ROANOKE, Va.–Member One sponsored the Taubman Museum of Art’s current exhibit, Vik Muniz: Poetics of Perception and specifically, the screening of the award-winning documentary Waste Land.
Modern artist, Vik Muniz works with so-called “catadores,” the men and women who pick through waste to create art out of recycled materials located just outside Rio de Janeiro, Jardim Gramacho, Brazil. Jardim Gramacho is the location of the world's largest garbage landfill. Muniz selects six of the garbage pickers to pose as subjects in a series of photographs mimicking famous paintings. The documentary depicts Muniz’s desire to assist the catadores and change their lives and he finds himself changed as well.