Upon entering the gallery, the first print to the right is his 2004 work, “Containers and Mount Rainier”. At first glance, this work seems to be nothing more than a portrait of Tacoma skyline, but upon rumination, it is much more than that. It sets the stage for the rest of the prints by juxtaposing nature and our influence on it. It acts as an introduction to the statistically based commentaries on how our culture behaves, but the print itself is not critical. Some could view it as a condemnation of how people use land and space, but “Containers and Mount Rainier” is merely a foreword for what is to come. Jordan’s works that follow “Containers and Mount Rainier” appear to be more specifically critical of consumerism and wastefulness.
His criticism is exemplified with “Skull With Cigarette”. It is fairly apparent what he is saying when he creates a picture of a skull out of cigarette packs: “Cigarettes will kill you.” Jordan’s representation of the number of American deaths due to smoking per six months is clearly negative. It is difficult, however, to determine exactly who or what he is critiquing. Is the cigarette company the problem, or is it the habit of smoking? The piece is purposeful and impactful, but if his intent was to precisely pinpoint one target, Jordan fails. Still, without a specific mark, Jordan is able to condemn the entire cigarette industry. In that way, this work becomes critical of western culture.
While Jordan seems to be criticizing American consumerism with some of his work, other pieces are much more neutral. Some appear to be there for the sole purpose of facilitating conceptualization of the large numbers we hear about our own consumption. For example, Jordan uses one hundred dollar bills to display 12.5 million dollars spent in Iraq every hour in “Ben Franklin (2007)”. Most of the time, the news will report new budgets or extreme figures for spending in Iraq, and it is difficult to truly understand how much that is. In “Ben Franklin”, Jordan lets the audience understand how much money that is by showing us the pure statistics without criticism.
Though the majority of the pieces in the exhibit are geared toward disparagement of the western, or sometimes more specifically American, consumerist lifestyle, his contemplation is not always negative. Sometimes, Jordan lets the audience come to their own conclusions, as with “Jet Trails (2007)”. In this picture, Jordan displays the jet trails of 11,000 flights which is supposedly the number of flights for every eight hours. This picture could be taken as a deplorable waste of fuel or a demonstration of how our culture has developed with technology and instant gratification. Either way, Jordan does not pass judgment. In some ways, the jet trails are necessary for our lifestyle—exchange of foreign goods, diplomat travel, or vacationing tourists. In other ways, they could be seen as necessary for the stability of world economy or maintenance of peace, especially because not everyone flies. Eleven thousand may be a small number given how many people are in the world. The choice of how to interpret this statistic is left up to us.
Of course, other reviewers believe that Jordan’s goal is not to criticize or lead others to criticize but to wake people up to their roles in the grand scheme of consumerism. Julian Champkin interpreted Jordan’s work as an “underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a world that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible and overwhelming (Champkin 142).” Jordan has said that the wastefulness “is happening because of the tiny incremental harm that every single one of us is doing as an individual (Champkin 143).” Champkin also agrees that Jordan’s “His work brings out the meaning that statistics contain but fail to convey (Champkin 141).”
Even so, Champkin has some criticism of Jordan’s art. Referring to some of his pieces, Champkin observes that “the detail of the image is lost,” 3 which is true. A problem with his approach, neutral or critical, is that in such photos as “Lightbulbs (2008)” the detail is lost as it fades to black or merges together. On one hand, it is good to see the large scale of the statistic, but on the other, it is still as useless to view a demonstration of said statistic when the detail cannot be surmised. In that way, Jordan fails.
In this audience member’s opinion, Jordan’s best work is that which is real and ambiguous, such as his introductory piece “Containers and Mount Rainier”. Because it is a real place that someone could go and view in the real world, not just a doctored photo of unrealistic proportion, it is much more impactful. It is a real place that the effects of consumer culture can be observed in the natural environment, for better or for worse. In this piece, he provokes us to think and leaves the conclusions up to the viewer—the best kind of statement. As a whole, Jordan’s exhibit does an excellent job of triggering his audience to contemplate their place in the process of consumption, and while he gears his critique toward negative criticism, he lets the audience decide for themselves.
Works Cited
Champkin, Julian. "Running the numbers: statistics as art." Significance 5(2008): 141-144.
Pasulka, Nicole. "Running the Numbers--The Morning News." The Morning News. 23 Jul 2007. 15 Feb 2009
hmm yes good point bringing up the ambiguity that jordan presents in his works, I felt the same way with some of them. Particularly the cell phones pictures...is it supposed to make us feel bad..??
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