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Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait

February 16, 2011 - 7:48 PM

I'm no connoisseur of fine art, but I will say that I enjoy an occasional art exhibit from time to time. I'm a big fan of any artwork that has a twist of social commentary. I also love when I don't have to pay or travel far to see any art exhibit, so UO's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is pretty stellar from my point of view.

Earlier today I hit up the Schnitz, as I like to call it, to check out the new exhibit by artist Chris Jordan called "Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait." I first heard about the new exhibit when Chris came on campus to speak with participants in this year's Environmental Leadership Program (ELP). Initially I imagined that this collection was a purely environmentalist critique on American consumerism, but I found out that the message of Chris' artwork addressed more than just environmental issues in America. Below I've included an excerpt of the artist's project summary to give you a more clear view of what I mean.

"Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.

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 roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming." ~Chris Jordan, Seattle, 2008

Sounds interesting, huh? My favorite one, from both an artistic and cultural commentary standpoint was the portrait of Mount Denali, seen at the top of the post, that was made up of 24,000 GMC Yukon Denali logos, which equals six weeks worth of sales of that model SUV in 2004. Even better is that the artist switched around the wording of Denali so that each logo reads ‘Denial,' hence the title of the piece, "Denali Denial." I guess it's his not so subtle way of poking fun at America's obsession with big cars.

I could babble on about my own feelings about American consumerism, but I don't feel like it's too necessary. Obviously I've been taught to despise consumerism and its effortless ability to destroy our natural environment. I'm in an odd place, however, as my environmental studies background has taught me that we need to change this problem with consumerism from the bottom up because our system of government is broken and won't be able to save us. On the other hand, my PPPM background has taught me that we need to fix the system to put the right regulations in place. I'm sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don't know which theory of leadership and change will end up having the greatest impact on our society. I guess I could take the easy route and say that it will probably taken an equal amount of both, but eventually (as in about six months from now) I'll have to choose one option and turn it into my career path. Yikes!

Okay, commentary aside, I've included a couple more of my favorite pieces from the exhibit. Feel free to check out Chris' website to see the entire collection. The link is included above.

Skull with Cigarette

Skull with Cigarette, 2007

Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months. Based on a painting by Vincent van Gogh.

Light Bulbs, 2008

Depics 320,000 light bulbs, equal to the number of kilowatt hours waste in the United States every minute from inefficient residential electricity usage (inefficient wiring, computers in sleep mode, etc.)

Cans Seurat, 2007

Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the United States every thirty seconds.

Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait

YEAR: 2011

MAJOR: Environmental Studies and Planning, Public Policy & Management

HOMETOWN: San Mateo, California

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