Week 6 Make Up, Blog #5

Today I visited the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art to view the Chris Jordan art show. I have never been inside the museum on the university's campus so I was curious to look around and this assignment finally gave me the excuse that I was looking for to go. I did not know what to expect from the artist Chris Jordan, I really hadn't heard much other than the fact his show was very shocking. I was somewhat confused to hear an artist being represented in the campus museum being described as shocking. However, once I took my tour of his exhibition I understood why some would describe his work as shocking, among other things. Let me paint you a picture. You walk into a large room with a lot of open space, the only items occupying that space are photographs on the walls. At first glance the photos look like simple, plain, and average photos. It isn't until you look closely that you see an entirely different image or images. Chris Jordan's exhibition is titled "Running the Numbers: an American Self-portrait". Why, you might ask, is it called "Running the Numbers"? Well, thats where the shocking part comes into play. Jordan's work on display for all to see is about his photographs portraying not just the images one sees at first, nor the objects one sees when they take a closer look, but the statics related to the objects in the photos. Jordan calls his method "hypermodernism," which translates to mean: very large numbers of small things to create images of extreme visual complexity. More simply put, the relationship between near and far. I don't know why, but for some reason i'm fascinated with that definition. More importantly though, i'm fascinated with Chris Jordan's work.

I have to admit, the majority of his work that was on display really caught my attention, partly because of the image itself and partly because of the statistic the image represented. As I first entered the room, I came face to face with an enlarged image of what looked like one pair of women's breasts. As I walked closer to the image and studied it for a moment, I then realized that I was looking  32,000 barbie dolls strategically placed in order to give the impression that from a far they were a pair of breasts. The statistic  this figurative image represented was the number of breast augmentation surgeries that women underwent monthly during the year 2004. It was incredible to me that there were literally 32,000 barbie dolls in the image and as promised the statistic was shocking to me.

Another example I came across in his exhibition was a piece titled "Lightbulbs" (2008). I was an image of 320,000 lightbulbs, big and small, that appeared almost as stars and comets in outer space or more so a black canvas. It was beautiful to look at and it represented the number of kilowatt hours of electricity waster in the United States every minute. I actually gasped when I read that in the exhibition. Obviously, we all hear stories about how we shouldn't waste energy and water and other resources that can and are affecting our environment but I don't think it actually clicks for a lot of us, at least not for me very often.

The most powerful image to me that I saw of Chris Jordan's work was his piece titled, " Skull with Cigarettes". From a far the image looked like a giant yellowish skull on a dark background. When took a closer look, thousands of tiny cigarette packs were revealed to me. The statistic stated that the image consisted of 200,000 packs of cigarettes and they represented the number of Americans who die from smoking every six months. That number is just crazy to me and is such a terrible thing.

While the art work I viewed in Chris Jordan's exhibition was beautiful and creative, I think I enjoyed what it represented more. I am so impressed with the way he incorporated statistics that everyone can relate to and be affected by to art that catches our attention. His art made me want to stop for more than just a few seconds so that I could actually understand what I was looking at. And to be perfectly honest, a lot of art that I look at doesn't really grasp my attention for longer than a few seconds. Jordan's work was different though. He truly created an exhibition that was incredible. It was interesting, informative, creative, detailed, and most importantly fun. Yes, I have heard a few of those statistics before, but none in that same manner. I loved that there was a figurative image to attach to each statistic. I really loved how he used the literal object to convey the statistic is an abstract way. It is safe to say I was blown away by Chris Jordan's methods and style and I look forward to seeing more from him. Hey, I think I may even buy his book titled "Running the Numbers: an American Self-portrait"!

another one of Jordan's pieces that represents garbage in the ocean

(not included in his UO exhibition)