Monday, October 18, 2010

Brazilian Artists #1 - Vik Muniz

We, who blog, are regularly counseled to keep our posts short.
And also counseled not to put up posts that demand high-speed internet connections, because lots of folks don’t have them.
Today, in the interest of showing you something truly impressive, I’m going to violate both of those dictums.
If you can’t watch streaming video, go no further, because you’re only going to get frustrated.
And, be warned. If you stick with this post to the very end, it’s going to take up about eighteen minutes of your time.
You can, of course, jump ship earlier if you don't find the subject matter as fascinating as I do.

First, a bit of background:
Rede Globo is Brazil’s largest television network, and the largest commercial network in the world outside of the United States. Programming, in prime time, consists mainly of novelas, daily chapters of continuing stories, independently created and produced by the network itself.
These novelas are of such a high production standard that they are regularly overdubbed, or subtitled, and sold to dozens of countries around the world.
The current placeholder in the premier slot (eight PM São Paulo time) is a series entitled Passione. It features some of Brazil’s finest actors and, as is usual with Globo, some opening credits which are particularly striking.
Those credits were created by Vik Muniz, a Brazilian artist currently living and working in the United States.
Look closely at what follows. As the camera zooms in, you’ll note that he has executed the images on a huge scale, working with things like scrap metal, bicycle parts, discarded appliances, and old automobile tires.


In other creations, Vik has employed elements as diverse as sugar, wire, spaghetti, chocolate, dust off a museum floor, thread, earth and smoke.
Vik has been living in the United States for some time now. Here’s a video where he speaks in English and shows some of his work.

Leighton - Monday

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