Artist Response 7: Vik Muniz continued

"The Castle At Bentheim, After Jacob Van Roysdael"

 "Individuals"    

                                                                "Marinara Medusa"  

                  Muniz focuses primarily on medium in the above pieces.  "The Castle at Bentheim" is made of sixty thousand feet of sewing string, "Individuals" is made of chocolate syrup, and "Marinara Medusa" of actual spaghetti.   These real-life mediums are a symbol to everyday life, as the materials are all household items.  In his review of Muniz' work in Masters of Deception, Al Seckel details how Muniz attempts to create visually provocative artwork through use of a wide range of mediums.   He uses the fact that humans tend to draw quick conclusions about what they see to his advantage, often using images that already exist, but changing them in a way that changes the way people think about them.  According to Muniz, changing the way people think is one of the primary goals of his artwork, but he claims to go about it a little differently than Seckel says.  He uses the layers and non-traditional materials to make it more difficult for the viewer to understand the piece.  This way, they engage the piece in a more in depth level, and are led to analyse it deeper than they would other artwork.  The thousands of feet of sewing thread used in "The Castle at Bentheim" entirely alters the way the image is viewed.  The thread makes the image seem as if it is all interconnected and flowing together.  It is far more provocative and leads to a wider range of connections and conclusions by the viewer than a traditional photograph or painting would.

Artist Response 6: Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz uses non-traditional materials in order to create astounding works of art.  His choice of materials often reflects a double-meaning he instills in his work.  His art often presents the viewer with a familiar image at first glance, however when they are looked at more closely, they are incredibly intricate images.  The piece on top, titled "Toy Soldier," is a collage of a civil war soldier, formed by fallen toy soldiers.  It is an incredibly thought provoking piece in many ways.  Two major ideas I pulled  from this piece are that war is treated as a game.  Through pop culture, video games, movies, etc. war is seen as a game, as the real-life tragedies it causes fall by the wayside.  Also, I felt that "Toy Soldier" described the way which people have become numb to the death tolls and casualties in war.  Anyone who watches the news knows that there are daily killings and horrific tragedies caused by war across the world.  Hearing about these events so frequently, however, it is easy to see them as simple statistical numbers (represented by the toy soldiers), and to forget the real humans that are devastated. The piece in the bottom right is titled "Le Songeur, After Corot."  Like his other pieces, the material Muniz chose makes it spectacular, as it is made of forty-eight thousand feet of sewing thread.  The above image doesn't really do the original justice, I found a much better copy in a library book.  The detail that Muniz is able to achieve with so thin a material is incredible.