Three Women (Ela Bhatt), 2010 by Alfredo Jaar

“Let us begin with light and luminosity, transparency and illumination. When we think of these terms, we tend to relate them to the way things appear—to the quality of objects, spaces, images, and the like. But on a basic level, these associations are merely supplementary to the more fundamental, reactive, and metabolic sensations; that is, their somatic effects on the body, on the eye: the way we look, how we see, and what we see. To a large degree, these reflexes have one thing in common: the nature of appearances and the process of image reception. However, once we cross the threshold of how the body processes and the eyes absorb their surroundings, we arrive at a second juncture: the role of contemplating, reflecting, judging, and making sense of what we have seen. In short, how we see, read, and think the image.”

via Artnews.org: Alfredo Jaar at Kamel Mennour Paris.