Plastic Rennaissance
-Response to “Cupid after Caravaggio” by Vik Muniz
When Caravaggio modeled Cupid after his own lover, scholars say he symbolized physical love & pleasure, void of nobility and grace. When Muniz places polychrome plastic toys, feathers & dolls upon brilliant white floors in artistic allusion, does he symbolize lustful consumerism, void of necessity and thrift?
In carnival seeping through neon blue decorative feathers,
dollar store liquor shots and a naked blonde Barbie?
When kazoos and squirt guns pile against Lego palm trees and Hello Kitty,
waiting for sticky little fingers to animate?
As squishy scorpions stalk sweet felt does,
& a lone white cavalry horse searches for his troop?
While passenger airplanes coast above lion-lizard hybrids
and sneaky centipedes?
If a Star Wars villain squares off against a Japanese geisha twice his size?
Because one purple race car runs over its brontosaurus neighbor
and spinning tops remind Alice in Wonderland of her trip down the rabbit hole?
Or three sponge trees making shade for three more baby tigers,
and pink cocktail umbrellas mingling with a set of black die?
When Caravaggio modeled Cupid after his own lover, scholars say he symbolized physical love & pleasure, void of nobility and grace. When Muniz places polychrome plastic toys, feathers & dolls upon brilliant white floors in artistic allusion, does he symbolize lustful consumerism, void of necessity and thrift?
In carnival seeping through neon blue decorative feathers,
dollar store liquor shots and a naked blonde Barbie?
When kazoos and squirt guns pile against Lego palm trees and Hello Kitty,
waiting for sticky little fingers to animate?
As squishy scorpions stalk sweet felt does,
& a lone white cavalry horse searches for his troop?
While passenger airplanes coast above lion-lizard hybrids
and sneaky centipedes?
If a Star Wars villain squares off against a Japanese geisha twice his size?
Because one purple race car runs over its brontosaurus neighbor
and spinning tops remind Alice in Wonderland of her trip down the rabbit hole?
Or three sponge trees making shade for three more baby tigers,
and pink cocktail umbrellas mingling with a set of black die?