Vik Muniz
Vik Muniz was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and currently lives and works in New York City. For the past ten years, his work has placed a basic question before his viewers: Can we believe what we see? Vik Muniz is often called a “master illusionist” or a “picture tease” because his work capitalizes on our susceptibility to be misguided by our preconceptions. Those who see his work in this light believe that he exploits our tendency to draw conclusions, often too quickly, from what we think we see. They believe that his explorations into the power of representation and his use of unexpected materials result in images that transcend mere gimmickry. On the other hand, many critics feel that his connections are too obvious and simplistic. They suggest that skill and wit are not enough and criticize Muniz for aiming to please. While Vik Muniz does admit that he does delight in subverting the expected and that growing up in Brazil turned him into a trickster, he claims that his work is “…not about fooling someone, but giving someone a measure of their own belief – how much they want to be fooled.”
THESIS: Vik Muniz has been praised as a “master illusionist” and at the same time criticized for making his connections too easy, but both of these views fail to take into account the artist’s true purpose: “…to show people a measure of their own belief.”
