Double Elvis

Vik Muniz has become known for employing unusual materials to create what he calls "the worst possible illusion that will still fool the eye." In his series Pictures of Chocolate, Muniz used Bosco syrup to recreate iconic images from fine art. Muniz had to work quickly to finish and photograph his drawings before the syrup dried and lost its glossy look. In fact, Muniz turned to color photography for the first time in this project because of Bosco's resemblance in black and white to blood (for which it was used in early horror films, including Psycho). This image of Andy Warhol's 1963 Double Elvis—itself already an appropriation of a famous Hollywood photograph—thus takes on another layer of representation in its turn from portrait to memento mori.