Alfredo JaarOne million points of light, 2005
‘One million points of light’ by Alfredo Jaar reflects the artist’s ongoing engagement with memory, historical trauma and the politics of representation. The image was taken from the coast of Luanda, Angola, looking out across the Atlantic Ocean toward Brazil, the primary destination for millions of enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade. At first glance, the photograph appears serene, capturing shimmering points of light across a darkening sea. Yet this visual beauty conceals a profound violence, with the title referencing the estimated fourteen million Africans forcibly transported across that expanse. Presented as a colour transparency in a lightbox, the work creates a quiet space for reflection, illuminating the ocean’s surface while also invoking the lives submerged beneath it. As with much of Jaar’s practice, the work uses visual restraint to evoke deep emotional and political resonance, transforming a landscape into a site of remembrance and compelling viewers to reconsider the narratives held within seemingly neutral geographies.
