Internet Meme of the Week

The statistics touted by the green movement are often overwhelming and almost inconceivable, such as the 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags that are used in the United States every hour. But photographer Chris Jordan brings a visual significance to these stats in his series of manipulated digital photographs, "Running the Numbers." Jordan begins with a photograph of an object and multiplies it to create a larger image. In "Cans Seurat," for instance, Jordan depicts Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" using 106,000 aluminum cans the number used in the U.S. every 30 seconds. "Running the Numbers" is composed of both representational and non-representational images, such as "Shipping Containers," an abstract and highly colorful, dynamic rendering of 38,000 shipping containers, the number of containers transferred through American ports every 12 hours. Jordan's visually compelling works implore the viewer to consider the role of the individual within the overwhelming scheme of American consumerism.