Through his multidisciplinary artistic practice, which includes film, photography, sculpture, and public projects, Jaar explores issues of global resonance, such as migration, discrimination, and unequal power relations. Lament of the Images examines the production, distribution, and interpretation of images. In the first room, three backlit text panels describe the removal and absence of images from the public domain; in the second room is a blinding white screen. The work makes visible a phenomenon of removal and draws attention to the decisionmaking process behind it. It is not about a particular historical event or the exhaustion of certain aesthetic strategies, but rather the future of images in their most reproducible state.

Gallery label from

Scenes for a New Heritage: Contemporary Art from the Collection, March 8, 2015–April 11, 2016.

Provenance

The artist
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas
2010, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Medium Plexiglass text panels (texts by David Levi Strauss), light wall, and mixed media
Dimensions Each text panel 23 x 20" (58.4 x 50.8 cm), light wall 6 x 12' (182.9 x 365.8 cm). Overall dimensions variable
Credit Latin American and Caribbean Fund
Object number 390.2010
Department Painting & Sculpture

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