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Auditions initially began as a project of photographs of sculptures representing fifty-two different facial expressions. In a witty take on this phenomenon, which he witnessed during his residencies at Graphicstudio, Vik Muniz gathered thousands of pairs of the amorous insects to create iconized images of sexual positions from the Kama Sutra, the ancient Hindu text on human sexual behavior.Īuditions, a suite of four photogravures, feature satirical sculptural busts representing four basic and universal human emotions: happiness, sadness, anger and pensiveness. Coupled at the tail like two headed beasts, they swarm in clouds, leaving sticky corpses splattered across cars and the landscape. Millions of lovebugs, or march flies, hatch, mate, lay eggs and die within the span of a month every spring and fall in Florida. Vik photographs these images, and then discards the originals, so that we are left with a tantalizing representation of the illusion he has created." (Mark Magill, BOMB Magazine, Fall, 2000) The quality of his draftsmanship with these rude materials displays a gift for bringing brilliance and humor to the commonplace-not unlike the physical genius of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. Vik works with the most rudimentary materials-sugar, soil, string, wire, chocolate syrup-to reconstruct images that we carry in a vast collective reservoir of visual memory. He tricks the eye to reveal the tricks the eye itself can play and how that trickery has been used by 'shamans, priests, artists, and con men' throughout history to evoke both power and belief. He is clearly a visual artist who tinkers equally with light and the mechanisms of perception that decipher the messages light conveys.
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In Vik's case, lead has been replaced by light. But in another age he might have been an alchemist, transforming base lead into refined gold. "Vik Muniz might be billed as a photographer, and photographs are generally the end product of his work. Photography reveals their true identity as objects." (Abbe Harris, Brazzil Magazine, July, 2003) A chocolate puddle with the likeness of Freud becomes part of the same history as its notable subject. "What really fascinates me about the photographic process," he says, "is that it endorses the existence of things. His photographs and prints offer a representation of the illusion he has 'drawn.' Muniz investigates the mechanisms of perception to reveal how the eye can be tricked and deceived. 1961) photographs images he creates, using unconventional materials such as chocolate syrup, sugar, soil and string, and then discards the originals.