Cell Phones, Orlando

Artist Chris Jordan American, born 1963

Date2004; printed 2005

MediumInkjet print, laminated and mounted on Plexiglas

Dimensions44 x 82 in. (111.8 x 208.3 cm)
Frame: 45 1/2 x 83 1/2 in. (115.6 x 212.1 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineGift of Allen G. Thomas Jr. in honor of Lawrence J. Wheeler

Object number2014.14.36

On View

Not on view

Label TextThe immense scale and close-up perspective of Chris Jordan’s vividly colored photographs from his series Intolerable Beauty (Portraits of American Mass Consumption) turn the waste and refuse of contemporary society into disorienting and abstract compositions of pattern, light, and color with a stunning clarity and an impressive level of detail. The sheer accumulation of trash depicted in his photographssuch as the thousands of cell phones shown here—is at once 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, one seen from salvage yards, scrap heaps, recycling centers, and dumps.

“My hope,” Jordan has stated, “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, 2014]ProvenanceCreated Orlando, FL, 2004, printed 2005; collection of the artist; [Paul Kopeiken Gallery, Los Angeles]; Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC, 2005; given to NCMA, 2014.

Published ReferencesChris Jordan, Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption (Self-published, 2005), illus. (color) cover and 32.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “The Big Picture,” March 18–September 2, 2007.

Roanoke, VA, Taubman Museum of Art, “Rethinking Landscape,” November 8, 2008–March 1, 2009.

Boone, NC, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, “Men Working: The Contemporary Collection of Allen Thomas, Jr.,” July 5, 2013–February 8, 2014.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Private Eye: Allen G. Thomas Jr. Photography Collection,” September 13, 2014–March 22, 2015.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The Altered Environment," March 12-August 28, 2022.
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