Art and Social Change

  Waste Land is a documentary by Lucy Walker, discussing the works of Vic Muniz. Vick Muniz travels to Brazil to work with the men and women who pick through the refuse, to be able to work and create art out of recycled materials. In his desire to assist the catadores also known as garbage pickers, and change their lives, Muniz finds himself changed as well. 

Vick Muniz, a Brazilian artist known for using uncommon and irregular materials to create portraits of marginalized people, set out to paint the catadores with the garbage that they spent their day sorting through. In deciding to turn the project into a collaboration he decides that all proceeds from the photographs he creates of the finished pieces go back to the catadores, which they can use to improve their living conditions, go to school, invest in the co-op, keep their trucks in working order and even build a library. The pickers report that the project has helped lift some of the social stigma surrounding their profession, and the Brazilian government is now using the film to promote recycling nationwide.  

The most important thing that I took from this film is that art can change the lives in small and great ways. Muniz learned that the people that he has worked with are strong survivors, he began to connect with them on a sentimental level, which influenced him to help them in any way that he could.

The power of art can change society.

                

Robert Gober

Rober Gober is an American sculptor, his work is often related to domestic and familiar objects, such as sinks, door, and legs; moreover he creates different types of sculptures including individual sculptures, immersive sculpture environments and a distinctive selection of drawings and prints. His work also has themes of sexuality, nature, religion and politics. His sculptures are handcrafted in very great detail, using realistic objects to make his sculptures seem life like. He has also mad photographs, prints and drawings. 

In one of his sculpture "Untitled (leg)" Is a copy of a mans leg using real human hair, bees wax, cotton, wood, and leather. 

Two works of 20th Century Art Styles, Cubism and Surrealism

Cubism: Pablo Picasso ( Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907)

This cubism art work represent five naked women who faces appear to be flat and inspired by African mask. Each figure is also depicted in a disturbing confrontational manner and none are shown to be feminine. Picasso used great geometric form to show the distortion of the females body. This offered idealized representation on female beauty. This painting is square to the eye which  disposes you to attend space and symmetry. Picasso also used lack of bright colors, only using nude and dull looks of color. 

Surrealism: Giorgio de Chirico (The song of love 1914)


This surrealism art work bring together bizarre and unrelated objects. The head of a classic Greek statue, an oversized rubber glove, a green ball, and a train covered in darkness, silhouetted against a bright blue sky. He also used atomopheric perspective in which the train looks smaller than it appears.  De Chirico created what he termed "metaphysical" paintings, representation of what lies "beyond the physical" world. Disguised in an atmosphere full of anxiety and sorrow, using mostly dark colors evoke the intense irrationality of a universe torn apart by WWI.