This week we are focusing heavily on research since our project revolves around art history. Today we looked at a few artists including Vik Muniz who references historical paintings by recreating them out of food. Waaay too cool to not share.
A favorite quote of mine by mr. Muniz:
"You have said that you have tried many experiments, most of which have failed. Could you give an example or two of something that didn’t work and explain why and what you think learned from the failure?"
"VM: I learned to live with it with no hard feelings. Once I tried to produce a likeness of an unknown movie start with M&Ms, trying to copy the dot pattern we are used to seeing in billboards. Well, because of scale discrepancies and the unwillingness of such stubborn candy to stay in place, I did not get a picture and ended up in a mild depression cured only by the amount of M&Ms I was left to eat. Good thing M&Ms taste good and I wasn’t drawing with cod liver oil. Failure is a sort of background for things that miraculously mange to transcend their original meaning. When you look at a map, you see all the roads and cities, and then, the empty spaces that the mapmakers try to fill with silly icons and sea monsters so as not to look too boring. That’s how I visualize failure: as this interstitial space that keeps the rods from coming together running in the same direction. Everything that successfully conquers any identity is surrounded by this wasteland of semi-developed forms. The purpose of science, for instance, is to extend the reach of these cities and roads in a linear way. The artist, on the other hand, works more like a surveyor of these empty spaces. Art is somehow like brain-science; you only get to know something works by looking at things that have stopped working. I have failed so much that I now stand on failure itself. It has become my work place and where I harvest my best ideas."
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