, “10 Ways Recycling Hurts the Environment”, where he states, “People talk about recycling like it’s some sort of superhero—just by throwing that plastic

Trash is not something we think about every day, but managing waste has long-term environmental and economic consequences that can’t be ignored. Since 1960, the amount of waste generated in America has nearly tripled. Our society, including consumers, corporations and governments, must think proactively about reducing our impact on the environment. Although recycling has been embraced by much of the American population, many changes need to be made in the near future to keep up with the increased population which, in turn, creates more garbage and trash. Americans should continue to recycle, but should also make better choices about the products they buy, the packaging involved, and the mode of disposal. Many artists have utilized