Jordan Overturf

31 November, 2015
Instructor: Craig
When making art and turning it to something big or famous, it does not start
from something big and just become bigger. Art starts in small places and then as it
gets more appreciated, these small places share with others to grow the notice of
that said art piece, turning it into a bigger piece. In order for this to work though,
the first step is to satisfy the smaller community where the art is produced and/or
presented. The artist can technically make anything he/she feels like making, but if
the people around that area cant understand or relate to the message behind the
image, then what chance do they have in the big city? So what does the artist have
to do in order to please them? What is the responsibility of the art, and the artist, to
the community or culture that makes that art possible?
In order to see effective results of this question, this report focuses on an
artist best known for his unusual visual art. Vik Muniz, a Brazilian born in Sao Paulo
in 1961, had a slow start into the art works at a young age. His grandmother taught
him to read complete words but not syllables or letters, meaning he had troubles
with the writing while in school, but this is also when drawing came into his life. As a
young man, he attended art school for a couple of years in Brazil and worked in
advertisement, redesigning billboards for higher readability. Then he moved to the
United States in 1983 speaking very little English. While going to his first gala, he
witnessed a street fight going on and attempted to stop it, which resulted in him
getting shot in the leg. The shooter paid Muniz to not press charges. Vik used this
money to go to New York and rented a studio for his sculpting. It was there that he
experimented with drawing and photography, eventually combining them when
making the series Sugar Children, pictures of families working sugar plantations on
the Caribbean Island of St. Pitts. This was the start of his unusual methods of
creating art. Vik recreates famous imagery from art history and pop culture with
unexpected everyday objects and photographs them. He drew the Sugar Children
images by sprinkling sugar on black paper and photographed the compositions a
second time. In the past, Vik has used dirt, diamond, chocolate syrup and other
forms of garbage bold and deceiving images from the pages of art history and
photojournalism.
Perhaps it was because of his art form that he was drawn to Jardim, or for
some other reason, but his next project would not only be attended by many, but
possibly give inspiration and a voice to many more. Jardim Gramacho, the worlds
largest garbage dump, receives 7,000 tons of garbage daily and was here that the
film Wasteland took place. In 1995, Rios sanitation department rehabilitated the
landfill and created the job of the catador, removing 200 tons of recyclable
materials every day. These catadors have the highest recycling rates in the world by
removing materials that would have continue to be buried in the heap on garbage,
contributing these materials to the landfill. The catadores have also formed an
organization called ACAMJG, the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jargdim
Gramacho, who lead the way for community development. Besides the constructing
of many things like a recycling center, a 24-hour medical clinic, a decentralized
system of recycling collection and etc., they have made recognition of their
catadores, enabling them to be contracted of their services.

Jordan Overturf
31 November, 2015
Instructor: Craig
For his next project, Vik traveled to Jardim Gramacho to observe the area and
learn about the catador community while also finding out who to take in for his
project. As he was looking around and talking to the people he noticed many
emotions throughout these circumstances that these people lived in. The most
unexpected one to be happiness, from an older man. This recycling guru seemed
cheerful giving what seemed like morale advice in rhymes to his fellow workers
throughout the day. Like this man, some of these people had great attitudes
throughout their time even when they were picking garbage in the largest dump in
the world. Yet even in their happiness, they still had struggles with this life as they
attempted to make a living out of recycling and such. The gangs, drugs, and
robberies of their establishments didnt help either. Though some seemed fine doing
the job their whole lives, they would never let their children have this job as this
was not the life they wanted for them.
Vik picked 7 people for his project, one of them being the young president of
ACAMJG, Sebastiao Carlos dos Santos. These people had come to the dump from
different walks of life and with different circumstances, but they all share one simple
common goal: to live and/or provide for themselves and family/others. Viks project
was to have these people pose for the camera and recreate the photo with provided
garbage, in order to make another photo of the image made of garbage. They may
have thought this was weird for the first part, but once they saw themselves from a
distance, they were amazed and became emotional over their selves. The emotions
increased as they got the chance to go to the showing and auctioning of their
pictures. Along with being asked from others about the experience, these catadores
got the chance to represent their people and be the voice of them as well.
This trip revealed the dignity and despair of the lives of the catadores and
showed the transformative power of art and alchemy of the human spirit. They were
proud to be doing what they did as it helped the community and many others, even
if they suffered from many other things that may or may not be involved with the
job. Vik Muniz came in and gave some the chance to do just a little more than
recycle. He showed that they could do more with garbage than just recycle, they
can create something beautiful out of all that dirt and rubble. Through making the
images and showing them to others, they gave voice to their people, letting others
know of their situation. Art is expression, be that of emotion or events or giving a
message to people. What inspiration a community gives to an artist, the job of them
is to express the community to others and perhaps give that community something
in return, whether that be gratitude, a voice, etc. In a sense, an artist advertises a
community or culture for any reason he/she feels like and they have to satisfy not
only everyone else, but that community as well if they want their art to be effective
for the purpose they strived for.