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Seattle-based artist Chris Jordan uses material representations of American consumerism to express the the effects of materialism and disposable consumption in a way that is more visceral than numeric or textual accounts of the scale and pace of resource use. Running the Numbers creates mosaics from brand logos and litter:
This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.
The million plastic cups used in domestic flights every six hours form a tangle of plumbing; Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of Grande Jatte” emerges from the 106,000 aluminium cans used in the US every thirty seconds.
Beginning in the spring of 2008, Jordan has started to expand Running the Numbers to explore international environmental issues, including the state of the world’s oceans and extinction.
. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
