Vik Muniz photographs appear as if created by a magician or a virtuoso who’s manipulations seem – at first site – not to have much in common with photography per se. His works are created with rudimentary and ephemeral means that are chosen for their relationship with the image they assemble. Vik Muniz reconstructs images that our visual memory has amassed, images that more often than not resemble our souvenirs.

These images are re-photographed in order to replace the originals from which they originated. They leave us facing an illusory representation, created from scratch: from the landscapes remaking some of the most renowned 19th century landscapes with thread, fetish images of Andy Warhol’s output made out of chocolate syrup and other edibles (Xippas Gallery, 1999), to the series Pictures of Dust created for the Whitney Museum (2000), or Pictures of Color and Pictures of Air for the Venice Biennial (2002) or the Erotica images made out of silly putty (2001). For his new show at the Galerie Xippas, Vik Muniz presents an ensemble of twelve photographs following somewhat the story of “The Beauty and the Beast”. The pictures of six Diamond Divas (Romy Schneider, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Maria Callas, Monica Vitti and Catherine Deneuve) are made with 550 carats of diamonds each. These are a continuation of the series based on Hollywood stars and created to address the sensibilities of a European audience. Next to each of them stands an image from a new series entitled Caviar Monsters. Six images reproduce the faces of motion pictures monsters: Frankenstein, Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, Wolfman and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The materials used, apparently colorless such as translucent white for the diamonds and black for the caviar, release an intensity characteristic of the subjects: glitter and scintillation for beauty, profundity, density and opacity for ugliness.