A Complex of Stuff

With possibilities of USA residents reasserting citizenship, an inevitable global cosmology could evolve without staggering quantities in a complex of stuff we citizens discard. You’ll possibly be amazed, then shudder, once you see Chris Jordan’s digital photographic artistry. During the first phase of developing his social statement in art, he couldn’t find any piles of only one particular product, which we consume and toss in massive quantities. Since then, Chris expanded his reference to depict our consumption that, as a nation, is gargantuan, and so are the sizes of the photos in elegant galleries.

“Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

“The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

“As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake.”
~ Chris Jordan dot com; video presentation Bill Moyers’ Journal

Our constant curiosity is key
to watching what’s being created.
~ David Moorhead