Chris Jordan - Running the Numbers (An American Self-Portrait)

Chris Jordan is an artist based in Seattle, Washington who is best known for his large scale works depicting consumerism in the United States.

Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something.
This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibililties of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.
Chris Jordan, Seattle, 2008

Oil Barrels, 2008
Depicts 28,000 42-gallon barrels, the amount of of oil consumed in the United States every two minutes (equal to the flow of a medium-sized river).

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Plastic Cups, 2008
Depicts one million plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the US every six hours.

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Barbie Dolls, 2008
Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006.

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Skull With Cigarette, 2007 [based on a painting by Van Gogh]
Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months.

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Prison Uniforms, 2007
Depicts 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal to the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005. The U.S. has the largest prison population of any country in the world.

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Click to enlarge Installed at the Von Lintel Gallery, NY, June 2007

Cans Seurat, 2007
Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

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You can find these and many other on his website. Enjoy in his work.