Vik Muniz Creates Giant Portraits Using Garbage from Rio de Janeiro Landfills

Artist <a href="http://www.vikmuniz.net/" target="_blank">Vik Muniz</a>’s innovative photographs of carefully arranged garbage, <a href="http://inhabitat.com/edible-chocolate-records-actually-play-music-probably-taste-even-better/" target="_blank">chocolate</a>, dirt, and wires can be found in contemporary art museums across the world. His use of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/immense-cow-sculptures-made-from-recycled-car-parts-by-miina-akkijyrkka/" target="_blank">found materials</a> to create large-scale images is both beautiful and dizzying with its incredible detail. Hailing from Brazil, Muniz was the subject of the documentary <a href="http://www.wastelandmovie.com" target="_blank">WASTE LAND</a>; a piece that tells the story of his installations in Rio de Janeiro’s largest garbage dump.

Muniz first creates installations, or “paints” with materials such as sugar, peanut butter, or junk. He then photographs the piece to create the final artwork. At first, the photos look like portraits or collages...

...but peer a little closer, and one will start to recognize <a href="http://inhabitat.com/wim-delvoyes-incredible-rubber-carvings-turn-tires-into-art/" target="_blank">elements of trash</a>—oil barrels, buckets, washing machines,<a href="http://inhabitat.com/toilet-bike-neo-crazy-poop-powered-motorcycle-to-travel-across-japan/" target="_blank"> toilet seat covers</a>, and bottles make up his figures and backgrounds.

Some of the pieces take up whole warehouse floors—something that isn't evident just by looking at one of the photographs. It is not until an object is recognized in the heap of the composition that the scale becomes clear.

Muniz creates tableaus of portraits, but also recreations of well known artworks, such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Marat" target="_blank">Death of Marat</a>, Medusa the Gorgon, Andy Warhol pieces, and even The Last Supper. <a href="http://inhabitat.com/diy-how-to-make-a-bodacious-bodega-costume-for-halloween/" target="_blank">Using garbage</a>, a bucket becomes an ear, or can make up the larger plane of an arm or hair.

The care and precision taken to craft each piece is downright breathtaking.

Muniz’s work also brings attention to our waste problem, but more poignantly so in the documentary, <a href="http://www.wastelandmovie.com" target="_blank">WASTE LAND</a>. In the film, the artist created several large scale pieces with the aid of catadores; a subculture of scavengers of recyclables in the giant Jardim Gramacho landfill in his native Brazil.

The film not only celebrates Muniz’s beautiful <a href="http://inhabitat.com/study-finds-that-the-us-electronics-recycling-industry-is-booming-with-billions-in-profits/" target="_blank">recycled art</a>, but also brings awareness to the ever-<a href="http://inhabitat.com/20-million-tonnes-of-japanese-debris-spotted-en-route-to-hawaii/" target="_blank">growing landfills</a>, and the people who spend their days sifting through them.

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