Documentary Wasteland

  The artist named Vik Muniz went to his country Brazil to this place called Jardim Gramacho. Jardim Gramacho is located in Rio de Janeiro and is one of the largest landfills in the world. Vik Muniz decided to create art with the cooperation of the people that worked there every day collecting recyclables. The people that worked there were called "catadores"since they were unemployed. People in there had different stories, which Vik Muniz kinda interview them and takes a photograph of them individually. He then decided to get all those people who he took pictures of and tell them about the art he wanted to create with also the help of them. The "catadores" decided to join the project and started recreating the same photos of themselves on the floor but in a way bigger photo made with recyclables. They worked really hard and the results were amazing and very beautiful. Those people couldn't even believe what they have done with only the use of recyclables, which was made into art. 

Now the Vik Muniz art project changed more than one life of the garbage pickers. They dreamed of improving life for their community and they were able to do it. All artworks they all created were sold. The money created by selling of the artworks was giving back to the "catadores". Also, the prize money from the film awards was giving back too, in order to help the "catadores" and their community just like they dreamed of. This documentary made me notice more how art is a way of expressing yourself and making dirty things to something beautiful. going from bad to great because of art. But the most important thing that I took away from this is to never doubt yourself because you have nothing, instead try to make the best of anything you do because you never know what can happen in the future like a person coming into your life and helping you. To always have hope in life no matter what and most importantly that hard work pays off. 

Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney was born in the United States San Francisco, California in 1967. He is an American artist who works in sculpture, films, photography and drawing. He attended college at Yale University  in New Haven, Connecticut thinking to go into plastic surgery, but then after two semesters he change to the art department. Barney had his first studio in Brooklyn, but then he decided to move to another studio in Lorey street. Matthew Barney's style of work is contemporary art. Now there are many artists out there hat influenced Matthew Barney like Richard Serra when it comes to body-based performance art, also Bruce Nauman and Norman Mailer. Matthew Barney's early works are sculptural installations combined with performance and video.  He has gotten many awards like Hugo Boss Prize, Guggenheim Museum, 1996, Kaizer Ring Award, Europa 2000 Prize. etc. Barney stated, "My work is not for everyone". What unites all Barney's work is its preoccupations with the body, life, and death, creativity, belief systems, power, and industry.  

Matthew Barney: RIVER OF FUNDAMENT, September 13, 2015- January 18, 2016

This is Matthew Barney's first major solo museum exhibition in Los Angeles and one of the most challenging and ambitious projects.

Pop art

The name of the artist is Andy Warhol who is an American artist born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1928. He is one of the greatest artists in visual art movement known as pop art. Pop art is an art movement that emerged first in Britain and then in the United States. This artwork is called “ Campbell's Soup Cans” which is one of the artworks that made Warhol famous worldwide along with the other artwork called " Gold Marylin Monroe" . The style of this artwork is pop art which is based in modern popular culture and the mass media. This artwork consists of thirty-two canvases, each measuring 20 inches(51 cm) in height x 16 inches (41 cm) in width. Also, each consists of a painting of a Campbell's Soup Can. The cans at first seem like they all are identical, but looking at the artwork closer the cans are different, the color red where some are lighter, the other ones are darker, and each canvas corresponds to a different flavor. In addition, they were displayed together on shelves, like products in a grocery aisle. Andy Warhol once said about Campbell's Soup that he used to drink this soup for lunch every day for 20 years, so he made this artwork to show this since it was the same soup over and over again.   

Surrealism

The name of the artist is Salvador Dalí who was born on 1904 in Figueres, Spain. Salvador Dalí was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter. This artwork is called “ The Persistence of Memory" which symbolizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and " hardness" and it was made by Dalí during the year 1931. The style of this artwork is Surrealism which is a 20th-century avant-garde movement that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind. The goal of Surrealism in to liberate thought, language, and human experience from the oppressive boundaries of rationalism. Also, Surrealism was founded by the poet André Breton in Paris in 1924. Now in the artwork, the colors are very vivid, the soft watches are a symbol of relativity of space and time, the iconography refers to a dream that Dalí had experienced, and the clocks symbolize the passing time as one experiences in sleep. In addition, Salvador Dalí often described his paintings as "hand-painted dream photographs". The landscape he uses on this artwork and also in others are based on his seaside landscape on the cliffs in his home region of Catalonia, Spain.