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Running the Numbers: American Society

Posted on 13. Jan, 2008 by Pagog Genie in Creative

Here is some impressive artwork by Chris Jordan. He has taken shocking statistics regarding American waste and society and depicts them in huge mosaics.

Skull With Cigarette, 2007 [based on a painting by Van Gogh]

72×98″

Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarrette smoking every six months.

Energizer, 2007
60×99″

Depicts 170,000 disposable Energizer batteries, equal to fifteen minutes of Energizer battery production.

If 170,000 batteries were depicted at their real size, the print would need to be 26×43 feet, as shown here. To depict one year of Energizer disposable battery production (six billion batteries) would require a print 26 feet high by 146 miles long.


Building Blocks, 2007
16 feet tall x 32 feet wide in eighteen square panels, each sized 62×62″.

Depicts nine million wooden ABC blocks, equal to the number of American children with no health insurance coverage in 2007.

Toothpicks, 2007
60×99″

Depicts 8 million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees harvested in the US every month to make the paper for mail order catalogs.


Plastic Bottles, 2007
60×120″

Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.

Jet Trails, 2007
60×96″

Depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours.

Cell Phones, 2007
60×100″

Depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day.

Paper Bags, 2007
60×80″

Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour.

Cans Seurat, 2007
60×92″

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

Cigarettes, 2007
60×82″

Depicts 65,000 cigarettes, equal to the number of American teenagers under age eighteen who become addicted to cigarettes every month.

Pain Killers, 2007
60×63″

Depicts 213,000 Vicodin pills, equal to the number of emergency room visits yearly in the US related to misuse or abuse of prescription pain killers.

Handguns, 2007
60×92″

Depicts 29,569 handguns, equal to the number of gun-related deaths in the US in 2004.

Plastic Bags, 2007
60×72″

Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.

Denali Denial, 2006
60×75″

Depicts 24,000 logos from the GMC Yukon Denali, equal to six weeks of sales of that model SUV in 2004.

Prison Uniforms, 2007
10×23 feet in six vertical panels

Depicts 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal to the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005.

Installed at the Von Lintel Gallery, NY, June 2007


Office Paper, 2007
60×87″

Depicts 30,000 reams of office paper, or 15 million sheets, equal to the amount of office paper used in the US every five minutes.

Valve Caps, 2006
10×25 feet in five vertical panels

Depicts 3.6 million tire valve caps, one for each new SUV sold in the US in 2004.

Ben Franklin, 2007
8.5 feet wide by 10.5 feet tall in three horizontal panels

Depicts 125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount our government spends every hour on the war in Iraq.

Shipping Containers, 2007
60×100″

Depicts 38,000 shipping containers, the number of containers processed through American ports every twelve hours.

Source: chrisjordan.com

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