Alfredo Jaar: Heartfelt and Fearless

Driven by empathic decisions—at times, entirely irrational—Alfredo Jaar takes a fearless and uncensored approach to artmaking. In the ’90s, a moved Jaar packed his camera for Rwanda after reading indifferent reports of genocide in Western newspapers; years later, he points his camera to the country of Angola—this time, exploring the history of slavery and civil war alongside contemporary poverty and pandemics. “Images are very important. Images are fundamental. Images are not innocent,” he has said. “They tell us things about the world.”

In One Million Points of Light, Jarr commemorates the history of Angola and the 14 million slaves that were shipped to Brazil between the 17th and 19th centuries.

On view at Goodman Gallery, Frieze NY - Booth C16, May 9th – 13th.