Quantifying the Need for Change in American Society

The exhibit Chris Jordan: Running the Numbers provides a startling view of American consumption and society. He gives a glimpse of statistics that are nearly incomprehensible due to shear size. The large numbers that he works with allow for striking images that force one to try to fathom what the number means. Further, his artwork preys on the curiosity of the viewer to examine the manipulation of familiar objects. His pieces are educational while allowing the viewer to appreciate works of art.

All of Jordan’s pieces seem to depict statistics of things that are detrimental to American society. For instance, Oil Barrels (2008) shows 28,000 42-gallon oil barrels that are burned in the U.S. every two minutes. This statistic is crucial to policies regarding energy use, and it demonstrates American dependence on unsustainable practices. In addition to pointing out an over indulgence in consumption, Jordan tackles issues that affect the well-being of Americans. He makes a very strong statement against tobacco use in Skull with Cigarette (2008), which depicts a gruesome smoking skeleton composed of 200,000 packs of cigarettes that represent smoking related deaths in the U.S. every six months. His focus on the negative statistics about American lives reveals a motivation for dramatic exposure of issues that society should address with more vigor. Even though the staggering numbers in his work make one person feel rather insignificant, he almost challenges his viewers to not be part of his statistics or at the very least lower their effect on the numbers.

Jordan is able to reach out to a broader audience by widely varying his style. Plastic Cups (2008) is completely abstract and incorporates organic shapes and patterns of stacks of plastic airline cups. In contrast, Toothpicks (2008) is a gloomy landscape with realistic clouds and fields of toothpicks that look similar to wheat. These two pieces were done in the same year, which indicates that Jordan purposively alters his style to convey messages. Some pieces merely look like patterns, such as the Japanese tatami mat appearance of Prison Uniforms (2007), while others are recognizable depictions, such as the representation of Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884–86) with aluminum cans in Cans Seurat (2007). In addition to the styles of these pieces, he also does portrait-like pieces and abstract works with specific geometry to them. He appeals to a larger audience by showing statistics through art that ranges from abstract to ordered patterns to replications of well known art pieces. This makes his collection much more successful, since it really depends on the ability to touch as many people as possible.

America has a reputation of consumerism and excesses, but Jordan’s collection could possibly be even more effective if he produced works that used statistics from other nations for comparison. This would also require more background information, since statistics are heavily dependent on population sizes. Nonetheless, it would provide a much greater perspective on the American statistics, which could have a greater impact on viewers. To be able to see how Americans consume versus another country or collection of countries may encourage viewers to think beyond the size of the numbers to question gross excesses and unsustainable practices. While there is significant focus on the statistical aspect that Jordan uses in his pieces, they are still art and show tremendous skill and versatility. The wide variations in his style demonstrate his knowledge of art. Even though his work is connected to quantified aspects of American life, many of his pieces can stand alone as works of art that are as worthy of viewing as any other graphic art.