A Summer Like No Other

Lament of the Images is one of Alfredo’s most significant works and today, more than ever, the avalanche of images of violence and suffering, even at their most raw—a video of a man dying under police custody, children in cages at the US/Mexico border, a child refugee drowned before he could reach the shore—does not seem to inspire enough empathy or outrage to change the structure of society. To this question, Alfredo answers with a blinding white screen that obliterates meaning but is an opening of a door. He is always prescient, never afraid to look at hard questions of responsibility. I see hope in Lament, but it’s also charged with loss. It was commissioned by Okwui Enwezor for Documenta XI and during the long, stressful days of installation, Alfredo and I were buoyed by Okwui’s quiet confidence that it would work. Now that Okwui is gone, Lament has another layer of meaning for me, personal loss and a larger loss for the world and hope for transformation embodied in the white light. – Mary Sabbatino