Life in a toy box

Sarah Bernhard

- Vik Muniz

Walking into a museum you expect to see some interesting artwork, however I was not expecting to see anything quite like this. The first thing that caught my eye was the massive array of colors that seemed to project from the wall. It seemed interesting from afar, but as I got closer to the picture I noticed that it was composed almost entirely of random toys and small items. A few of the toys I recognized to make Sarah Bernhardt included hot wheels, Spongebob, dominos, Shrek, legos, jacks, and hundreds of other assorted toys.

The artist, Vik Muniz, was born in 1961 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and currently lives in New York City. His artistic career started in the 1980's as a sculptor, but was best recognized for a series of pictures he created with chocolate syrup called "Pictures of Chocolate". In this series of photos Muniz recreated famous paintings such as The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa, with the only material being chocolate sauce. A film called Waste Land documented two years of Muniz's work, and took place at one of the largest landfills in Brazil. He bases much of his artwork off of other works, but puts a twist on them by creating them with unusual yet interesting materials.

Rebus is when a work of art is created using unrelated visual elements to create something with a larger meaning. Muniz took part in a project for the Museum of Modern Art called "Artist's Choice" where his exhibition "Rebus" was held. During "Artist's Choice", Artists acted as curators selecting works from the Museum's collection to create an exhibition.

Muniz recreated works of art using garbage, chocolate syrup, as I mentioned earlier, toys, and many other odd materials. I think he chose to use toys to recreate the portrait of Sarah Bernhardt for a few reasons. Sarah Bernhardt, the model of the picture, was a French actress, and considered to be one of the most famous actresses ever. She was well known for her performances on stage during the 1870's, and gained fame all across Europe. She was known mostly as a serious dramatic actress, which is one of the reason why I think Muniz decided to choose her for one of the pieces for his "Picture of Rebus" series. Because Sarah Bernhardt was considered a much more serious actress, what material would better contradict her than countless amounts of small toys. Other pictures included in the series such as "Death of a loyalist" or an extremely sad looking self portrait of Muniz all have the idea of seriousness or sorrow, but are countered by the playfulness of the toys.

I think Vik Muniz was trying to express to the viewer that no matter how terrible, extreme, or serious life may seem, we have to enjoy it. He's trying to tell the world that when things may seem at an all time low, or too intense to handle, life goes on. Using toys to create such serious images helps us understand the value of life and to be a little more easy going and just enjoy ourselves. It makes us appreciate the way we viewed life as kids.

When I first saw the picture, I had no idea who Sarah Bernhardt was, and I was confused as to why she was made of toys. After learning more about the artist and who Sarah Bernhardt was, I understood and appreciated the meaning of the picture. Seeing all of the toys reminded me of my childhood and eye spy books. The thought of those memories made me smile. Muniz was trying, and succeeded, in helping me remember a more carefree time in my life, where my only worries were if I was going to have enough time to finish my dinosaur battle before dinner, or whether or not i had enough legos to create my spaceship. Muniz wanted the viewer to take a moment and remember how simple life was, and in one way or another, how simple and wonderful it still is.

This was my first time going to the Palmer Museum, and overall I enjoyed it. I liked the Palmer because it had a good combination of the older, more religious pieces you would expect to find, but also had a lot of modern and abstract art. I've been to almost all of the museums in the D.C. area and I wouldn't mind going back. However, I don't know if I would go back to the Palmer in the near future because I was just there and nothing has changed.