The CragBaby

Yesterday National Public Radio reported a story covering the photographer Chris Jordan and his artwork collection titled Intolerable Beauty of Consumerism. After listening to the story, I was intrigued to see his artwork and located his website. Not wanting to infringe on the rights of his artwork, none of his photos will be posted on this blog but I would encourage you to view his work.

In the statement section of his site he explains the motivation behind his Intolerable Beauty of Consumerism. I found his thoughts to be well written and contemplative, thus sharing with you here.

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.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm and is filed under art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.