Alfredo Jaar is known for his politically charged works that address
issues of global poverty, capitalist exploitation, war, and social
injustice. According to Jaar, as an artist his fundamental challenge is to
invent new forms by which to capture the true depths of his subjects
while providing a conceptual entry point into complex histories and
eliciting strong empathetic responses from viewers. I Can’t Go On. I’ll Go On. is characteristic of one of Jaar’s primary means of facing
this challenge: applying the use of evocative texts to imagery that is
familiar to the public eye, such as neon signs. The statement written
in neon—a line from Samuel Beckett’s 1953 novel The Unnamable—
encapsulates the emotional pendulum that swings back and forth
between despair and the determination to survive, providing a window
into the inner lives of innumerable victims and survivors of violence
and poverty throughout the world.