Flex credit: The numbers that Slapped my face

Hello my fellow friends my topic for my blog today will be about an interesting artist named Chris Jordan. I really don’t know much about Chris Jordan except that he is a Seattle based artist and specializes in depicting large-scale pieces that represent green movement ideas. I first heard of Chris Jordan when I found out there was an exhibition in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art here on the Oregon campus; which I have never been too till than. I really didn’t know what to expect I never heard off Chris Jordan at the time and I had no idea the exhibition I was going to see was going to make an impact on me for probably the rest of my life. I was simply blown away. As I started up the stairs I saw a picture which, in my mind I was thinking to myself “oh Big Whoop a imitations picture of Van Gough or some other artist ” but as I got closer and closer I saw there was much more than the eye can see. I got so close to the picture and made out thousands of cans all different brands and I was astonished but I still was in question about the meaning of the art piece. As I read the writing that explained the piece, my Jaw dropped. 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the U.S every thirty seconds. I was shocked by that number, I couldn’t believe that much waste, that much consumption was happening EVERY THIRTY SECONDS; and that was my slap to the face welcoming of the Chris Jordan Exhibition.

         After I gathered myself and was finished analyzing Cans Seurat, I started walking towards the next piece that would catch my eye. I headed towards a piece that was funny colored from 20 feet away, immediately it caught my eye and as I got closer and closer. About 8 feet away I saw that it was made out of little tiny different colored squares from the closer I got, the easier u can distinguish the squares and as soon as your about inches away from the art piece you realize that those are shipping containers some same colored ones some different colored ones. Simply amazing I loved seeing the art piece from 20 ft away to moving as close as 5 inches away. Something right out of a dream, and the powerful message it sent “38,000 shipping containers the number processed through American ports every 12 hours. The artwork itself makes you feel like a single particle in this planet, I mean the idea of so many shipping containers and all the things that get exported in and out of the country, and in only 12 hours. This piece was by far one of my favorites out of the Chris Jordan collection, not only because it reminded me of home growing up Inglewood CA next to the Los Angeles port. One that really touched me on a personal level was the Skull with Cigarette the title is self-explanatory but for me having a grandfather that died with lung cancer it really impacted me. For the piece is a Van Gogh painting from far away but once you get a close up of the picture you see it depicts 200,000 packs of different name brand cigarettes, equal to the Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months. Seeing this painting gives me goose bumps from the moment you lay your eyes on it from far away you can sense the eerie feeling of death and once you get closer you can see the representation Chris is trying to perceive that every pack of cigarettes is the equal to a human life.

         What Chris Jordan did with his exhibit is open the eyes of people and show them the actual facts in a visual way. He shows that the world has to make a change I came out this exhibit a better person. Knowing the facts of incarcerations in America the amount of cups used in airlines was an eye opener to recycle more to change our lifestyle, if society doesn’t change we don’t have a future.