Sand & Gravel Yard, New Orleans

Artist Chris Jordan American, born 1963

Date2005

MediumInk-jet print, laminated and mounted on Plexiglas

Dimensions44 x 82 in. (111.8 x 208.3 cm)
Frame: 46 1/2 x 84 1/2 in. (118.1 x 214.6 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineGift of Allen G. Thomas Jr. in memory of Thomas J. Farris

Object number2007.4.1

On View

Not on view

Label TextThe immense scale and close-up perspective of Chris Jordan’s vividly colored photographs turns the waste and refuse of contemporary society into disorienting and abstract compositions of pattern, light, and color with a stunning clarity and impressive level of detail. The sheer accumulation of trash depicted in his photographs ---thousands of cell phones, mountains of cigarette butts, tons of broken glass—is simultaneously bleakly overwhelming and breathtakingly beautiful. His monumental images of society’s castoffs bring the viewer face to face with contemporary consumption, industrial waste, and the resulting environmental consequences. Jordan offers an alternate view of the American landscape—the one seen from salvage yards, scrap heaps, recycling centers, and dumps.

As Jordan has stated, “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.
[L. Dougherty, 2007]
ProvenanceCreated New Orleans, 2005; collection of the artist; [Paul Kopeiken Gallery, Los Angeles]; Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC, 2006; given to NCMA, 2007.

Published ReferencesLinda Dougherty and Kinsey Katchka, "The Big Picture," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (July/August 2007), mentioned and illus. (color detail) 9.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The Big Picture," March 18-September 2, 2007.

Savannah, GA, Telfair Museum of Art's Jepson Center for the Arts, "Fast Forward: Three Decades of Contemporary Art from the North Carolina Museum of Art," January 23-April 27, 2008

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Landscape Sublime: Contemporary Photography," June 5-November 13, 2011. Object Rights Statement

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