Community
A shared sense of belonging occurs when people are able to negotiate and appreciate their complex and often messy differences.
6 November 2018
In looking for a contemporary example of community in art, we looked to Vik Muniz’s Pictures of Garbage series and how the monumental portraits he made with and of the garbage pickers of the world’s largest landfill transformed how they thought of themselves. We then borrowed from Muniz’s use of quotidian objects, using ground coffee to create high contrast portraits of the members of our class community.
Trailer for WASTE LAND, a film by Lucy Walker. In theaters in the US October 29th.
Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores" -- self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.
www.wastelandmovie.com
