© Vik Muniz / VAGA, New York & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2015 C0501 (2015/02/09時点) © Vik Muniz / VAGA, New York & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2018 C2266 (2018/07/20時点)

Picture of Air, Viewing from Paris, France Longitude: 2°19'59” Latitude: 48°51'00” 07/14/1789 3:30 AM (Local) Gaze: Az: 41°49.414' Alt: 90°0.000'

ArtistVik MUNIZ
Year2001
Material/ Techniquechromogenic print
Size/ DurationH231.5 × W176.5cm
Copyright Notice© Vik Muniz / VAGA, New York & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2015 C0501
Year of acquisition/ donation2003(作品購入年月日:2003/01/31)
DescriptionBorn in São Paulo, Brazil in 1961. Lives and works in New York, USA.

Inspired by photographing for recording purposes objects he had created, Vik Muniz began creating work in the form of series of photographs. He recreates famous news photographs or masterpieces from art history using materials such as sugar, tomato sauce or chocolate, and then photographs the results. As seen in the mode of expression whereby viewers are able to experience simultaneously multiple perspectives, i.e. the recognition of the depicted image and the perception as they approach the work that the image is in fact an aggregate made up of unexpected substances, Muniz expresses in an inimitable style the relationship between perception and the awareness of reality.

"Picture of Chocolate: Diver (After Siskind)" is part of a series in which the images are depicted in chocolate syrup. By using foodstuffs as materials to portray existing images, such as the image from the series "Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation" by the American photographer Aaron SISKIND that is quoted in this work, Muniz is attempting to incorporate in them a sense other than that of sight, namely, the sense of taste. Depicted in the huge images that make up the series “Pictures of Air” are star charts. These photographic works are made by injecting air bubbles into layers of transparent hair gel and then photographing the results. Using software developed by NASA, star charts showing the heavenly bodies that were probably observable at the time from the locations of important historic events such as the first man landing on the moon and the fall of the Berlin Wall were drawn up and recreated using materials of a completely different order. A note at the bottom of each photograph gives details of the place and time of the event upon which the star chart concerned is based. Here, the multilayeredness of perception in the form of the superficial image, the substance of the material used, and the details of the event and the memories it calls to mind is summarized in a single two-dimensional plane.

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