Thursday, October 15, 2009

Chris Jordan: "Intolerable Beauty" (2003-2005)

Photographer Chris Jordan captures the terrifyingly spectacular waste of American mass consumerism. In these portraits of consumption, Jordan sees "evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress". "Desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic...darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity." - C. Jordan (above: CELL PHONES, Orlando 2004) "Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences...my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry." - C. Jordan Above: the rare 'solo-shot' of the exhibition. But like the others, this image reveals a history of wear & tear, of interaction & exhaustive use. I'm often fascinated by inflicted formation of shapes & colors -- indication that life happened, in the unplanned way it does. Perhaps this explains my penchant for decrepit objects. (And mangled old rockstars, I guess.) I'm always curious to know the stories, the significance behind each mark, discoloration, or imperfection. Kind of like wanting to know why you have that scar or tattoo. ...Jenga.

No comments:

Post a Comment