Class assignment (Vik Muniz wasteland)

The documentary titled “Wastelands” follows artist Vik Muniz on his almost three year journey home to Brazil to visit the world’s largest landfill and draw inspiration from the “Catadores” which is Portuguese for garbage pickers. Initially his goal was to give back to the place he once called home and in doing so he had the chance to meet some amazing people. Throughout the documentary you can see how the daily interactions where sort of a humbling experience for Vic. We got to see how people who we may consider less fortunate take so much pride in what they do day to day. It was wonderful to get to know each person along with the artist because they each had amazing personalities as well as see how such a wonderful encounter has influenced each Catador.  It was in a way a little difficult for me to watch because as the story went on you can see that Vic gave them a peek at a different life and then you realize that these people take pride in what they do because they have no other choice, but given the chance being a catador would be the last thing on their list.When first seeing the documentary I was intrigued by his “sugar babies” portraits and grew really anxious to see how he would make portraits out of garbage possible. 

Marilyn Minter slides

Drizzle- The model in this painting is Wangechi Mutu who is also an artist. This photo was the beginning of many collaborations between the two

Liliputti

Photo 

"Coral bridge towers" 

One of Marilyn's first pieces of work was of her mother 

"Silver Flicker"

Was taken behind a cold wet glass plate

Bruce Nauman @ the MoMA

Bruce Nauman is a contemporary/modern artist whose work span ranges from sculptures to video to large space installations and photography. but what he is most known for are his Neon light installations. It was said that his neon lights pieces were created to invoke a type of emotion to the viewer. Which I myself could relate to. The Bruce Nauman exhibit was my first experience with large space installation art and  I wasn't quite sure of what to make of it at first. It was a little bit difficult for me to connect....I found myself enthralled in one piece of work I believe it was "Make me Think me" (which I have posted below as well) and then suddenly bright lights caught my attention to the left side of the room. Almost like feeling you get when you first turn on the lights on the christmas tree "ooooo's and ahhhh's"😆😆😆

One thing I have noticed in Nauman's work is how he highlights repetition and the mundanities of everyday life. When I look at "100 live and dies" and "Days" posted below which is an audio piece of the days of the week. In "100 live and dies" it shows us that death is inevitable, there are so many twists and turns that a person's life will take but no matter what when it's time to go....we are gone.

For "Days"  I feel like I could have related to this piece of work so much more when I was a working mom and not an actual college student. One thing I have learned about living and working in NYC is that everything is a rat race...it's fast paced...it's unforgiving....and person can easily loose themselves in it. I feel like I'm getting a break in sense because I'm in school now.  But I definitely remember the days on the train when I was just counting down the days of the week to Friday only to wake up all over again on Monday to do it again and again.