Waste Land

I recently watched a documentary about the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, who makes art out of various household materials including dirt, string, sugar, chocolate, and garbage. Filmed over nearly three years, Waste Land follows Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Muniz is the most compelling modern artist I know about, not only because his art is deeply intellectually engaging and sensually appealing, but because he manages to champion social causes without being preachy. I am extremely inspired by his willingness to take a position and positively affect the communities he documents and interacts with. In this film, Muniz meets workers who make a living by salvaging recyclable materials form the dump. He then photographs them and creates enormous reproductions of these portraits out of materials gathered form the dump. He then photographs these reproductions and creates large prints, which are the finished work. These are sold at auction, and the proceeds are donated to the community of pickers at the dump, enabling them to significantly improve their lives through the aegis of their collective association.

This artist totally rocks my world. To me, he is the shining example of why art matters. I think every artist has a duty to point out the inequality and injustice in the world and try to shine a light on it, and eventually to kick inequality in the nuts. Art that is not politically engaged in some way just doesn't matter. Not only that, but Muniz is a very wealthy man who realizes that financial success is not only meaningless but actually morally wrong if it is not used to better the lives of those less fortunate.

On a personal note, Muniz lives on the same street as my sister in Brooklyn, and I have seen him walking into his apartment/studio once or twice, but I have never met him. In 2001, my band member Quentin Jennings was commissioned to make the music for a documentary about Muniz, who was starting to gain international notoriety. The film is called "Worst Possible Illusion" and Jennings enlisted me and other members of my band Melomane to record some of the soundtrack. One of the songs eventually evolved into a song called Buddha Statue that the band recorded and released on our second album Solresol. The main theme was Jennings original piece for the film, and we added lyrics inspired by the destruction of the giant buddha statues perpetrated by the Taliban at the time. So the themes of art, politics and waste all come full circle! Here it is for your listening enjoyment.