Sick Bacchus, after Caravaggio (Pictures of Magazine 2) 2011

Vik Muniz made this version of ‘Sick Bacchus, after Caravaggio’ entirely out of magazine pictures. The way he builds up the image out of tiny scraps gives it a kind of broken texture, which is really interesting because it speaks to the process of making art. When you get up close, you can see the individual pictures that make up the whole image. Each little piece has its own color and texture, and Muniz uses them to build up the form and create a sense of depth. It’s kind of like pointillism, but instead of paint, he's using bits of magazines. Look at the way the light hits Bacchus’s face – the way Muniz used highlights and shadows made up of tiny faces is really something. Muniz's work reminds me a bit of Kurt Schwitters and his collages – both artists were really interested in taking everyday materials and transforming them into something new and unexpected. Art isn’t about fixed meanings, it’s about exploration and interpretation.