Alfredo Jaar | It is difficult...

Alfredo Jaar
It is difficult...
Toronto: Art Metropole, 1997
10-sheet billboard, overall dimensions 10 x 20 feet.
Edition of 5 (plus 2 printer's proofs and 1 artist's proof)


The quote comes from William Carlos Williams' long poem Asphodel, That Greeny Flower, from 1955. Below is a longer excerpt.



Of asphodel, that greeny flower,
I come, my sweet,
to sing to you!
My heart rouses
thinking to bring you news
of something
that concerns you
and concerns many men. Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
Hear me out
for I too am concerned
and every man
who wants to die at peace in his bed
besides.