Chris Jordan

United States (1963)
Biennale Images Vevey
2008
Intolerable Beauty, Portraits of American Mass Consumption

At first sight, the massive mosaics of Chris Jordan look like abstract paintings. However, on closer look, they reveal mountains of waste – cartridge cases, cigarettes, motherboards, integrated circuits, mobile phones – that pile up in American ports and industrial parks. Forewarning unprecedented ecological disasters, the Intolerable Beauty, Portraits of American Mass Consumption series was displayed in the public space to confront viewers with the drifts of a technocratic and consumerist society of which they are part.