Sugar Children

In 1996, Vik Muniz travelled to a Brazilian sugar plantation in St. Kitt's, where he photographed the children of the labor workers. He recreated the portraits of the children with sugar from the plantation and black pepper. He titled each portrait with an adjective or fact of each child that he learned as he spent time with them.

Valentine, The Fastest. From "The Sugar Children Series." 1996.
Gelatin-silver print. 20 x 16". Courtesy Wooster Gardens, New York.

(http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1997/newphoto13/muniz.html)

Valicia Bathes in Sunday Clothes, from the series Sugar Children

(http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=36333)

"Big James Sweats Buckets" from the series "Sugar Children"

(http://www.6thousandmiles.com/2011/07/waste-land/)

Clown Skull

"Clown Skull" (1989) Plastic, "Relics" Series

(http://www.artnet.com/usernet/awc/awc_workdetail.asp?aid=424520152&gid=424520152&cid=109721&wid=424748235)

Clouds

Another one of Vik's famous photographs is "Clouds." Here, a crop-duster sky-writes a cloud in the sky, which almost seems cartoon-like. Muniz uses the New York City Skyline as his backdrop, and the cloud can be seen from Wallstreet to Harlem.

He is able to reach a vast audience stretching for street to street simultaneously. Thousands are able to look at the sky and view the work.

(http://pulpfactor.com/uncategorized/2112/skywriting/)

Waste Land

(http://lightbox.time.com/2011/03/22/portraits-with-purpose-vik-muniz-in-waste-land/#1)

 One of Vik Muniz's greatest accomplishments is his "Pictures of Garbage series" and his documentary of the process, "Wasteland," which was directed by Lucy Walker.

The documentary was filmed in the largest landfill in the world in Jardim Gramacho in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro over a three year period. It follows the daily lives of the catadores, a term that refers to the pickers of recyclable materials, as they work day and night in the landfill as a means to survive.

In the documentary, Muniz photographs the pickers to recreate some famous works of other artists, then recreates that image on a much larger scale entirely of garbage.

The lives of the pickers involved in the project changed forever upon the completion of the project. They experienced art for the first time, and had a chance to actually be a subject of an artwork. And for Muniz, a deeper understanding for the garbage pickers community was gained.

Waste Land has won many awards and has been nominated numerous times.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/arts/design/24muniz.html)

Peter Paul Rubens; "A Child's Head"

("Head of a Child" c. 1616, oil on canvas.)

Peter Paul Rubens

(http://www.nndb.com/people/895/000031802/)

Peter Paul Rubens, born 1557, was a Flemish artist who first came to Rome, Italy at the age of twenty-three. Here, he studied many great artworks of artists during and before his time, and also studied in Genoa and Mantua. Rubens was considered a non-conformists for he chose to not join any major artist movements or groups during his time. But like most Flemish artists, he expressed his abilities through the emphasis of textures in his paintings, and stayed as true to nature as possible. In fact, he executed the brushwork techniques to such true-to-material textures so masterfully, that he had no known rival north of the Alps. Flemish artists are known for painting in small-scale, mainly for the decoration of one's home or personal use, but Peter Paul Rubens introduced the large-scale paintings from Rome. Peter Paul Rubens was admired for his ability to bring a sense of life to the subjects that he painted, which can be seen in his painting, "Head of a Child" which is most likely his daughter, Clara Serena. The portrait itself is very simplistic; there is nothing elaborate or flamboyant. It is just an ordinary, mundane portrait of a little girl. However, through the mundane portrait, his skilled brush strokes are prominent, for the portrait seems to "breathe of life." The hints of light on the face and the lips, and form of the hair and the face depicts that.

(http://www.arlindo-correia.com/100404.html)

Vik Muniz on TED Talk!

View His Ted Talk here!

Sweet, sweet sugar

Ever wondered where those sweet tiny crystals you put in your coffee or tea come from? It turns out that civilizations have been using them as far back as 8000 B.C. in New Guinea. The people of New Guinea were the first to domesticate sugar.

Sugar originated from south Asia and southeast Asia. Early sugar crystalizing methods were introduced to China through the traveling monks. Early processing techniques involved grinding and pounding the sugar cane until the juices were extracted. The juices were then boiled down until they were caramelized, then alter dried in the sun, resulting in gravel-like crystals. The Chinese were the first to establish a sugar industry in the 7th century. Eventually, cultivation lead to Indochina, India, the Middle East, and Europe. By the 1790's, sugar prices soared so high in Great Britain, that they had to call in the East India Company to help alleviate the prices.

It wasn't until the 18th century that sugar production was mechanized. During 1768, Jamaica ran the first steam engine powered sugar mill.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sugar)

(Magnification of sugar crystals)

(Brown Sugar)