Manipulation. Disintegration. Reflection.

February 20, 2011 11:35 AM

Chris Jordan’s “Running The Numbers” series and its sequel, along with “Intolerable Beauty”, places collections of objects in arrays and forms to visualize consumer consumption and its effects: a globular cluster of lightbulbs showing electrical waste in the United States; a landscape of empty plastic bottles (two million, the number used every five minutes), an array of tiny Barbies graphing breast augmentations; Pollockesque designs of contrails and handguns representing flights and deaths. More information at Jordan’s TED presentation; he’s also noted for his post-Katrina photographs of New Orleans.

Related: Todd McLellan (Flash) photographs disassembled vintage objects, some in patterns, others caught mid-explosion.

Todd McLellan via BoingBoing. Chris Jordan’s has been mentioned previously on the blue.

posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul (7 comments total)

Oooh. I just saw Jordan's installation of Running the Numbers at the University of Oregon Schnitzer Art Museum. Striking stuff, especially as digital photos really fail to capture the sense of scale you get when walking up to pieces like the Prison Uniform one. Just a massive wall of tiny, tiny images of prison uniforms.
posted by CrystalDave at 11:56 AM on February 20, 2011

shops
posted by rebent at 12:01 PM on February 20, 2011

Those post-Katrina landscapes are really something.
posted by ovvl at 1:16 PM on February 20, 2011

Man, that guy hates Freedom.
posted by sneebler at 1:49 PM on February 20, 2011

These are stunning. Thank you.
posted by evilmomlady at 5:18 PM on February 20, 2011

Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006.

That's just insane. Monthly?! Are you kidding me, American women?!

Nice series, though. I love the visual representations.
posted by misha at 5:36 PM on February 20, 2011

these are beautiful, and frightening. thank you for posting this.
posted by seawallrunner at 5:49 PM on February 20, 2011