Short essay on garbage collector

ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION:
The Prebles’ ArtForms textbook portrays most PostModern and Global art as a departure from the
Modernist approach to breaking rules or rejecting tradition. Today, a new generation of artists prefer to
“comment on life, rather than focusing on perfecting form, creating beauty, or fine-tuning their sense of
sight. They want to create relationships between what we see and how we think”. (ArtForms pg. 462)
The topic for this assignment is to examine the work of the Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz, and his series
“Pictures of Garbage.” The question of “how a marginalized community discovered dignity” through
collaboration and creating art is presented in the film titled “Wasteland.” By breaking down social
biases, Muniz used garbage and the community that sprang up around it to create a noble image of a
garbage collector. Muniz wanted to use a person’s everyday materials to make imagery and “change
their life.” As a human being, what does dignity mean to you? How does Vik Muniz bring value to the
lives of the outcasts in the community? In your opinion, can art address some of the major issues facing
people today, such as war, poverty, prejudice, and other traumas?
Please refer to the video links for “Wasteland” and then compose a response to the essay questions.
WASTELAND clip on “Art and Transformation”
WASTELAND clip on “Pictures of Garbage”
https://www.pbs.org/video/independent-lens-pictures-grabage-wasteland-classroom-module/(
WASTELAND clip on “Human Dignity”
https://www.pbs.org/video/independent-lens-human-d...
WASTELAND (website for research)
http://www.wastelandmovie.com/vik-muniz.html
WASTESLAND (full documentary)
Unfortunately this link no longer is available; optional but not required it to rent the
movie on Amazon