Big James Sweats Buckets

Vik Muniz, Big James Sweats Buckets, 1996, gelatin silver print, sheet: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, 1998.31.1

Artwork Details

Title: Big James Sweats Buckets
Artist: Vik Muniz
Date: 1996
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm.)
Credit Line: Museum purchase made possible by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Mediums Description: gelatin silver print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Highlights: Latinx Art
Subjects: African American
Figure male — child — bust
Object Number: 1998.31.1
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1998.31.1

Artwork Description

Vik Muniz drew portraits of the children of sugar cane workers he met on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts using sugar crystals on black paper, which he then photographed for the series he called "The Sugar Children." As he wipes the paper clean after creating each image and begins again, his actions and his subjects' lives take on symbolic value, suggesting that generations of cane workers have been consumed by the sugar industry.