I am a self-professed economics nerd. Economics is fundamentally the study of human behavior, and money, for better or worse, tends to expose people’s true perceptions, values and convictions — the often-unexamined beliefs that drive our behavior. I recently read an interesting article featured on Bloomberg News entitled Inequality Play is Over.
The economic analyst Ajay Kapur was advising his clients a decade ago to “bet on the rich” — advice that proved sound. In 2000 Kapur coined the term Plutonomy to describe economies that concentrate wealth at the top. Surprisingly, after more than two decades of increased global wealth disparity — the US being the most unequal among the developed economies — he is no longer dispensing that advice. He sees the political winds shifting and points out that “nobody is ready for this new world.”
This may be true among investment bankers but artists have been sounding the alarm bell for decades. Work shown here was completed by artist and architect Alfredo Jaar. Born and educated in Chile, Jaar is currently living in New York City. Jaar’s art deals with the public’s desensitization to images of cruelty, human rights violations, epidemics and famines. His work is a witness to political/corporate corruption, military conflicts and the power held by developed nations over developing nations. His film work takes on topics such as the mass killings in Rwanda, toxic pollution in Nigeria as well as issues that arise on the US-Mexico border.
This particular piece, entitled Cries and Whispers, deals with the inequality and injustice faced by Brazilian gold miners.
In Jaar’s own words, “There’s this huge gap between reality and its possible representations. And that gap is impossible to close. So as artists, we must try different strategies for representation… (A) process of identification is fundamental to create empathy, to create solidarity, to create intellectual involvement.”
The work here is comprised of two rectangular light boxes with colored transparencies. The images that appear in the light boxes feature a Brazilian gold miner clutching a handful of money. A close up of the figure’s face appears in the other light box. Both images are placed at the edge of the boxes with the rest of the frame containing white space. Removing any context forces the viewer to focus on the individual’s humanity. Placing the figure at the bottom of the frame reinforces his marginalized standing within systems of power — he remains stuck at the bottom.