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Set of fifty two (52) photogravure image prints and two (2) text prints: title, text, colophon; housed in a maple wood storage box with attached cover/frame.
16 x 16 inches each
Box size: approximately 17-3/4 x 17-3/4 x 3-1/2 inches
Early in his career, Vik Muniz created a series of photographs that he came to call Individuals. Working with a single lump of white plasticine clay and a set of rules, he fashioned one deliberately ambiguous sculpture after another, photographing each only to destroy it afterwards to repeat the process until he had sixty images. He printed them as platinum prints, and displayed them along with empty pedestals, so that the public could imagine the different sculptures in the space. Muniz’s inspiration came from photographs made by sculptors from their own work, chiefly Brancusi and Rosso. Writes Muniz, “The images of the sculptures are idealized objects. Seen from the perfect vantage, they offer no clues as to scale, material or weight. Their flatness leaves room for myriad interpretations; their ambiguity renders them part of anyone’s experience. They have become mental objects. ”
The exhibition of Individuals marked Muniz’s decision to dedicate himself to photography in a novel way. He began to produce, and continues to produce, objects that have documentation as their main objective. For his major exhibition, Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer, the artist decided to revisit Individuals as a portfolio of photogravures with text. The artist’s original negatives were scanned and made into fifty-two copper plates that were produced as photogravures. The artist’s original text was printed by letterpress also included in the suite. The prints are stored in a handmade maple box designed by the artist, with an attached frame/cover that can be secured in an upright position to display the work, one print a week for every week of the year.
