Alfredo Jaar's“A Logo For America” Returns To New York For Third Run

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Artist Alfredo Jaar's influential billboard installation,“A Logo for America,” first shown in Times Square in April 1987, is returning to New York for a third run. The piece gained immediate recognition as a significant work of political art.

The 42-second LED animation appeared amidst commercial advertisements and challenged viewers with messages such as“This Is Not America” superimposed on a map of the United States, and“This Is Not America's Flag” over an image of the US flag. It concluded with the“R” in America transforming into a dancing map encompassing South, Central, and North America, aiming to highlight that America is a continent, not solely the United States.

Jaar's installation, originally conceived as a semiotic intervention to alter language rather than address broader political issues, became a global success. It had a brief revival in Times Square in 2014, displayed for one minute at midnight. During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the artwork was projected onto large video screens on a barge off Miami Beach, responding to Trump's rhetoric about immigrants.

Now, as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, and amidst renewed political discourse weaponizing the name“America,” the installation finds new resonance. A current exhibition,“A Logo for America, 1987,” at Galerie Lelong in Manhattan, pays homage to Jaar's historic work. The show includes related pieces by other artists, such as Joaquín Torres-García's“Inverted America” from 1943, which Jaar credits as a key inspiration. The gallery also features a large video screen that transports visitors to Times Square as it was 40 years ago, showcasing the original installation.

Jaar, who moved to the United States in 1982 from Pinochet's Chile, recounted his surprise at the widespread use of“America” to refer exclusively to the United States. He told Hyperallergic that this observation drove his initial concept:“I discovered an incredible ignorance, a brutal ignorance about language and geography.” He also noted that he lost control over the work's interpretation, citing a 2014 Guardian piece that incorrectly labeled it an“anti-Trump sign.”

An architect by training, Jaar began his career making public projects in Chile during the dictatorship, including asking people,“¿Es usted feliz? (Are you happy?)” to foster a model of democracy under censorship. His new show at Galerie Lelong includes his original sketches for the 1987 billboard. An NPR poll in 1987 captured one passerby's reaction to the Times Square piece:“This is illegal.”

Jaar maintains his commitment to addressing injustice, stating that while artists may not change the world,“we can show it can be different.”

Source: Hyperallergic

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