Alfredo Jaar: Lament of the Images
Lament of the Images (2002) by Alfredo Jaar is an abstract sculpture that was created using light.
Jaar focused on our sight and losing the ability to see to create this sculpture.
The sculpture consists of two tables that have light sources on top of them. One of them was placed upside down right above the other and was slowly brought down, blocking the light. The sculpture is the only light source in the room so when the light is blocked, the room becomes completely dark. The fact that the light isn’t shut down all of a sudden but disappears gradually shows that the sculpture is about the process of becoming blind.
Focusing on the process allowed Jaar to make the audience feel certain emotions such as fear and change the way our eyes perceive light. As the light is fading away, we know that we are going to be trapped in complete darkness but there is nothing we can do about it. This may be how a person who is going through the process of losing their sight feels like which suggests that the sculpture is about emotions rather than representation. Abstract sculptors aimed to focus on feelings. One can suggest that they, as Caro said, don’t want to make ‘a picture of someone crying but a sculpture that makes you cry.’ Jaar’s sculpture can be considered a great example of the type of work abstract sculptors wanted to create. Even though his sculpture has some representational elements, it mainly concentrates on emotions and therefore becomes something more than just a decoration.
Another aspect of the work is that it presents a challenge to conventional sculptors as none of the materials that Jaar used were transformed visually.
This can be seen as one of the characteristics of abstract sculptures. Greenberg also argued that:
…a work or its parts can be cast, wrought, cut or simply put together [but] it is not so much sculptured as constructed, built, assembled, arranged.
What he was suggesting is that abstract sculptures are different from traditional ones which involve working with materials such as clay and bronze and transforming them into something else. Abstract sculptors tend to present the materials as they are and focus on the relationship between them rather than changing them into something different.
Jaar wanted to find a way that was sufficient to communicate with the audience and therefore used materials such as light in order to establish a deeper emotional dialogue with his viewers. Using light allowed him to describe the process of becoming blind more clearly. His choice of materials is significant because by using light he was able to make his art more real. When the audience sees the sculpture they will have a better understanding of what becoming blind feels like as they get to experience it themselves. On the other hand, a picture of someone becoming blind will not have the same effect as a similar communication with the audience isn’t possible with the use of images. Greenberg makes a similar point in his essay:
Sculpture is still permitted a greater latitude of figurative allusiveness than painting because it remains tied, inexorably, to the third dimension and is therefore inherently less illusionistic.
He suggests that abstract sculpture could just be itself, or in other words, sculpture does not need to refer to anything else as it is inherently literal.
We can suggest that Jaar’s sculpture emphasizes the importance of communicating with the audience. He chose materials that enabled him to make the audience understand the work effectively. Using light was a way to make his work more realistic however instead of going for realistic depictions, Jaar preferred conveying emotions more realistically.
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