Alfredo Jaar

I'm not really a fan of the artist questionnaires in Frieze. Sarah Lucas is a fantastic artist and I've kept her riveting self-portrait (above) on my wall for years, but who really cares what Sarah Lucas wishes she knew? (The fact that the answer is "Everything I don’t know, I suppose" is hardly encouraging).

But I keep reading the feature because every now and then a gem comes along. Alfredo Jaar's turn is one such find, even though he basically wishes he knew what Sarah Lucas wishes she knew:

I became an artist because I do not understand the world. Everything I know I learned from being an artist. And I am still learning. I wish I knew more of everything.

The difference being that Jaar starts with a disclaimer, a direct rebuke to philosophers of science and sociobiology like Lee Cronk who neatly section art off from any question of understanding the world:

In the arts and humanities, in contrast to the sciences, the goal is not to expand and refine our understanding of the workings of the universe in which we find ourselves, but rather to produce things of beauty and meaning and to understand the significance they have for people.

I challenge you to explore Jaar a little further and see if he doesn't challenge Cronk's simple dichotomy.