The Art of Consumption

We consume 60,000 plastic bags every five seconds. 

Modern Western societies consume such vast quantities of energy and goods that's its impossible to wrap our heads around the numbers.   Statistical information about the damage we cause to the environment can seem meaningless without context, but Artist Chris Jordan transforms these dry statistics into visually provocative images that tell the story of our consumption.   The images operate at several scales simultaneously, at first we see a complex abstract pattern, but on closer inspection we find that the pattern is composed of tiny objects:  tires, plastic bags, or barrels of oil. Like an impressionist painting, the aesthetic experience of Jordan's images is an optical revelation that is contingent upon our investigation of how the images are constructed:  dabs of paint or tiny photos of cell phones.

 

 "Cell Phones", shows 426,000 cell phones:  the number of cell phones retired every day in the U.S.

 

Detail